What was is the approximate range from the transmitter now? I am assuming you are using a suspended vertical wire? Also, looking at a map of your town, it looks like a great place for Part 15.
What was is the approximate range from the transmitter now?
Quality range is more-less 1/4 to 1/2 mile depending upon direction from the antenna.
Begin long and hopefully intelligible scattered thoughts:
I knew the signal was going to be lobed, but I'm rather confused because I predicted the peaks of the lobe to be in opposite directions from what they actually are.
It's always been my belief that if an antenna was obstructed behind a metal structure, then it's maximum potential would be hindered by that structure, which should (in my mind) make the signal strong to the same side of the structure, but weak to the opposite side of the structure.
That just doesn't seem to be the case here.
Static, noise, and dropouts start at 1/4 to 1/2 mile, and the weak to fringe signal travels 1/2 to 1 mile depending upon direction. I am quite certain that re-radiation (ghosting) happens in a few spots (with both negative and positive effects). The positive seems to outweigh the negative.
I would love to cover more highway, but blanketing more households with the potential of a good usable signal is much more important to me.
/ end scattered thoughts and ideas
If I had to predict the actual range into a home, that range would be 2/10 of a mile with a good quality listenable signal. That is nearly 60 households (conservatively).
Not sure how many of those households have a quality AM receiver, but whatever the number, I hope it will grow in the near future.
I am only gearing up and testing at the moment.
My plan is to campaign and promote heavily when everything goes live.
May even give away (and install) a few branded AM receivers.
Looks like a mobile home park in your town. How far away are you from the school?
I am so close to the school that I have the feeling that you are looking right at me on the map. Actually there are 3 mobile home parks in range, a subdivision, apartment buildings... So I am trying to be realistic and conservitive with the range and number of potential households.
Maybe you can do something for the school during hours, like annoucements etc..
Is that you in the above ground pool?
wcdx
Maybe you can do something for the school during hours, like annoucements etc..
Good idea.
While I'm not too sure the school would be open to the idea exactly as I am reading it.
There used to exist a special relationship between the schools and home town radio (way back when we had home town radio), so they may be interested in PSAs of things like tomorrows breakfast and lunch menus, contests, fundraisers, date and times of PTA/PTO meetings, etc...
Unfortunately, sporting events are now held at a distant location, and the current owner of the local stations retained the rights to broadcast those events (although it rarely happens).
Rich Powers
Seems a plastic 5 gallon bucket would work (pickle or paint), but might want to try to find the same one as the I.AM enclosers... They had to come from somewhere...
mram1500
The IAM Radio/Talking House transmitter is now sold in an outdoor enclosure for just that purpose. They have apparently eliminated the ATU and simply mount the standard 102" whip antenna to the enclosure and let the internal auto-tuner do its thing.
Those enclosures appear to be either telecommunication or cable interface junction boxes. At least this is the conclusion that I have arrived at after seeing the few pictures available on the internet.
What few pictures I have found of the outdoor enclosure show only the front of it, opened up, with the talking house mounted inside of it, whip mounted on the top.....and those pictures aren't really detailed or reveling.
So the best I can tell from looking at the little reference pictures that I can find, those enclosures are more likely designed for location based telecommunications networks, or maybe even for complex building CATV connection taps.
Come to think of it... Those enclosures may be in use as junction boxes within very large LAN systems.
Finding a source for this type of enclosure may not be any more difficult than taking measurements of the talking house and talking with a communications installer (phone / cable / net).