More Range with Indoor Antenna with iAM Transmitter

An antenna needs two sides, think about a FM dipole for example. In the case of the wire antenna for the talking house, where is the other side? We need to think about ground/counterpoise.

At the very least the case of the talking house is capacitively coupled to the RF ground of the transmitter; it may even be directly tied/bonded/connected to it (I have never taken a meter to the case and the RF ground accessible through the external antenna connector).

Working with the constraint that the transmitter and antenna must be inside, lets look at how we can improve the ground side of the antenna without blatantly breaking any rules. I would start by getting some sort of conductive material to cover the floor of the room I was putting the transmitter in; hardware cloth for example. I would then make sure it was electrically continuous from corner to corner, which may require clamping/soldering any seams. I would set the talking house box on top of my ground screen. Personally I would be weary of directly connecting the talking house to the ground screen, but ideally there would be a lead from the external antenna jack’s ground to the ground screen on the floor. Just setting the talking house directly on the screen should provide some coupling. Then run the antenna up the wall from the floor to the ceiling, and bend it in a L shape running any extra parallel to the floor; the tuner in the talking house will sort out any impedance changes that may come from the bend. Run the power cable along the floor so it may help couple RF energy to ground. Bonus points for using a nice metal power strip setting on the ground plane to help couple RF into the building’s electrical ground as much as feasible by the design of a building electrical ground. Then I would put carpet over the ground plane except for where the talking house was setting on it and a metal power strip if used was setting on it. The only other improvement I can think of for the antenna would be to use a thick piece of pipe for the antenna, taking that to the extreme would be 3m (or as tall as would fit) of 14” round air duct pipe. That would need to be insulated from the ground screen on the floor.

I have a Plastic Power Strip. You are on to something. Plus I have a metal mini refrigerator but was afraid to put the transmitter on top if that because of noise from the motor may get in. Now you have me wondering about the 75 ohm jack too. I have a jack in my room that is not actually connected to anything. It could act as a second part of the dipole and improve range. The wire is just laying on the ground and I'd really like to see what that would do. I'm trying to figure how long the wire is in the first place. I could just put a small piece or wire into the jack. Even though not connected would improve the transmitter range a bit. I think I can find 3-6 foot piece of wire to connect to the transmitter that way. I'll have to call Station8 and remind him of this and wee if he thinks I could do it. If so I will and then go outside and check again. All may not be lost. Now you gave me some ideas I'd like to try. I think if I remember right the transmitter's board is isolated from the chassis. However that jack has to allow ground. But did they put a filter in the switch to prevent this? Probably not because the unit does have a case you can buy to put it outside and it has ground lugs. They may use that jack in that way.

OK I tried the 75 ohm coax trick.  It actually made the range less.  I thought OK surely to God if I connect the 75 ohm coax I had to that dead jack with the cable on the ground as the ground I'd shoot up on my range.  No if anything at all it made it decrease.  The curb does continue in another direction so I can keep on the sidewalk.  I get AC noise in that area.  When I don't have the coax connected I actually get a better signal.  But if it were not for the hydro on AM I think I may have went further.  It seems to go a little more than 300 feet.  Just have to figure how to get past these buildings as well.  The FM went 1/4 mile to a car Radio.  I don't know what it would have done in the other direction.  Maybe too in Winter I'll get out further I don't know.  But you get rid of one problem you create another.  The TX's ground either is isolated or the TX is set up so that you can't use ground to increase range.

I don't know how restrictive your landlord is.  I understand he doesn't want drilling.

The previous suggestion of attempting to improve your ground is a great one.

Is it possible to somehow run the wire out one of the windows & up the side of the house?  That L in your antenna is one of the factors that will also restrict range.  I understand that the window is painted shut, but perhaps you can free it up somehow (I know that if I were renting, I'd want an opening window for ventilation at the very least).  And of course, if it also serves as an opening to get your antenna outside, so much the better!  A wire running up the side of a house would almost be invisible, particularly if you painted the insulation the colour of the house.  The landlord might not mind that.

The only way I got any sort of range from my Talking Sign (very similar to the Talking House) was to drill a hole (sorry) in the wall at ceiling level, run the wire outside, and run it through a length of PVC pipe to get the top of the wire above the roofline).  I installed the Talking Sign at ceiling level inside the house, with the power cord running to the AC mains (which was below the transmitter).  So, essentially, I got the wire up as high as possible, as vertical as possible, and in the clear as much as possible.

