My Talkingsign Transmitter arrived from Canada today, I had just enough time to turn on the automatic message loop and hastily string the antenna in the window.
Here are the results
Antenna drooped over the blinds, not stretched to full length.
Meter peaked slightly over halfway, so not tuned the best. I had it pegging the meter with the wire just on the floor, but I figured the window would be better.
Frequency of 1590, turns out not a very good frequency, severe splatter from 1600.
The Range:
Coverage was incredibly suprising.
1,500 feet(1/4 Mile) feet of solid coverage
2,500 feet (~1/2 Mile) Slop from 1600 makes things very difficult, but the message is still audible.
3,300 feet (~3/4 Mile) signal finally disappears underneath skip and slop.
With coverage like this, with a less than ideal setup with a less than ideal frequency... I can only imagine how good it will be with the antenna outside with a good X-Band Frequency (Likely 1670)
Wonder what would happen if you string the wire to a tree branch and up as high as you can. This sounds really good. I'll have to still try and get someone to help me walk to the end of my signal. I need to know how far I'm getting. If nothing elswe the Talking Sign could be better than the Talking House AM Transmitter.
Audio wise the Talking Sign blows the non enhanced Talking House transmitters out of the water.
This is encouraging for those interested in AM operation in that a ready made certified transmitter is available which appears to perform well.
Neil
Can you still get these? Maybe a lot less money than the Procaster?
These are the only AM transmitters that can be used here(Canada)
Mark
I've heard so much good things about the Talking Sign. I'd have to see one to figure rather or not it is an easy setup or not. But with this sort or range from a wire antenna makes me really want to check it out. I don't think my TX is close to that.
The TalkingSign setup is very easy, almost as plug and play as the talking house, only difference is this tunes up manually via a knob on the back.
These units are no longer manufactured, having been replaced by the Procaster.
Wow nice sounding TX for sure. I don't know why the range is so much better than the Talking House but worth checking into.
The Talking Sign is much better built than the Talking House. It's also simpler with the manual tuning (the automatic tuning of the Talking House is a common failure point, and it's difficult to tell if it's working well or at all). I purchased 3 Talking Signs a while ago (now I have 2) and all performed identically in testing. I never did put any into production as I decided to go with FM and the Decade MS-100.
I have also owned 3 Talking Houses. One performed with adequate range (but less range than the Talking Sign), one not so well (about half the range of the first), and one never got out more than a few feet.
Now, these were not the IAM TH's, which may be of better quality. For the earlier TH's, it's possible that if you get a good one, it will do as well as the Talking Sign, but the trick is getting a good one. I've never used the IAM TH's.
As for range on the Talking Sign, I was able to get about a mile with the wire outside, running up a PVC pipe so that it made it over the roofline of a 1 story house. The signal at the receiving end (a car radio) was noisy with some static, but still listenable; it faded out pretty abruptly after that. The terrain was flat, with some 1 and 2 story wood houses in the way, but also an airport and lots of field.
The Talking Sign company was sold by what then became Chez Radio (who make the ProCaster) and the Talking Sign transmitter was made for a little while longer before that new company folded.
As Mark said, it, along with the ProCaster, are the only 2 known RSS210 certified AM transmitters (along with the Part 15 certification, of course). There may be more buried in the Industry Canada database from yesteryear, but they're not available today.