Very glad you checked in Bruce!
We are holding your place here at the part15 site, keep checking back as best you can!
Yes, the big boys get away with murder, as RFB states, with their numerous violations. And when they are called on the carpet with big fines it would seem they laugh it off according to the discussions here and elsewhere.
They can afford to do that, big money and all.
That's the major difference. I can't take the chance they do because one oops could wipe me out.
Now, I really don't believe that will happen to me because I operate within the rules to the best of my knowledge (ATU and all you know.)
So, relax everyone. Unless you are burning a hole through the sky, blatantly in violation, I don't believe anyone will bother you.
If they do, as Lefty says, be nice, talk it over and finally do what is expected of you. And if you still receive a NAL for $17,000/day, perhaps by then we'll have a defense fund to bail you out.
Good idea the defense fund for part 15 members.
Also, can we have a retirement center? I recently heard that a retirement center for aging musicians has been started in New Orleans, and there's also one for old movie actors in Hollywood.
the masons have a retirement center here where i love and it's one of the biggest retirement homes around.
"As far as the hexaganol antenna is concerned, where is the feed point?"
It's nothing more than a loop with the shape of the hexagon. The feed point would be at the two ends of that loop.
Take it further and construct a second hexagon loop inside the first for varying it's tuning, like a variable inductor, which basically that's what it becomes.
And it might be easier to design something "wife friendly" since it is more than just a circle of wire surrounding the family pictures on the wall.
Was just a thought that perhaps you might want to consider in the indoor antenna projects.
RFB
RFB, while thinking about how the hexagon would look on a wall, I suddenly thought of picture frames. Everyone has picture frames.
Art museum exhibits sometimes have pictures over ten-feet tall, or for that matter it could be a framed mirror.
But imagine a custom made 8X10 stainless steel frame with a continuity break in the bottom containing non-conductive construction material, the frame acting as a "great loop".
Or really, a wooden frame could be lined with wire to make it more of an at home project.
Another dimension I'm going to toy with are indoor loading coils. The biggest problem with them will be making them "fit in" to the decor.
There are those large combination picture frames where you can put varying sizes of pictures. Some of these are your basic square shape or rectangle shape, even simple circles or oval shapes.
It's just a matter of using the imagination with what exists and putting the two together. Something is bound to turn on that great idea lamp above the head!
How about drapes that also act as an antenna, or the drape rails themselves.
RFB
Don't forget the lamp shades! They have wire loops also.
In fact, they're almost like your caged monopole.
A ten-foot lamp shade would be sort of interesting.
As for drapes, don't some shortwave stations have "antenna curtains"?
Maybe I'm imagining that.
I guess I was thinking of the lamp shade for your FM operation.
Oh, I see, you mean a five-foot lamp shade.
I haven't had time to read thru this whole topic, but I like the cage monopole idea. What if you just leave the ground connected thru the PS and/or audio, then attach the TX ground to a 1.5m cage and the antenna side to another with a tuneable loading coil and TX in the middle?
Build the whole thing on a 6" PVC form with 6 wires lengthwise for each cage section, mount horizontally out of site in an attic.
Hi Ken Norris, I LOVED your Walkie Talkie this weekend from Jan Juan County Fair. Do you know it's the main feature on Low Power Hour No. 43?
The cage-monopole we are talking about WAS on the Wholehouse 2.0 FM transmitter, and when I first built it, it seemed very much (subjectively) that the antenna stopped all multi-pathing as I walked in the room. But that only held true until I moved the tower to a different location.
So, fast forward to some interesting discoveries.
Since I now have a Spectrum Analyzer, I watched 107.1mHz as I removed each leg of the monopole, one by one. The peak level did not change.
The most surprising thing was that when I removed the entire antenna, cut to 1/2 wave, THE PEAK ON THE SA REMAINED ABOUT THE SAME! In other words, the antenna didn't seem to be doing much at all.
So I learned how to open the Wholehouse for a look inside, and checked the antenna wire for connection and continuity. It was fine.
Aside from all that, your description of a dipoled cage-monopole is excellent.
My indoor antenna work will be in the preparation stage for awhile, as I slowly inch toward having everything in place to begin publishing actual findings on the link page I've created (linked earlier). But there will be piecemeal experiments from time to time.
For example, I think it was Radio8Z who talked about loading coils used in certain indoor installations, so I am right now spending time fiddling with ideas for a special breed of loading coils designed for the indoor setting.
I happened to have built an indoor loading coil in a triangular configuration rather than the standard circular design. I have an interesting result to mention now.
Using an AMT3000 Transmitter feeding my mid-efficiency Wintenna, I have observed a +7dBm improvement on the Spectrum Analyzer when using the triangular coil, as compared to the internal inductors within the AMT3000.
But it was necessary to keep S7 OFF, whereas the modification for an outdoor loaded coil antenna would require S7 to be ON. There are good reasons for this, as the outdoor antenna would be away from walls on other obstructions, whereas the Wintenna is literally built into the wall, which radically changes its capacitance.
There may possibly be a few more dBm to squeeze out of this setup, by finding a better tap-point on the coil.
Where was the SA in relation to the triangular coil feeding the "Wintenna" and orientation of the triangle coil?
I'm wondering if your coil is reacting more like a radiating inductor than a loading coil for the Wintenna.
What's the size relationship of the coil vs Wintenna and it's connecting scheme/distance?
RFB