Warning! Warning! Severe newb!
Er, hey there!
Yes, as the title suggests I am a severe newbie to this. Just recently have I decided to drop my plans to go into The Army, and instead go to Broadcasting School after high school. Now, I figure setting up a home radio station and operating it before going to the school will give me a slight head-start, and help me get through the classes.
Now, I'm interested in setting up a Part15 station in my town, located in Southwest Ohio. But, upon starting my search for equipment I realised something... I have [i:24648b03ff]no[/i:24648b03ff] idea what I'm doing. I've read the faq on this site, and decided to go with an FM station and try to push a 1-2 mile transmission.
Thing is, I don't know all the exact legal stuff or how/where to get the equipment to set something like this up. I'm getting a job real soon to pay for whatever I need, so money soon won't be an object. Could somebody please point out a decent kit with what I need to get set up? I'm not too handy with constructing everything by hand, so I'd rather just buy the equipment and plug a few wires together.
Thanks!
"I'd rather just buy the equipment and plug a few wires together"
LOL.. You're missing half of the fun! I do understand if you have never assembled any kits before..
There are some plug and play systems out there. Ramsey Electronics has a neat unit for fm but I don't know anything about it. They have pre made antennas also..
Oh, and a big welcome from a fellow "Buckeye"..
I'd build one myself, but you see... I have pretty much no skill will electronics. I can plug components together, and thats just about it.
Ramsey, eh? I'll give 'em a look.
Buckeyes unite! 😛
Edit: Err.. uh, yikes. I looked around Ramsey, and yes they do have kits. But... I don't know what any of the hardware specs mean. The title of this thread is true, "Severe newb"
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM100B
Check out the "Export" model.. 8)
Uhm.. the export one says it must be exported... Or, am I supposed to pull something sneaky with this? 8)
What kind of range would it get?
As for the "Export" deal, Think of it as buying fireworks.. kinda..
If you have ever bought fireworks, they have you sign a form saying that you aren't gonna use them in the state.. Same deal.. 8)
That unit from Ramsey will put out 1 watt but it is very illegal. I was playing around with .7watts and could cover around 20mi. but I'm in a great location for radio and I had a gain antenna.. I shut it down.. 😉
In my experience, trying to get much range with the allowed levels by the FCC in the FM band is a hard road to travel. I haven't had much luck but there are others around here that could tell you more than me. I became disappointed too quick..
This is going to be a completely pared down explaination - so all you technodweebs, leave me alone - trying to explain in laymans terms here 😛
With FM, you can legally get about 200-500ft range. You MAY be able to get more with more sensetive recievers. The problem here is that the FCC say you can only have so much power X number of feet from the antenna.
With AM - you can get miles of coverage. This is because the FCC dont say "So much power this far from the antenna" they say instead: You can put one tenth of a watt into your antenna. The antenna has to be just shy of 10 feet long, and the wire from the transmitter to the antenna counts as antenna length - so you had better mount your transmitter to the base of your antenna."
There are people here who will build you a kit, and others who will build a air coil antenna for you. Pretty much, a plug and play system for less than the pre-made, FCC approved units. However, if you want tech support, an FCC approved unit, and a pretty friendly guy to deal with - I'd recommend going directly to Keith Hamilton and buying one of his units. If you refresh this page a few times, you'll see his ad banner up top "Rangemaster" - they are around a grand for the super de duper outdoor unit, but for a full on commercial community station that does not have an engineer nearby, it's a good deal.
My 2 copper.
Wow, AM now seems the definate way to go. The Rangemaster looks like it's going to be one spiffy transmitter. AM is also going to be an easier choice for frequency, because we don't have many AM stations down here.
If you dont wanna experiment, and you wanna just "go on the air", and you have the cash.. I highly recommend the rangemaster. But i would also recommend you buy it directly from Mr Hamilton. Ebay, FS/Wanted ads, etc are not a good idea if you are buying it for the reason I would : Support, Plug-and-play, no hassle.
NOW - I would also check out hte hamilton forums (but dont forsake us once you get there 😛 ) - and see the mods people do to increase range. Aparently, if you use copper pipe rather than the Steel Whip from Rat Shack, you can get your signal to penetrate better for in-home listening.
I don't know how true that is - I'm curious about it - so if you do it, come back here and let us know.
I could never forget you guys 😛 If it weren't for this website I'd probably be at radioshak buying those stupid transmitters for an IPOD, thinking I was the shiznit for being able to broadcast even that.
Heh.
Say I go with the Rangemaster on AM, how big of an antenna should I go for? I mean... what would be the legal size/shape/whatever for my plans?
The rangemast has a connector to screw the Radio Shack 102" Whip Antenna into. So basically, you'll hook up your cd players/computer/whatever to your mixer (or straight from computer..), then run power and audio up to the rangemaster, rangemaster has the antenna right there on it, so you are good to go.
In all seriousness, it can take anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours to get your Rangemaster tuned right (and tuning is VERY easy).
I was looking for something that could show you about the RM1000:
http://www.toddjenkins.com/radio17/
I was looking for something that could show you about the RM1000:
http://www.toddjenkins.com/radio17//blockquote >
Incredibly informative 😀
I pondered hard on the Rangemaster.. Just too much money at this time and I never messed with AM before. I've been looking at different units for a couple of years and decided on the SSTran..
I had the kit togather, Checking every resistor before I installed it, in 4 hrs. Very nice kit and easy to follow instructions. I woosed out (LOL) and had them install the IC but after I seen it, I coulda done it but would suggest to a new kit builder to let them do it. It's worth the $3..
I'm now at the point of the antenna. I built a coil like the one suggested in the diagram on their site (SSTran) for building an outside antenna. I loaded it first to a 102" whip, trying to get the Rangemaster idea with a box with a whip. It worked ok but I had a problem with bandwidth. It restricted the audio somewhat but could have been me doing something wrong..lol My audio source was near the base of the antenna and coulda been an R.F. issue. Like I say, I'm experimeting..
I then loaded the unit to 6' of 6" vent pipe. I got my audio back and some range too..lol I can see where the copper pipe added to the Rangemaster would help. I have some ideas and calculations for an EH antenna and I'll be playing with this to see what happens. I may be chasing my tail but.. It's all good!