Yea I got some stuff to do today so I will be driving around and see how far I will get. I will also like to try at night time also. I got it tuned to 1670 and from reading about picking the frequency can change the range and sound quality what frequency do you recommend?
Also with the sound because some of the music I play is having a hard time playing and is kind of getting a echo or some songs have this clock ticking noise on it. Is there a possible fix that you guys got from your experience 🙂
I will post the full results of my test when I get them but so far I would say I got .4-.5 miles out of it. Again those results are from a basic test I did I have plans on going more in detail with the results 🙂
Thanks 🙂
You'll have to equalize the heck out of it to get it to sound anything close to audiophile quality. I have the same issue here. Its Doable and may get some listeners but its going to really be a hard sell. The thing that will get you listeners is to have 2TB of HDD and have most of that hard drive filled with great tunes that no one else plays anymore. Your playlist should be 30 days without ever hearing the same song twice and keep in mind you want a 2 hr space before you hear the same artist again. You'll need more than 560 different artists to do this and many songs from that artist. Since your station is a pop station you'll have to bring back the super club favorites no one else plays anymore but are sometimes heard in bars. AM sucks for sound so you have to lure them with dazzling songs they've forgot and DON'T REPEAT the same song in a 24 hr period. That will get you listeners who will stay locked to your station. Be sure to announce that you have 12 thousand songs or more and do no repeat promo's. This will get you the adult listeners 30+ yrs of age who may stay locked. 25 and under forget it for AM as they won't have the patience to deal with the static. Advertise the C. Crane Skywave, Grundig, Tecsun Radio's as your listeners will need Radio's to compensate for a poor frequency response that AM has. You'll probably attract more Car Radio listeners as those Radio's have a better sound AM Radio than in house Radio's do. God Luck as I suffer the same thing you do and the only thing that keeps my AM listeners is the sheer number of songs I have. Even then I have a listener once in a blue moon on AM.
Yea I seem to have fixed it by dropping the volume or my clock just decided to pick it up fine. I will be going out soon to do a test at night since night your supposed to get the best range. I might run 2 transmitter such as one FM with the TV antenna and the AM one so people who really want to listen to it far away to pick it up. I’m sure there is pc software out there that can help me resolve this sound issue since my radio station is mainly running on the internet using Radionomy. So far were you able to improve your sound quality with yours a bit?
Thanks 🙂
Well at night I did not get far at all. I forgot about the other AM stations lol. So at night I am able to pick up stations far far away. So I guess my max range will only be in the day time.
At night your going to have to deal with the beating against the faint stations all mixing together. AM is like that. I use 1630 Khz as that is blank during the day here and at night is the quietest as well. Plus during the day its far away from any adjacent stations below or above the frequency I'm trying to transmit on. So with that in mind you will have to look for something of the same for AM. Good luck on that. I've got the station to sound OK but still have to try and see about VSTHost and some plugins like the equalizer. Plus I may need to run VBCable its a virtual cable and its FREE so I can get the extra bottom end and still have the highs on the AM side. I've learned that the advanced Talking House just lacks the audio quality of some of the shortwave stations I've heard like WTWW 5.085 Mhz. So you'll have a challenge on AM to try and get your Audio to be pleasing to someone enough to want to listen in the first place. With these part 15 transmitters your Audio is only going to be but so good unless you get a Procaster or Talking Sign (which they don't make the Talking Sign anymore). I've heard so many good reports about the Talking Sign but I am not sure it has the whole AM band and I don't think its digital. Good Luck.
Is it the Enhanced version?
I don’t think it is. I believe the advanced one had the Blue LED not the green.
Today I was driving home from school and I was shocked at this finding. I was able to pick up my station 1 mile away. There was allot of background noise but I was able to make out the song and the words. I would like to see what this thing can do on a hill or on the roof. For a setup with the wire hanging on the window in the house and I was able to get it 1 mile away is impressive. I am going to have allot of fun with this thing 🙂
Thanks 🙂
The LEDS are the same. The enhanced V5 has modifications you can see by looking through the top air vents.
Congratulations on your range winter4w, and it shows how little power it takes to get out.
I was surprised about that too, knowing that commercial AM stations had thousands of watts and huge towers, you'd never think a tenth of a watt on a wire could do anything, but it can. Electronics books would say a few hundred feet, and that's what I expected the absolute max to be.
My Tallking house has a subdued green display, it's old though, it might be a 3.0 version.
Somehow I'm going to have to get mine higher and maybe tie the wire to a tree up stairs if there is a way to do that. I was just trying to be not so obvious at what I was doing to the landlord. There is a tree at the front of the house and if I get the room upstairs maybe I could get someone sighted to do that and I'd run a A/V transmitter to the AM transmitter and that way I'd get the signal higher in hopes for more listeners till I can get a replacement FM Transmitter. Still very fun experiment. By the way I was looking at the Part 15 AM and FM group on Facebook and there are some video's of a range test for a Procaster. You have to join that group, but well worth doing so. You get a lot of folks showing videos and sharing their experience.
@wdcx
What modifications will I be looking for that stand out?
Yea I was happy to hear it playing that far away. I am thinking as a test is driving up this small hill where I believe it’s a water tower up there or something and having me and some friends see what we can get from there. Ill post when I do that test :). I know there is a sticker at the bottom of the unit that tells the version of it.
Yea I got my wire hanging between my window and bug screen on the 2nd floor. I still have some extra antenna wire that just hangs there in the house since the wire is taller than my window. I’m sure if I got it to the highest point I could in my house I would be able to go pretty far during the day 😀
I would also like to get some good FM transmitter that is Part 15 for the better sound quality but I still havent found any that wont get the fcc up on me.
Thanks 🙂
As far as FM Transmitter goes I'm thinking about the Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0. If your worried about compliance you could use the wire antenna and just use 2-3 inches of it and you'll get out 100 feet. Where you and I live I don't think that is going to be an issue (Your mileage may very if you live in a metro area or area where the FCC has gone after Pirate Radio). Its is a certified unit although we've learned what certification can do. If you did get a NOUO you would just agree to use something different but again its only my opinion about the Frankinmuth, Michigan Christmas town that has use this transmitter for over 9 years (since I discovered it in (2006-Early 2007). Their range is about what I got from the SainSonic minus the harmonics so its just some fun facts there. There is ways to tame things down if need be. Since it uses a bolt you could just cut a very short piece of wire and use it. Just be diligent on checking for temperature inversions after 6 and go off air if tropo exists and I don't really think IMHO there will be much to worry about. I'm not advocating gobs of power and again its the operators responsibility so scope your area out. If you think its a narc troll wasteland then you'll best use one of those transmitters that barely get out of your house. I did have some listeners on the short range I got for FM and when I went AM so far not much. If you live in a 200 room complex like a old High School the little C. Crane may be Okay. Also I'm gonna try harder for the FM Initiative to get something done with that by spreading the idea around on Facebook and seeing if we can get more support for it. We got a long hall, but I'm keeping the other part 15 folks in mind who can't get any good use for AM due to noise in their area. I wish you the best of luck sir.
Yea the talking house 3.0 I heard can get up to a 1/2 of a mile if not a bit more with the power mode. I might use the FM for people nearby and people who still want to listen go with AM and further out will that’s what the internet is for lol. Only other way I can think of which can cost allot of money is the XM radio. With XM you can get all the range you need 😉
You will see a capacitor and a potentiometer that has been added near a small white ribbon cabel. Other parts as well.
Ill upload a picture of it soon :). Im guessing the advanced gets better range and better sound?