Hi all! With the warmer weather upon us, I'm going to finally get my antenna tuned properly. =)
Hi all! With the warmer weather upon us, I'm going to finally get my antenna tuned properly. =)
I have the METZO transmitter and a loaded vertical made by Carl the antenna guy. Where should I attach the leads from my multimeter for tuning purposes? Transmitter? Antenna? Where? Also, what kind of reading am I looking for?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give!!
Aaron
by MRAM 1500 kHz
The Metzo I have utilizes the 3 LED's on the front for tuning in addition to showing audio levels. A little rough with only 3 LED's but it'll get you in the ball park. They didn't include a metering point on the board to attach a meter. There is an internal jumper you change to switch between RF tuning and audio levels.
If you have a radio with a signal strenght meter, that will work.
Do you have the Metzo Manual? It gives details about how to set up the transmitter regarding adjusting the audio controls (internal and external), how to use the built in LED metering and if used, the built in antenna tuner which you probably won't use since you are connecting a loaded antenna.
If you need a copy of the manual, I can email it to you.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't even think about using a radio with a signal strength meter on it. Are any currently being made that I can buy brand new, or will I have to do some garage sale-hunting?
While a radio with a meter built into it is nice, a "field strength meter" would be easier to use to tune your antenna to your transmitter and may even be picked up at a garage sale. Most SWR/Power meters for CB or Ham radio have a field strength meter built into them. A Google search will give you tons of hits.
Keep us posted, I personally enjoy hearing how others are doing with their setups.
A field strength meter is a good instrument to use for this, but unfortunately the sensitivity of most units made for ham or CB work is too low for part 15 AM use. You might get a usable reading if the FSM is close to the antenna but in so doing it may detune the antenna causing false results.
Keep this in mind when shopping for a meter. No harm in trying, but I would ask for a return guarantee in case it doesn't work in this application.
Neil
If you look around, you might find a field strength meter that has a built-in amplifier. If not, it is a pretty simple matter to add a one transistor amplifier to a commercially-available passive unit. Check around on this web site, or look at a copy of the Radio Amateur's Handbook in your local library. The wiring would be very non-critical at AM frequencies, so anybody should be able to build one. You can use pretty much any low frequency transistor that you have on hand.
WEAK-AM
Classical Music and More!
Here's a link:
More to come when I find them.
Found one, here it is though it is for FM:
Still looking for more.
And another:
http://www.part15.us/node/1215#comment-3262
I am done looking. You will find more using the search function on the left panel on this site.
Neil