4 miles (for me) was where you could hear it on a car radio - and it was borderline listenable.
When I added tx #2, things got REALLY clear for 6-8 miles.
I just want to say 4 things:
1) Match the antenna as well as it can electronically get matched.
2) Grounding.
3) Grounding.
4) Grounding.
I had what you might call "the perfect conditions" in Manteca for a Part 15 station. I have MUCH less than perfect conditions here in Tucson.
GOD I wish I were back in Cali.
Note: No penguins were hurt in the course of posting this message.
MIR: Then it is perhaps the Magnum's black PVC that helps to achieve those great distance reports? Have built the SSTRAN antenna, bought the coil from Carl, tried it with the Ramsey AM25 and couldn't get a significant peak during tuning. Even tried the 1 watt setting to no avail. Now am running the SSTRAN transmitter with the antenna with much better results and more ground experimentation to do. Am sure that Phil worked out every detail of his antenna to match his transmitter, yet would like to try the Ramsey AM25 with a black PVC coil if you tech people think that may be of some advantage. The AM25 has a 7 element low pass filter at its RF output, 4 caps and 3 coils. Could they in any way interfere with a loading coil peak?
JimB
OK Im no electrical engineer, how do you calculate how many turns you need for your partucular broadcast frequency.. say 1610?
I think i could build this thing, i loooked at other plans annd the taps had me confused on how I would do those.. if all it were was calculating the needed number of turns and winding it with out taps i think i would give it a go..
for 1610 KHz, a spreadsheet based on formulas adapted by Ernie Wilson of PanAxis from the ARRL book indicate:
10 foot mast
1" diameter pipe
antenna capacitance approx 37 pF
need 258 uH to match
4" diameter pvc coil form
3" of windings top to bottom
56 turns of wire
*******************
10 foot mast
2" diameter pipe
antenna capacitance approx 45 pF
need 218 uH to match
4" diameter pvc coil form
3" of windings top to bottom
51 turns of wire
If you have MS Excel, try it: antenna.xls[/size:ce565d4d11]
💡
OK cool so, would you reccommend making the 1" antena mast adjustable by making it with part of it from a 3/4 inch pipe and some pipe clamps like on some of the plans I have seen.. or will that mess up the calculations.. and is it worth the extra effort to make it adjustable like that..
LIke i said Im not a electrical engineer, but i can fallow instructions pretty well 🙂