I did do some research on that tapered helical antenna you mentioned earlier.  It seems promising, but it will be huge inside, even at only 8 feet tall (the one I saw for the 14Mhz amateur radio band used 2x4's to construct it - you have to ensure that the herlical conducting material doesn't touch).  Again, that seems better suited to being an outside antenna.

You might want to look at what Carl Blare has done with his wintenna - he used a metal window frame and coil (essentially, a loop antenna).  I understand that with the AMT5000 he got pretty good range, but I can't recall exactly what.  That may be your best bet - you could duplicate the loop with wire, and run the wire along one of the window frames.

OK the only two possibilities I have here is to try a loop type antenna. As I've said too I'm looking at buying the Golddar DXR 500 (or try and build the same thing) I think its called. As it is somewhat telescoping and has that clip lead that could improve the range for my AM transmitter. Also there was a few loop antennas that I saw on youtube too that could be easily made and I could try one of those. Yes of only I could get the wire outside of the house I would have it made. And the 2 yr old in the house prevents me from putting the transmitter in the hall upstairs facing the street. It could have got me some serious range too as its higher and I could have put the TX on the wood floor and ran the wire up the wall and had no bend in the antenna at all. Since I'm using EQ only for the TX side of things I have to use some sort of WiFi or AV link to make it work better for AM. I may have been able to use the FM TX to transmit my signal to the AM TX but it would be a big waste to have to use the boombox to receive the signal. A better way would have been to use a wireless AV unit. But until I can get a room that the 2 yr old can't get into its pretty moot as well. Sort of stuck here. Its why I was afraid of AM because I'm not able to really get this TX where it needs to be to get any sort of range from it. Now if Becca were to move out of her room someday then I'd have a room with 3 windows. One facing the street, one facing the east side and the other the west side. Its right in the front of the house so it would really add to the Range. Richard's room even better but he is afraid to allow me to put my TX in his room. His room is upstairs too and has two windows in this room too. If Maurice ever moves out which he is thinking about Mike may take that room. But he may allow me to put the TX up there. I could put it on the floor and run the wire up the wall. However I think that wire doesn't really make for a good antenna in the first place.

I have a Talking House Version 5.0 and replaced the aluminum wire antenna that came with the transmitter with a copper wire cut to the exact length of the original antenna. Range was increase slightly and the built in antenna tuner took less time to tune up to 1610 Khz.

Might be worth trying, aluminum is a good conducter but copper is even better.

Edit: Range is 1/4 mile in a valley surrounded by mountains, tree's and hillbillies.

TheLegacy.....

Referring to your mention of connecting to a cable television coax and not noticing any signal gain.

Usually when a cable television in wall jack has no cable service, it is because it has been disconnected entirely from the system.

Outside the building, depending on whether the house is a multi-family or single family home, the cable company has a signal splitter, this might be hidden in a lock box on multi-family homes. If a subscriber orders television service for multible rooms, the cable company installs extra wiring and splits the sigal with a signal splitter.

Once that person moves out of the unit, the cable company will disconnect all the service lines to that unit. Sometimes, they add a signal block which does keep the ground active, sometimes, they simply disconnect the line entirely. When this is the case, that line has NO connection to earth ground. If that is the case in your situation, that is why the cable television coax did not help to improve your signal.

I do not know exactly how the grounds of your apartment building are set up. I am lucky to have a landlord who has allowed me access to my roof and addition of various television antennas etc. If you happen to be lucky enough to have a tree within reasonble reach, you could plant a transmitter in that tree and supply it with DC power and audio from a cat 5 cable. Opening the window a 1/4 inch will allow feeding the wire under the window frame and to the outside of your building.

This wire does no have to have you to create any holes in the building, simply run it across in the air to the tree, or down the side of the building, buried into the ground an inch or two and across to a tree, run up the tree to the device. Choose a branch that has a verticle direction to it and mount a piece of pipe that allows two nails to pass through it and into the tree branch without splitting the pipe (drill some holes in the pipe for the nails to pass through.) Mount your transmitter to the pipe. Of course your transmitter has to be in a water tight box. Now a 102 inch steel whip can be used as the broadcast antenna.

