So I have been doing station imaging for nearly 25 years...and over 40 y.ears in radio. We have three successful studios and I do national VoiceOver for a large number of retail cients. I was looking for a new locatio to put a more accessible studio, and a local antique mall/specialty shop mall is willing to lease me a reconditioned real red railroad caboose on a set of tracks just outside the front of the huge building (one story former factory). They will let me lease it for free...all I pay is DSL and electric per month..IF I can put together a low power AM station to run about. 90 min loop featuring interviews with the various merchants, and a small amount of adult standards type music.
We have a CHEZradio Procaster and will run it somewhere between 1570 and 1670 (seems to have the quietest area). I intend to mount it above the high part in the center of the caboose's roof on one of the handrails that go to the ladder leading to the top of the caboose. I was wanting to know if the caboose itself would be a good ground. Of course the whole thing is metal..and it has a metal roof. Further it is on rails that are held to the ground by large spikes. Seems like a decent and non obtrusive ground system.
Programming will be on hard drive running winamp or iTunes and I will have control of it when I am not there using gotomypc.
The station will probably have a fairly high profile as the mall wants to erect signs along the highway that directs visitors to tune to 1570 AM for special offers and local information. If we get one mile it would be awesome..if we get a little more even better.
We will keep you in the loop, and send along pics of the installation.
And if you want some produced professional sounding sweepers..give me a holler. Demos online at www.jefflaurence.com
If you mount the transmitter just above the solid metal of the caboose top (similar to a metal roof), you'll get a capacitive effect between the caboose and the transmitter, and you might not need to attach an RF ground wire at all (thus eliminating one potential legality issue, i.e., grounding to something similar to an elevated mast). You'll still need to provide some sort of lightning protection.
I once had an FM transmitter mounted about 6 feet above a metal roof. When I was forced to mount it within a few inches of the roof (with no ground attachment), I noted a significant improvement in the signal quality and range; I would think the same principal would apply, maybe even more so, for an AM transmitter.
Hello Caboose and thanks for sharing your existence with such an interesting "image" project. I will really enjoy following the results of your development and will be watching for updates.
In what way did you learn about part 15 radio?