My TV modulators can be set anywhere from 0 to 10 Watts output.
I presume FM modulators are much the same, as the power is needed to drive long cables from the cable company's headend.
If an FM modulator is capable of 10 Watts maximum, it would be tricky getting it way down well below 1 Watt.
Perhaps, but they do sell signal reducers, those can be used on the FM transmission line.
Cable companies have all kinds of equipment on board that we can not imagine.
I once took a tour of a head end and I was lost, they had more equipment then Carter had liver pills. No joke! I went for a job fair and they held it at the head end. Our cable company no longer provides cable FM service, but they still had it back then.
I am not trying to go off topic here, but man the television stations that 300 foot tower was able bring in was shocking!!!! I wish I could have one in my back yard!! Of course television was still analog back then, but if there was no local co-channel interference, they had channels from New Hampshire and Maine coming in in the daytime! The company is located in Norwich, Connecticut currently called Comcast. Before that, it was Adelphia Cable Television which is who I applied with. Imagine Bangor Maine channel 13 WGAL coming in in Norwich, CT clear as a local station.
Bruce.
A lot of good stuff here...
It's taking me a while to sort it all out.
My North Country Radio MPX 96 FM was a
kit and was 100 mw. Way too powerful. I
started putting 75 ohm 6 dB cable attenuators
on it until the signal barely got out to my
driveway. Another Part 15 dude said to
me,"Hey! Isn't that a little too much!?"
I built a 10dB attenuator for a 6W carrier current
transmitter with parts from Radio Shack. A lot
of resistors were in parallel, that's for sure.
(Want some hot coffee? There it is on top of
the attenuator.)
Cable head ends are a blast. It's been a
long time since I've seen one.
As I search back on this thread, I heard
mention of a charity organization using an
illegal FM transmitter. I suppose it's possible
that they had no idea what they were doing,
and no "radio person in the know" picked up
on it. Well maybe anyway.
That's it for me.
Brooce, The DOGRADIO Experiments
P.S. And hello to Mr. Bruce - I haven't
met too many people with our name.
At first, my mother wanted to name me
Lance.
And with the gray areas Rich suggests in Post #8 who knows what can be done.
Now Rich is trying to downplay the notion of a gray area between part 15 and the bottom edge of piracy, because WE WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO KNOW.