I'm beginning to seriously question the capability of these talking house transmitters.
It seems that no matter what combination I try the result is exactly the same, I get to the end of my driveway (still line of sight) and the signal dies away.
This time I'm testing during the day and there is nothing on my chosen frequency at all or surrounding it. However it never makes it out of my yard.
It is sitting 12' in the air, I've tried my 10' antenna it came with, I even for the hell of testing sake hooked it up to my 18.5' antenna (well aware its over regulation, I was just testing).
The same exact result ensured. Is there something I'm missing?
So far I feel like I've wasted $100 on a few transmitters that have absolutely no use to me, I'm not looking for much range, at this point a 1/4 of a mile would put a smile on my face.
The real thing that boggles my mind is that I can go further with a shorter antenna on a modified car transmitter, I just don't get it.
Please don't take this the wrong way I'm just not seeing even an 8th of the results everyone else is seeing.
Any ideas? (If I don't end up doing this, I will sell these at cost here first)
Not having one I can only relay what I have heard. The TH has a slug tuner driven by a motor to tune the antenna. There have been reports of problems with the tuner. Do you hear a motor running when the antenna is changed?
Maybe a long shot but a place to start.
Neil
You imply that you bought a few transmitters. Sorry but I have to ask this - did you try both and get the same results? I have purchased 3 new Talking House transmitters - 2 were good, one was pretty much DOA (didn't transmit).
I purchased two of them, however the 2nd is still floating in the mail.
I'm going to take a better look at this ones internals, it sounds great but horrible range, I should also note that if I attach shield from my antenna connector to ground the signal disappears.... There shouldn't be a short but I've not check it yet.
When this unit arrived it just clicked and would error out, the ATU was off track, I pushed it back on and it seems to tune now.. maybe its tuning out of tune?
I'll take another look and update, thanks guy
sorry to double post, here's a video on how my transmitter is operating.
in the first minute of the video you should see that even though I switch frequencies 1700 down to 710 it did not retune.
hey buddy...go to http://www.fmtron.com i got my transmitter from them(usa) you will get out of your drive-way and be legal...under $90 look to hear frm you soon!!!!
I don't see anything on that site that is part 15 legal
Part 15 is not for the faint hearted (whatever that
means.)
I first did Part 15 AM in 1969. But I didn't really
get a properly radiating AM set-up that left my
yard and went a reasonable distance until about
2005. That's 37 years.
I guess all of you guys are faster than me.
Bruce, The DOG RADIO GROUP
Creators of fine past Part 15 stations such
as:
Ferd St. Radio, 91.9 MHz, 1993 AD
(These little stations I have mentioned in
my last few posts are all actual attempts
by me to be on the air.)
ministerchatt, it is highly unlikely that any of the transmitters you are recommending would be legal in the U.S. (or Canada, for that matter). Output from a legal FM transmitter is typically in the nanowatt range (to achieve the maximum required field strength), not milliwatts or watts. Theoretically, it would be possible to attenuate signals from a much higher power FM transmitter to meet the strict Part 15 regulations, but why bother? You'd have to go to so much trouble that it would be worth it to buy an actual, legal, transmitter.
Corrosion, it does sound like there might be a tuning problem with your Talking House. I had a similar problem in terms of symptions - very poor range - with one of my ProCasters. It turned out to be a bad tuning coil (you tune the ProCaster manually) and Chez Radio fixed it for what I felt was a reasonable fee (as well as upgrading several other components at the same time).
Thanks Artisan, yeah I feel about down at the moment but...
I certainly still want to start this station.
However a $700 procaster vs a $50-70 TH 4.2 well.... I'll take the TH, I simply don't have the funds otherwise. If however the station picked up community interest I could run fund raisers to get a procaster, but until then..... I need to try and make this work.
Hopefully when the second one gets here I'll have better luck.
I wasn't suggesting that you get a ProCaster. Just that I ran into a similar problem with a tuning coil.
Your TH should retune if you change frequencies. It's been a while since I used one without the ATU (which bypasses the internal tuner) and I can't remember whether it does so automatically when you change frequency. It will definitely attempt to retune (if it's working) when you power the transmitter down and then back up, after changing frequencies. If it doesn't, then that could be the problem.
If the 2nd TH has the same issue, then you should look elsewhere, as it's unlikely (possible, but unlikely) that both are defective. I always try to get 2 of everything I use, as it makes isolating problems so much easier just by doing a simple swapout.
For starters I don't understand why a "shield" is involved. If you are using the wire antenna connection port, you should only be connecting a simple single conductor wire to that point-not coax with a shield.
If you are connecting to the ATU "F" connector you must select that connection point with the selector switch on the back of the Talking House.
If you are using the ATU "F" connector, it is designed to be used with a resonant antenna. The ATU accomplishes this with a manual slug tuned coil. If you are connecting a "wire" antenna to the end of the coax connected to the "F" connector you either have to use an ATU or some other loading coil to resonate the antenna.
If you are connecting a simple wire to the "wire" antenna connection point, it must be about 8 feet long. The internal tuner will not work properly with a longer or shorter wire.
Thanks for the replies guys...
Artisan, as per the procaster... I know you weren't suggesting I get one but I would like to get one some day, was just throwing that out there..
Mram, I realize that the internal ATU only resonates with a 3 meter antenna, sometimes it tunes up and sometimes it doesn't do anything even when I swing from 1700 to 710khz.
As per the "Shield" issue, I did at one point attach a Non-part 15 regulation antenna just for the sake of testing, this antenna was not resonate at all (18.5' 10m ham antenna) however doing so did allow me to see the shield basically shorting the signal which I found odd....
All of my tests with the transmitter running for more than a minute was on a part 15 size antenna connected directly to the "nub" on the back for the internal antenna and the selector was in the correct position.
After the tuner decided to stop moving (or in some cases it never did tune) I attempted to drive around town while listening to 710khz. I hit the drive way and it dies...
I have a small deck attached to the 2nd story of the house (wooden) I put the transmitter out on the deck and connected the antenna (I tried draping it, and using a shorter 7' metal rod to hold straight up) and in each attempt I never made it off the property except once it it barely made it to the next house.
The only reason I suspect something is terribly wrong is that I had mentioned a part 15 fm transmitter with a non-resonate antenna attached outside (random wire) pushed over a block on a few AAs (of course I took it down immediately after that test).
The Ham antenna, what band is it designed to operate on?
Most likely there is a coil at the base of the antenna you can't see. The antenna is usually fed by tapping a few turns up from the grounded end of the coil. That small amount of inductance would be not only a short circuit to the wrong frequency it would also appear as a short circuit to DC.
If you put an ohm meter between the center conductor and the shield, does it read near zero ohm?
Thanks Mram, I'll have to check the reading on it...
Its tuned for about 28.4mhz like I said its still waaaay off freq. I didn't even think about that, yeah it has an enclosed tuning coil.