I run my Procaster at 1610 AM. Daytime the signal is probably a bit better. But nighttime the weak RF from the Procaster can't compete outside of the building if the radio has a lot of noise or competing faraway signals drifting in & out. One night there was so much noise out in the wild once you drive the Ford Ranger out from the underground garage that I almost lost the signal out of "the cage" of the apartment building. Then, another night the signal maybe strong 100 feet, but with so much nighttime conditions hampering the Procaster....after dark I can barely hear anything from my little station
125 feet away because the transmitter just can't handle the competition of
the nighttime atmosphere. I will keep experimenting, but there is no doubt about it that during the day it is highly possible to still hear music faintly playing on the frequency a half-mile away but at night with the conditions different I can't hear much after a quarter mile.
Because your situation would be experimental, you can save dollars and gain a very strong advantage by trying an AMT5000 from sstran.com, which is a kit, and has high-efficiency output characteristics that are remarkable.
I have mine connected to a metal window frame with added wiring outdoors at the top of the window to equal 10-feet, a very "1-way ground wire simply buried north to south below ground, but the signal outdoes anything I've ever tried.
This summer I'll be construction the ultimate antenna, a 3-meter vertical on clear ground with ground radials all around.
I have made a very accurate map that shows the range im getting.
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/6aioc
Red 100% Yellow 80% Blue under 50%
Some noise Starts in the yellow if under a power transformer but not over welming until it gets into the blue zone.
Estimated ERP based on this map is 0.5 mw.
It almost coveres the whole town. Its not very big. The red zone extends at about 1km. As you can see its not a big town. I took a drive out of town and can hear it seek it with noise but still more there... At about 4.5 km away in all directions. The noise zones I keep complaining about seem to differ from radio to radio some cars get a total whipe out of the station under any AC wires while others don't seem to get effected... I guess this is just how AM is....
Seems to work at lease...
Thanks again for the help.
If you were able to place a second transmitter at about 9th Avenue and 8th Street, using an internet connection to send the audio to that point, you would just about cover the whole town.
You could use two nearby frequencies to avoid the two transmitters interfering with each other, or look into synchronizing the two transmitters on your single frequency with Rangemaster 1000s, one beautiful advantage of that model.
I thought of that, As where you say is the downtown core and it drops out at some places but its in full more then its out so its still ok but could get anoying like I mentioned before the amount of static received under power lines and transformes varry outside of the red zone. I tried a friends car and the power lines did nothing to the sigal it stayed on with no drop outs with one full drive around the town.
I would try other units. But here in Canada our rules are much tighter in some ways. Our power limits are the same but we are limited in what equipment we can use without a license. A product must pass a series of tests to get a licensed exempt TAC number. With that IC number posted on the product. Any Canadian can use it and do what they want with it as long as you don't modify the unit of course. We can not make a kit that has the same power level and run it legaly in Canada. It might not make any sence but on the good side, if there are any complaints and Industry Canada looks into it my default of a complaint, Just having a friendly conversation advising them that the unit is exempt and has a TAC they don't bother and leave you alone. There are no kown cases of inspections of grounding systems etc like in the US. So in some ways we are more free to experiment with grounding systems then in the US. But as far as I know it is only the procaster that has a TAC issued and can be used in Canada as a license exempt transmitter regardless if used for broadcasting applications (CRTC)
Perhaps with the more relaxed field strength limits in Canada, going FM may be the better choice, especially up on that 30 foot tall mast. Decade MS 100
RFB
Did that, It's not that good and when you do end up making it work about 1km IC is all over you for some reason....I had it up at 100 feet and it covered 6 KM fine on FM. But like I said ran into all kinds of problems with IC.
They consider taking the ms-100 in a weather proof outdoor inclosure and mounting it up on a tower is a mod voiding the TAC and RSS exempt use of it and sais that if its used for broadcasting it can't be used cause of CRTC rules.. Seems to be much more of a fine line on FM for some reason.
Interesting. Your the first case I have ever heard of in Canada where something like an approved transmitter hoisted up on a pole in a wx proof box is considered a "modification" and would be such a "modification" that it voids the authorization for license free operation.
Hoisting it up on a pole, or table, or porch, or roof, all the same thing with the exception of height. Strange!
Well in that case..let's focus on the MW band.
