Hi everone
Most of you know me and I have been on here for years. I have even set up
large broadcast stations,but this is not the same. The power is much less
and the effective radiated power from the antenna is really limitted by
the antenna only being 10ft tall at the most.
Here is what I need to accomplish. I live about 200 miles from the largest city.
We have a community out here mainly made up of retired people and farmers,
ranchers. I need to set up a AM radio station that can at least get 2 to 3 miles
coverage in all direction. Omini directional.
When bad weather hits here I need to get out tornado warnings,and other bad weather
reports. Some news and music. Mainly to get the weather reports out because
you would not want to be working out in a field with animals and a tornado comes.
Ok I have seen the Procaster transmitter and the Rangmaster. These are both
good transmitters,but which one has the strongest field striength coming
off the antenna. Really comes down to has the strongest radiated power
coming out of their antenna.
Since this is going to be used as a community type station I really need it
to be FCC certified. I really do not need any problems coming up when
a signal is getting out 2 or 3 miles.
Which transmitter is the best to use and has anyone found the best way to set
one of these up for maxium range.
I know alot of you have radio broadcast going out everyday to an audience
and have one of these transmitters being used.
Please help. I know a way to get out but I am going to do this the legal way.
I am a ham radio opperator as well and I do know how to build antenna,but
if I built an antenna tune to this band wow I would be way out of part 15 rules
if it was to the true length.
Anyways since the Procaster has a 10 ft antenna and the Rangemaster basically
uses a 108 inch CB antenna that breaks down to 9 ft.
Most CB antennas are about 8 feet and 6 inches.
Anyways it really breaks down to has the better antenna tuner and gets the
most signal radiated from the antenna.
Well I need to get this station up and running. I need info on how some of
you have set your antennas for max range.
Thanks
Sean
Unfortunately, you're not going to get 2-3 miles range and be legal, at least with today's FCC enforcement. Maximum will likely be a mile, maybe a bit more if conditions are ideal. And that's with a sensitive radio, such as a good car radio or a communications receiver. You'll get a lot less range with a typical consumer home or portable radio.
In the past, several have claimed that 2-3 mile range into a car radio, but that was with an elevated mount (very elevated!) and the transmitter grounded to a metal mast or something similar (I recall reading once that someone installed on an elevated advertising sign, and grounded to it). The FCC used to let that go, but not any more - they consider the mast or sign or whatever to be part of the ground, and that makes the length of your antenna+ground lead to be greater than 3 meters or 10 feet.
The Rangemaster is a good choice - properly tuned, ground mounted and with great conducting soils (basically, a river delta), I was able to consistently get around a mile range and a bit more in directions where there were fewer obstructions. I overmodulated the input (asymetrically) to the Rangemaster using an Inovonics 222, and also had a Symetrix compressor in the audio chain (I used a compression ratio of 5:1, which gave the audio a lot of 'punch').
I have no experience with the AMT5000 but some will swear by it, so you might want to check that out.
The ProCaster is a nice sounding transmitter and you get decent range (relatively speaking), but the Rangemaster consistently gets more, at least in my experience. I'd use the ProCaster if you're not comfortable tuning up the Rangemaster or if you want more of a turnkey type transmitter (it has a compressor built in). My older ProCaster did not support asymetric overmodulation, so I never tried that, but the newer ones supposedly do.
The Talking House with external ATU is probably the easiest transmitter to install, but it doesn't sound as nice as the others (although I found the range similar to the ProCaster). It does NOT support asymetric overmodulation.
Anyway, those are my experiences.
Bottom line - with your requirements, no matter what transmitter you use, I'd consider asymetric overmodulation with an Inovonics 222 (or similar) and a compressor in the input audio chain. But expect about a mile range with a listenable signal to a good car radio.