Once opon a time, I put a CB antenna up in a tree on a verticle branch in an apartment building that forbid antennas. Since my setup did not create any holes on the roof, it was allowed. The coax RG8 was feed from the side of the building using one sole guide wire hook and passed off to the tree at a height above any possible ground access, such as a person getting hung by the streched wire and into a tree.

I know not every situation is ideal, specially if you're renting an apartment and your landlords are doush bags....but, if you're lucky enough to have a tree close by, take advantage of it best you can.

Bruce.

I probably could get a piece of copper wire from any home depot or something. 10 feet or 9 feet should do it. I think that wire they give you for the transmitter is pretty thin too and could make a difference. I thought about putting the copper inside some plastic as well to hold it straight. Maybe plastic pipe cut to fit the antenna. Since I can't get the window open would make it hard to get anything like the wire outside as well.

Bruce: The cable line I was talking about was a satellite dish lead that has been disconnected and is just on the ground under the back porch. Don't even know if my stepson may have even cut the line in order for the lawn mower not to get caught in it. I was just hoping it would have increased the range like part of a di pole does. I think adding better copper wire may be a key since the antenna lug I could wrap some of it around that wire. I thought about a CB antenna and just having it inside the house. I could use a clip lead to the coax and see what that would do. Otherwise having the transmitter on the desk only allows so much wire before I have to bend some of it. Yup even if I could get 9 to 10 feet of copper pipe and take some copper wire and screw that into the pipe its got to be better than that wire antenna. Well got some ideas. Gotta check my Email too I think Station8 is trying to get a hold of me as he is helping me to do better by making an antenna. He has been having trouble coming onto this site that is why you don't hear from him.

I've been thinking about your problem.

I don't know if this can be done in the room you've got the transmitter installed, but here's what I might do if I had complete authority over that room.

Borrow a previus idea, and lay out aluminum sheathing on the floor to create a ground plane.  It shouldn't radiate, if it's perfectly square, and if you ...

Install an 8 foot (or whatever will fit floor to ceiling) copper pipe and mount it in the center of the room (with an insulator at the bottom).  Wrap your own coil on a piece of PVC pipe to match the antenna to the Talking House.  Get a couple of feet of coax, attach the center wire to the coil (which is attached to the antenna), the ground wire to the sheathing, and you're in business.  You would then attach the coax to the external antenna F connector of the TH.

You've now basically put an outdoor antenna indoors.

Of course, your significant other half may not like both the antenna and the sheathing.  You might be able to hide the sheathing under carpet, but there's no getting around having a big copper pipe stuck in the middle of the room.

Put a brass pipe in the middle of the room as a dancing pole.

Might spark up more than just the transmitter.

One thong to do after moving the antenna or trying different groundings is unplug the transmitter for a few seconds until the display fades out and it leaves the air, then plug it in again so it re-tunes.

I wrapped a short ground lead around the key in the back and then attached it to things like the case of a computer and the screw on the AC wall plate, and each time after an unplug it had to retune itself with the new settings.

I like Carl's idea of putting a pole in and having girls dance around it, though all that dirty dancing would modulate the range.

If I had a guest room or some room that no one else used I could do the aluminum sheath trick and the copper pipe. But this is a bedroom I have the transmitter in. I have a very large family you might say. But I think if I had carpet or a huge rug that aluminum sheath for ground would be quite interesting. What may work better is to have an ATU made for the transmitter I have and connect it to the 75 ohm antenna output. Then have a CB whip antenna coming out of it. Something like a Fire stick. It might have to be 6-8 feet from the floor to the ceiling of the room. Put the ATU in the corner or near the window and tune it to the transmitter. Nice thing is if the FCC ever allowed 1 Watt a linear amplifier could be made for the transmitter that would allow the 1 watt output. I do know 4 watts would go more than 20 miles on an indoor antenna on a CB Radio. So that said 1 watt would cover 2-3 miles on AM nicely. If we ever get the power which I am not too sure about we will have room to grow with the Talking House or iAM 5.0. Its a nice TX and can grow as technology changes too. Very easy TX to work with. Just wish I could get an SWR meter for AM would that be cool.

If you are going to use the F connector with coax, you'll need a tuner at the antenna to resonate the antenna.  Simply connecting the antenna whip to the coax won't work very well.

If you can't find the Talking House ATU you can use the typical base loaded whip antenna.

That's why I said that he would need a loading coil if he was gong to use the F connector for an external antenna - it expects a 50 ohm antenna.