Just an FYI: in case you didn't know for an extra fee (Currently $150.00) decade will add a composite input to any of their FM transmitters (including the MS-100 Series) to allow the use of external professional Audio Processing / Stereo Generators, and / or RBDS.
this doesn't void FCC certification since the mod is factory done and not done on the RF circuits, only to the audio circuits.
so those of you like me with professional equipment can run it on a certified part 15 fFM Transmitter. and what better part 15 FM certified transmitter is there than a Decade?
Michel is good people to work with. i just sent my MS-100 (Ant) off to have him mod it for composite input for me.
I have two MS-100's in metal enclosures, and one in the older plastic case. Of the two metal cased ones, one has a hole for the RBDS I/O with a blanking plug in, and the other doesn't have the hole at all. The one without the RBDS hole has a lower serial number, so I'm guessing they added that option later.
Way to go. Let us know how it is when you get it back!
@rugster i have the FM850 with built in stereo generator and it has a composite input modification as well. I'm running the fm850 into a dummy load and the composite works great with my telos omnia 3 processor. i have no doubt the composite will be excellent as it is on fm850. i'm replacing the fm850 with the ms100 and will retire the fm850 to backup service.
The RDS jack on the MS100 does little except provide an input to inject those signals into the output. You still have to generate the RDS signal.
An easier way to do RDS with Part 15 is to use software to generate stereo and/or RDS/RDBS along with your output. There are several packages that purportedly do this; I found the only one to really work was one called JMPX, and even then, it was restrictive, with a fixed, static output. I modified it to allow the user to specify the currentsong.txt file, and can provide the executable to anyone who is interested.
RDS with Part 15 transmitters is very problematic. A number of them use Low Pass Filters, eliminating the higher frequencies required by RDS. This is probably to meet the Part 15 harmonic requirements, and these transmitters include the Whole House 3 and the BVE AXS-FMT (analog input). In fact, the only ones that did pass the signals were the various Decades, and the Retekess TR-508 (dubiously certified in the U.S., sold initially and erroneously as RSS210 certified in Canada, previously certified for RSS123 in Canada although no longer in the ISED REL).
RDS range is much less than the analog signal range, as it is a small percentage of the total output, and it doesn't take much to interrupt the digital feed. Even with BETS tuning, maybe a couple of hundred feet. You also require an audio output that uses 192Khz sampling (on a computer or whatever) to generate the signals (which are around 60Khz, I believe, I'm too lazy to look it up).
It works nicely on my SDR and would also work around the house (and in Canada, maybe the yard) if you have an RDS-enabled receiver. It's pretty useless in cars unless you're parked somewhere within range of the transmitter. However, it is cool to experiment with.
on both the range and composite points...
1) I have a telos omnia 3 processor with composite stereo out.
2) I have an Aztec fmb80 rds generator as well.
3) the ms100 is for in house listening. The rangemaster is for broadcasting to the rest of complex.