Starting a radio station?

Welcome to the forum and it appears you have done some homework in advance.

We recently had a new member with the same interest as you so you might want to check this thread:

http://www.part15.us/forum/part15-forums/general-discussion/new-guy-here

That being said, you are welcome to seek advice and ask questions of your own.

Neil

winter4w my favorites are the AMT3000 and AMT5000

http://sstran.com

The AMT3000 for best price, the AMT5000 for highest efficiency in signal strength.

They are kits and need electronic building skills, but once they are built life improves including increased social popularity.

The I AM as it's called now....used to be talking house, re designed for better audio at $249 is the best bang for the buck. Comes in a sturdy metal cabinet, no need to build it from a kit, no constantly accessing circuit board for antenna trim and freq. adjustment, digital display of frequency and front panel controls, and the antenna tunes itself automatically and is certified.

If I were to go on AM that would be the one I'd get.

Mark

You're going to get a lot of opinions on this one.

It really all depends on your budget.  If you can put a transmitter/antenna outdoors, and can spend anywhere between $400 (used) to $800-1000 new, the Hamilton Rangemaster is probably the best transmitter available that will get you the most range.  The ChezRadio Procaster is a close second.  I've used both, so I'm relying on experience.

If you're limited with your budget, then the Talking House is a good way to go, although you won't get the same sound quality or range.  If you can put up an outside antenna with a Talking House, or find an ATU that was sold as an option, the range will be better.  Be forewarned, however, that the build quality of the Talking House transmitter can be suspect - I've owned many, and at least for me, I had issues with about 1 out of 3 (no range, poor sound quality, etc.).

With any outside antenna, you'll need a good ground (ideally some copper rods sunk into the ground with radials at the base of your antenna); the Talking House uses the power cable as a ground, so it's important that you use the supplied wall wart.

There are many other transmitters available (including the aforementioned SSTran AMT3000 & 5000, which you'd have to build as a kit).

Good luck, and feel free to ask questions.

... the Hamilton Rangemaster is probably the best transmitter available that will get you the most range.  The ChezRadio Procaster is a close second. ...

Note that Part 15 AM "range" depends not just on the transmitter design/performance and its settings.

It also depends on the physical configuration of the transmit antenna system, earth conductivity at/near the transmit site, signals from co- and adjacent-channel stations, ambient r-f noise levels at the receive location, the performance of the AM receiver+antenna, and the tolerance of the listener to the noise/interference levels in the audio they hear.

winter4w, Welcome to our world!  If you go with a Talking House, make sure you go with version 5.0 (or later if you decide to buy later).  It sounds better than the earlier models. 

A caveat if you do go with a Talking House:  Keep the transmitter away from whatever you're using to generate the audio.  And do plug them into separate outlets.  The Talking House isn't too bad, but it's subject to a lot of hum, and you might have to take a few extra steps to get rid of it.  (Come back here and ask us; we'll try to help.)

If you can afford a Hamilton Rangemaster, that's my favorite.  It works, it puts out a killer signal, and it sounds excellent.

Have fun setting up your station, and remember that it's a project.  You'll probably have to try a lot of different setups, but that's part of the magic!

Where would I go to get the Hamilton Rangemaster?

How far would you say the Talking House transmitter will go? The range I would like to get is around 1-2 miles on a car stario. I also herd that AM waves to stay in the atmosphere longer so you can get a beter range on them. 

I have a Talkinghouse, from inside at my place it goes maybe a few hundred feet downstairs, or upstairs it's double range, and more range following the power lines by far than over open fields. I taped the wire antenna that came with the transmitter to a PVC tube and stuck it out of a window at the peak of the house, and it did a lot better, getting about half a mile in the car, out to a mile, but that was in static, and not something normal people would probably stay tuned to. That was a hot summer day and the noice was probably higher.

My antenna was still half next to the house and so it wasn't doing the best it could probably. These antennas should be outside and in a clear open area for sure, for max range.

Commercial transmitters are all about the same power, into the same 10 foot or less antenna, with similar tuners. Despite the claims of manufacturers, there's not that much difference, it's marginal at best, in my opinion.

It's kind of like Alkaline batteries, they can make claims and call them "super!" and Longer Lasting, but tests have shown that al Alakline batteries are about the same capacity, from the dollar store to the major companies that advertise on TV.

That's my take on it, radio is a an art as well as a science, our thoughts are subjective, so study and test and try out things, even build a kit or from some plans if you're new and want the lowest cost.

Are there any Part 15 AM transmitters that can hit up to a mile or two? I know I cant have a huge metal pole hanging from the roof of my house but I do have a two story house. I would like to set up something that local people can here. I also cant go spend around $500 for somethings so I am kind of stuck in the ditch here lol.

Thanks :p

Experience and theory both suggest that up to a mile range is about the limit for a listenable signal.

If you can't spend money, but do have some time and technical skills, you could go with a kit (such as the AMT3000 or 5000) or the Talking House, and build an external antenna (essentially a 3 meter pipe and a loading coil).

