winter4w asked: "If I wrap the tin foil from the AM transmitter antenna to the rabbit ears one would I be able to improve the range or does this only work is FM?"
It depends on the brand of tin foil.
The same I used with the FM one. All it is just some basic foil that you can get at a grocery store.
🙂
Using an ohm meter a length of tin-foil should show electrical continuity and perhaps a resistance, that is one way to compare one brand to another.
One needs to determind how may ohms per square.
Ok so I got the new working transmitter and did another test. I had to go all the way down to 87.7 to get the cleanest frequency and even that one wasn’t so clean but cleaner than 106.1. I guess since it is Saturday (Weekend) allot of pirate stations go off as I was picking up music from churches all the way down to random stuff. I even used Radio-Locator to try to find a open frequency and those were all taken. I was amazed at how many stations there were playing on a empty or unsilenced frequencys.
Anyways to the results as that I know @Thelegacy has been waiting for. I was able to get 900meeters (.55Miles) of range. I was amazed at this as I have almost doubled the range from the first test.
For Test #3 I will try it on a weekday and see if I can find some open frequency’s since some pirate stations may only run on weekends 🙂
Also as a UPDATE I did get the Talking House 5 off eBay. I will use this transmitter to broadcast my internet station. I am sure with the AM band it won’t be hard to find an empty frequency. I will try this rabbit ear antenna trick with the AM and see what the results are.
Thanks 😀
There are only supposed to be a "handful" of full powered or licensed stations on 87.7 and I think fewer on 87.9. Churches and pirates and other small users do seem to be on the lower endof FM, I guess there's usually space there, I've noticed that.
Outdoor theaters and monuments seem to use freaqs around 88.1 plus or minus. There was even a cemetary sales place that had an FM mini tx used for selling plots or something like it, to "plan your future", how wacked out is that 🙂
Most of these just run loops for a minute or two.
I'm thinking of trying the foil antenna trick too on FM, I think the two phases of the signal are the 5V power cord, and the audio cable, that's acting as a tiny dipole. Power ground seems to be RF ground on mine also, and a short piece of wire goes through a bundled cable to the audio input, like a few inches, and the wire stops dead before it gets to the jack, and least it doesn't come out of the other side. This is all inside of the case. I think if I could wrap foil around those two areas of the case, it could make an experimental dipole.
There's also an idea to use a ten foot sheet of foil on the talking house. I could staple a few inches of lead wire to the foil to connect to the TH, then suspend the other end on something overhead like a branch that about 20 feet above. I do have a situation like that. The only thread I have is dental floss, and that could be taped to the top of the sheet of foil. I'd like to see how that does compared to the thin black wire that's on my TH. It should have more capacitance.
Yea for sure there is something near me on 87.9. By me I can barely pick it up but on my way to work about 2 miles away from me I was able to get a stronger single. There is also a small hill the road goes up where on the right you can see a bunch of houses all the way to the mountain. When I went over the hill at the top I got the best signal and at my work I can pick it up and make out what the song is. There is a bit of static but can be easily made out. On my way home from work when I went over the hill I took a right turn away from the neighborhood were up ahead is a valley. I thought someone might be broadcasting in the valley but when I went down the hill towards the valley the signal dropped to mainly static. I believe this station may be in that neighborhood. I also looked on radio-locator and there is no radio on 87.9. I was shocked that 87.7 was cleaner than 87.9. I will keep trying to find a clean frequency so I can get the best results out of my FM test. (btw does anyone know anything good I can get to try to find the cleanest frequency).
With the TH I am wondering if you can send me an image of what you have setup with the foil. When I get mine I would like to try that same setup 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Winter4w that is getting out further than my SainSonic did. What about harmonics and spurs? Did the transmitter bleed the dial of Radio's near by? How about making static on other parts of the dial? I'd like to know what a longer audio cable would do. If only I could just use a long audio extension and a power supply instead of batteries for this transmitter you have I'd be considering on the idea of running it. I just want something clean and that can get me some range. I also want to know what your trick does on a Talking House AM Transmitter too.
Well my extended audio cable was broken (I forgot it broke a long time ago in my car). I got a cheap RTL SDR and I used SDR Sharp to keep an eye on how it was bleeding. On 87.7 from what I recall it went to 87.6 and 87.8 but it was mainly static on those and you could barely make it out. This transmitter does not have much power at all so if there was a station on that frequency once I went 1 or 2 houses down I lost it. (Yes this also counts for the pirate stations I picked up on some frequencies). With the power it has a pre-built battery inside that can be recharged with a micro USB port. I used the USB adapter from my Dell Venue 9 Pro and just plugged in the micro USB into the transmitter for max power. You can get a long aux cord for it (Male into the pc or whatever your audio device is and female into the transmitter). I will say though with .5 miles you can hear some static on the background but it is clear enough for me to make out the music. I am still trying to get a clean frequency to get the best results but it is either a radio far away or some pirate station that clogs it up. I am using an ls400 stock stereo and from reading about it Lexus (and likely other luxury cars) do have some good receivers.