As for setting the station up, if you want to be absolutely safe with respect to the FCC, install it at ground level, and run a short ground wire to a copper stake pounded into the ground below your antenna. Install as many ground radials as you can and attach them to the ground stake - they should be as long as you can get them up to a 1/4 wavelength. Some here have debated the merits of a 1 or 2 inch copper pipe vs a steel whip for your antenna, with the former having the potential of getting greater range. Some transmitters have options to allow you to bypass their internal antenna tuning and build an antenna with a larger (higher Q) coil for tuning - that might help as well.
Good luck.
ADDED TO THE GOOD IDEAS POSTED BY ARTISAN RADIO, I will suggest two more ideas.
First, once you have one transmitter/antenna installed, since you have an "in" with the community, find other prime sites around town to install a second and maybe a third transmitter/antenna, probably each one on a slightly different frequency so they don't collide with each other, and feed audio by computer stream and the co-operation of businesses and residents.
Second, look into carrier current, which, if you are lucky, will put an AM signal everywhere in town! For carrier current conbtact Radio Systems, they can easily be found with a search tool and they will offer good advice.
ALSO, and I just thought of a third idea... check out T.I.S. stations (Traffic Information Stations) which allow up to 10-Watts or so on AM for vital traffic and emergency info. I will come back later this evening with more contact information.
I guess that the LPFM filing window is nailed shut, so we can't think about that.
Dear seankw40:
To pursue the idea of a carrier current radio station under Part 15.221, contact
www.radiosystems.com/index.php
The T.I.S. (Traffic Information Station) Rules are located at Part 90, Title 47.. 90.242
and the main company installing and consulting such stations is
www.theradiosource.com
THEN, the final topping on the cake, contact [email protected] for instructions to join us on TeamSpeak on the first or third Saturday of the month for the ALPB (Association of Low Power Broadcasters). MRAM 1500, the chairman, actually oversees a T.I.S. station, is currently building an LPFM station, is a Part 15 station, and operates a home recording studio!
You can't go wrong when you're right!
If you want to stick with Part 15, the idea of multiple transmitters is the only way I know of to extend your range past that mile barrier.
There have been multiple discussions here regarding that topic. The manufacturer of the Rangemaster claims that you can sync multiple transmitters together on the same frequency, but I believe that you need to hardwire them together in some fashion. Not sure about that, though.
Others have discussed synchronizing wirelessly through Barix boxes.
The consensus here, though, if I remember correctly, is that the easiest way is to have each of the transmitters on a separate frequency. Not so great if you're mobile, but it will certainly extend your coverage area to stationary receivers.
Hi Everyone
Wow thanks for all the helpful information. Right now I have the talking sign
TS-100 transmitter which was made by the same company making the procaster.
This transmitter is FCC certified with a built in antenna tuner and also can
be switch to a 50 ohm out put for antenna of choice. I know the person
who built these and he said the TS-100 had the full 100mw input power and
was very close to the same on the output power. Pretty much like the
Stran-5000 transmitter that has an input of 100mw and get the same output power.
I just heard the Rangemaster pretty much outperformed everything. Now it
sound like the Stran -5000 is really pushing the limits on the band.
Since I am doing a true community station I was told that I really needed to
use a FCC transmitter. Now I will check out these other option also.
I knew about the 10 watt stations but I thought it had to be for trafic
like cars going down the road that needed information. Would I qualify for this
since I am only providing Weather ,news and some music to the community ?
10 watts would be really great since I could have a really wide coverage.
CB radios transmitt 4 watts AM and on a tower people have reported getting
out 25 to 30 miles on a quiet night with no skip. This was them using a
60 foot tower and a Antron 99 5/8 wave antenna. That 4 watts really gave them
a great coverage. Wow 10 watts would even do better even if a person
just used a inverted V dipole antenna up 125 ft in the air. This
would be some what omini direction. This way the top of the Inverted V would
high enought for the legs of the antenna to be slope down at the correct angle.
Still I am not even sure if the 10 watts stations can use a regular type antenna
also.
I know even a 100mw output from a part 15 transmitter with a inverted V antenna
would have a really good coverage since a 10 foot antenna reaching a mile out.