Since Part 15 limits the length of your antenna+ground wire+feedline to 3 meters, you'll have to mount the transmitter inside some sort of weatherproof box and place it at the base of the antenna (thus minimizing the length of the feedline).  And you'll either have to mount the transmitter+antenna up high with no ground wire attached, or at ground level with a good ground such as I suggested earlier (a couple of ground rods pounded into the soil, along with radials).  Your results for either will depend on a huge number of factors, so you may have to experiment.

The one anomoly is the Talking House + ATU combination.  Somehow, they got it through certification, so if you can find an ATU, you can mount it outdoors with the Talking House indoors.  You'll pay big bucks for the ATU, however, even if you can find one, as they're relatively rare.

And by the way, that one mile range is to a sensitive receiver, mostly likely a car radio.  The range to ordinary portable radios or handhelds will be less.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just trying to keep your expectations realistic.

Bottom line, the antenna and its location is the key (along with the ground).  You'll get reasonable results with any transmitter, but the more you spend, the better your results may be.  And you can reduce the amount you spend with some sweat equity by purchasing and building a quality kit such as the AMT5000.

There is an issue in mounting a Part 15 AM transmitter and its attached ~3-m whip 25 feet or so above the earth, using no other conducting path(s) from the transmitter -- whether they lead a true r-f ground or not.

With no such other paths, the only reference that the 3-m monopole whip can be driven against is the circuit ground bus of the PC board in the transmitter, which usually is only several inches in length.  In effect the transmitter then is driving a very off-center fed dipole.

The feedpoint impedance of that antenna configuration at the high end of the AM broadcast band is about 0.1 -j 4000 ohms.  That 4000 ohms of capacitive reactance will take about 3700 uH of inductance to offset (achieve system resonance).  AFAIK this amount of inductance is FAR beyond that available when using just the loading coil included in some transmitters.

A severely non-resonant antenna system radiates almost none of the available power.  So if some have had success when using this configuration, then probably conductors other than the 3-meter whip also were radiating, which lowered the feedpoint reactance to be within the range that could be matched by the loading coil in the transmitter.

Another issue is how the FCC would look on such an installation with respect to compliance with Part 15 (if that was desired).

Ok well I guess how I can tell you the possible ways I can run this station. One will be upstairs in the guest room where there will be a PC that will play the music. I do have a large window in that room so I can just place it next to the window. Looking outside my window I can see the hills that are about 1/2 - 1 mile away. There are only row of houses in my view. Behind those houses is a open part area that streches all the way to the hills. I also do live in a desert so from what I understand from reading is that AM waves go furter in the heat. (Correct me if im wrong) . I cant hang a pole or atenna at the top of my house due to the HOA. In my back yard I do have a wetherstaion on a pole and a playhouse I can mount a atenna but those will require the transmitter to be outside and I do run into the issue of getting something to play the music off of, plus I will be mutch higher putting it on the 2nd floor of my house than on the wetherstation. Also behind my house is a small thing of desert land so there are no houses behind me. I herd with some people that use the TH on youtube and some other forums is that they can get up to 1 mile before the music becomes hard to hear. The main thing I want is for a car radio to pick it up from a mile if not more away. So I guess you can say from the terrain info around me I would like to know what will you think be the best range I will get with the TA on a car radio? I have looked into some other transmitters but from reading about them the TA so far seems to fit my needs, I am just uncertin about the range I will get.

Thanks 🙂 

It's unlikely that you're going to get a mile range with a Talking House & wire antenna mounted inside (or even running up or down the wall outside).

You're going to get the best range with the antenna (and transmitter) mounted outside, away from the house, in the open as much as possible.  You can feed audio & power from the computer to the transmitter via CAT-5 cable or something similar.  You'll need to have the transmitter in a weatherproof box (unless it's something that comes that way, such as the Rangemaster).

To be strictly legal, you'll need to have the antenna at ground level (i.e., non elevated) so that the ground lead is of minimal length (you'll want to attach the ground to copper rods pounded into the soil, and potentially have radials out from the base of the antenna).

You can certainly try the Talking House on the 2nd floor, but I think you'll be disappointed.  I've experimented with that kind of installation, and got rather poor range.  The only way I was able to get anything close to what you want was when I ran the antenna wire of a Talking Sign (similar to the Talking House) outside, threaded through a PVC pipe, and got the end of the wire up over the roofline.  The Talking Sign I mounted on the ceiling (which was the only way to get the wire up high enough outside).  But it seems that any sort of antenna mounted on your house might not be OK with the HOA, even just what looks like a thin piece of pipe.

The thing to remember is that about a mile range is the upper limit for an ideally installed Part 15 AM transmitter.  Not the norm.  I don't know these people that are claiming over a mile on a Talking House, but the only way that I can see it happening is if they had an ATU mounted outside, or some other sort of outside base loaded antenna.  And when people start to claim excessive range, you then have to start looking at their installation closely.  Elevated installs with long ground leads can increase range substantially, but they're not legal (remember, the antenna + antenna feedline + ground lead must be less than or equal to 3 meters or about 10 feet).

But really, there are so many variables that go into any Part 15 install that you really have to experiment.  Transmitter inside, transmitter outside, different kinds of grounds, radials, etc. are all things to try, until you get something that is acceptable.