I am right now waiting for my TH 5 to arrive to try this test on it. I might wrap the black wire antenna to one of the normal antennas and warp some foil around it. I would like to see @Nate Crime trick he used for his TH.
I will post more info when I get it 🙂
Thanks 🙂
So I did my third test and I think this is the best I can get in my area. Today I was able to see what was causing the interference on 87.9 and it is the pirate station up north of me behind the mountain(Call name is KWFUCC if you are interested in it lol). I was shocked I was able to pick it up from that far. I am only able to pick it up on the highway to the post office and there are power lines that follow the road so I’m not sure if that would of dragged the single farther.
Anyways so I used 87.7 again and got .5 miles over the park and .1 miles across the neighborhood. Once I get out of those it is static and more interference from some other stuff out there in the radio world. So I guess this will conclude for the FM Transmitter test unless someone has something else I can add to try to improve it. My next test would be with the talking house AM transmitter and so far when I looked through the AM band around me there’s so much open space so it won’t be hard for me to find a clean frequency 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Now this was with the tin foil wrapped around the case of the TX or did you try the long audio cable you know use a male to female 1/8th inch audio extender to plug the transmitter into? If so I could run that up the side of the window and then have the audio coming from the computer. How was the Stereo separation on the TX?
I did try my headset extender I use and it did work. You can get an extended aux cable and that should do the same thing. When I did go around .3 miles there is a popping noise. I think interference from something else is causing that. The images I posted are how I had the tin foil wrapped around the rabbit ears. So far my car had Stereo until I started to reach the edge of the range. If I had a clean flat terrain I’m sure I could get a mile out of it. Mabey when I do some test with the talking house I may drive up this hill near us with some friends and see how far it goes. But if you have allot of houses around you, the range you may get is .3 miles. From my test driving across the park there is only 1 row of houses between me and the park so I was able to get .5 miles but when I went the opposite way where there were houses I only got .3 miles range. 🙂
OK NOW WE ARE TALKING!! its about the same as my SainSonic. And you said the TX can run on electric? Did you run the extended audio cable straight up? I'd want to get the same cable as you so I can get on air. I'll have to look for the link again for this TX you got. What about auto shut off? Is there a way to defeat that? For $7 I could try it and see what I get. Just have to get the audio extender too so I can have the extra range. And again if I can transmit on 87.9 Mhz it may be worth the shot.
The FM transmitter has a micro USB on it so yes you can plug that into a USB outlet. All the transmitter is, is just one of those car transmitters. The extended audio cable did work but the one I used was for my gaming headset I got. It is a Mic and Headset into one aux port so if you got a mac or some pc that doesn’t support both you can use your mic and headset at the same time. I’m sure though any aux cable will work just as long as you get a Male to Female and plug the Male into the audio source such as a PC and Female for the transmitter. The range of bands it does is 87.5Mhz - 108.0Mhz. I’m sure you can buy some aux extender at a BestBuy or even on eBay ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/3FT-3-5mm-Stereo-Audio-Aux-Headphone-Cable-Extension-Cord-Extender-M-to-F-MP3-/310976297743?hash=item4867a1bb0f:g:BPsAAOSwiLdWCL5i). Make sure the frequency you are going to use is 100% clean if not close to 100%. With me on 87.9Mhz I was only able to get 1 block before all the pirate stations overlapped it. Same thing with the open frequencies, around 1 block before the stations far away interfered with it. So this transmitter will accept any interference that is out there. If you have a quiet frequency you may be able to get more range than me because every time I will lose contact with my transmitter something else would be playing (Mainly sounded like static but you can hear some sort of beat or people talking). So the only downside to this is this transmitter won’t be able to overlap anything else out there (Which I guess is good since it makes it more Part15 legal). The link to the transmitter I got is ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/281696730695?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) however I did receive it a day late than expected (if that is important to you).
Let me know how it goes 🙂
OK thanks man. If nothing else looks like I can now spend the $7 and see what happens with Ebay. I actually created an account and I'll see when I get my $$ if I can try this TX at least till I have money saved for the Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0 since the C. Crane won't do what I want. Only thing is that this one does not nave a over modulation light. I'll keep looking too for a modified C. Crane that will do what I want I think I remember seeing one somewhere that did the same range as this little TX. But with careful setting it sould not be an issue. How was the bleed over onto other frequencies? I know it will bleed 88.1 when on 87.9 but it should not bleed say 90.1 or further down the dial. It should have a clean signal. We'll see which way I want to go. Maybe I'll find my extender cable too. I'm looking.