Since an inverted V on most AM stations in the higher portion of the band
would only have each leg around 125 to a 128 feet each.
I have worked alot of QRP on the ham bands running only 100mw to 500mw and
reached all the way across the country even using SSB on the ham bands.
So 10 watts with a really good antenna set up correctly would really get out.
The other options sound good also.
My TS-100 is packed away because I figure it would not do well. Maybe with
compression on the Audio and a home built antenna it would do better.
Since I could compress the audio. I just need a really well built antenna.
I have checked the output power of the transmitter since I do have a watt
meter for the AM brodcast band, it will measure from 5mw to 100mw on one scale
and on anothe scale it will measure from 50mw to 1watt.
last scale reads from 1/2 watt to 10 watts. This is a LPAM watt meter.
Also it is certified with the FCC so what it reads the FCC will count it
correct. This is one way I make sure I am very legal. Also I can see
what transmitters are outputing the most power if they have a 50 ohm output.
Thanks
Sean
Good Sunday to Seanwk40:
The T.I.S. station rules have been somewhat relaxed, I think, to allow more generalized public service information, but you cannot play music nor commercials.
There is a very common and wide-spread mis-understanding about what the Certfication of certain transmitters actually means.
The Rules say that pre-built Part 15 transmitters cannot be offered for sale unless they are FCC Certified. But the Certification ONLY makes it possible for the seller to legally sell the transmitter. The Certification has no other meaning.
In other words, the person who broadcasts is NOT given special consideration during an FCC inspection whether a transmitter is certified or not. The inspector will check for antenna length and input power in any and all cases, and that's all they check.
To drive the point home, a Certified transmitter with the power set above 100mW or extra long antenna would fail an inspection.
But if you still feel "safer" with certified, then that's up to you.
Keep us posted.
Seanwk40, on Low Power Hour Radio Program No. 78 my guest was Bill Baker, top man at I.S.S., Information Station Specialists at theradiosource.com, the subject during the program is traffic stations, the rules, the equipment and everything.
Hi Carl
Thanks. Once I am set up . I was wondering if I could rebroadcast you in my area.
I listen into your programing . Really nice. Wow you have a very impressive
website.
Thanks
Sean
Seanwk40, thank you fpr becoming the newest LPH Affiliate.
I will list your station with affiliates starting right away, unless you want me to wait.
I notice that on your forum postings you are KJIK, but on the members roster you are JKIK. Which one is the one.
Hi Carl
That is a huge error . That needs to be fixed.
KJIK satnds for
JESUS IS THE KEY.
K J I K
Anyways just left the letter T out since it made more since to have a 4 letter
call sign
Oh by you can list me. Forgot to put that in there.
Sean
Hi Carl
How do you get a larger area for the LOGO for the statio. This 100 X 100 pixals
. Wow hard to get a nice logo in that small of an area for everyone to see.
My original logos would be way to small to see in that area ,so you see now
a very simple station logo.
Thanks
Sean
This is what I posted many years ago but I have been doing a real large change to the station.
As you know I need to cover weather and news and some music.
here look at this and this is what I posted many years ago.
I took down the website to the station because I really need a
better web site.
http://www.part15.us/radio-station-listings/jesus-key-radio-ministries
Thanks
Sean
Dear Seanwk40:
Welcome to the Daylight Saving Time World, where many clocks are 0ne-hour too fast.
You are now on the LPH Affiliates List.
Reading about your terrible loss in 2006 broke my heart. It is a strong and brave man that can carry on after such major hurt.
Doing little things keeps us going, so I'll talk about tiny image logos.
The master of images is Rich Powers, who made the colorful and fun logos for KDX and "Carl Blare."
I think his secret is that he creates the images at a size where better detail can be added, and when the images are used on different pages later, the dimensions can be reset in "Image Properties" without re-sizing the original source copy.
If Rich Powers reads this, maybe he will give a better lesson in making logo images.
I am reading this.. but I'm a little confused on the logo talk.. What are you trying to do?