I do recommend building a ground radial system in the middle of your yard and placing the Procaster there in the center. You can simply lay the ground radial wires on the surface, or use a screwdriver and cut a notch in the dirt and lay the wire in the notch. Then anchor at the ends with ground rods. If the MW rules are similar as ours here in the US..you will want to keep that ground return path to the TX short or they may gripe and moan about that.
Also what helps is keeping the dirt at the ground system moist. A wet ground conducts better and improves the performance. Try to go for at least 8 radial wires and as long as possible..20 feet each if that's doable. 4 foot ground rods at each end will work if the longer ones will be a problem.
If the rules up there don't care about "ground lead", then heck mount that Procaster up on the 30 foot mast in the middle of the yard using nylon rope for guy wires and the mast as the ground return path connection, all in the center of that ground radial system.
What frequency do you operate on?
RFB
I operate on 1700 khz, its the most cleer. Just went for a drive around town and the night time does not seem to effect my range.
The Procaster is comparable to a TH V5 or iAM unit an it's wire antenna and internal ATU and power output. It does seem a little odd about the overall range with the various tests done so far even under both with and without grounding.
And at 1700 the range results are on the low side for a 3m stick unit like the Procaster.
Perhaps check the TX for voltages etc. Could be a problem in there somewhere, maybe a connection problem or defect.
RFB
seems fine. The built in tuning meter powers up very well. I can tune a good peek like the user guide describes. The range is not great but its working at lease. I done every possible test I could with what I got to work with for now. I just hope to not build a better radial system in the middle of the backyard all that work to just make things worst or the same. Cause I am within the lower end of range people report... But yes I would expect much better with this ground system and its strange that disconnecting the ground makes a difference to the range but its not that drastic like you would expect.... and on the ground in the middle of the yard with no ground it got about 500 feet.
I would not doubt the internal meter and it's reaction to the tuning process if it appears to be following what the guideline outlines in the manual.
You may also want to consider operating on a different frequency if possible. In some cases, and in some locations, a lower frequency of even a few channels helps with range.
The nature of the MW band and location and surrounding environment at each location makes even the 3 meter method difficult at times to obtain peak performance. But in every case of range problems, a good ground system always proved to be worth the effort.
Welcome to the wonderful world of finding what works! 😀
RFB
Some locations in hemisphere have high quality earth ground with good conductivity and some locations have poor conditions.
I recall one of our members in Texas said his earth quality was especially poor, just about the quality of sand, which I don't think is very good.
Find out what you can about the quality of the dirt for grounding the antenna system.
I also concur with others, get it away from the trees.
1) Height isn't always going to help your signal. It only helps if you have to get over rough terrain, or buildings, especially concrete buildings because of rebar reinforcement rods embedded in the concrete, or metal frame buildings. In my case, I had to get it over an embankment above the marina ... just raising it 5 ft. made all the difference.
2) Ground conductivity is most critical with AM radio. During the day, AM radio propagates in ground wave. What is the soil conductivity in your particular area? If it is low, you may have to go deeper with your ground rods, add more radials at the base (need to radiate outwards with the antenna in the center), etc. Remember to check county maps or whatever phone number you have to check underground cables, gas pipes, etc.; you don't want to stab through one of those.
3) Get it far away from power transformers, florescent lamps, neon signs, anything that generates RF which will compete with your signal. Also, remember your body conducts, so you have to keep re-tuning with your body at least 4-5 feet away from the antenna. If you have to, use a pair of short range binoculars to see what happens to the meter when you move away.
-- if you still want it far up, be prepared to climb up and down a lot to get the meter to the highest reading when you are not in close proximity. Also, and I don't know what the Procaster manual says, but normally you take readings with unmodulated signal, IOW, don't play audio. You can play with compression and other audio dynamics later to get higher rates of modulation, if necessary.
4) Being as how it seems your unit is not properly grounded, getting a good ground for the unit will change the tuning. Once you have as good a ground conductivity setup as you can get, you must retune the system. Actually, you'll need to re-tune every time you make any change to the system.
Getting an accurate match to peak resonance isn't always easy. With my plain-jane coil monopole, it took three days of work, but I have a different type of setup. Also, just to show you the difference, my transmitter is grounded to the sea, i.e., saltwater is highly conductive. The best earth ground conductivity on my island is, at a guess, around 28 mHo in the richest soil areas, but the sea is 5000 mHo.
You have a lot to absorb and sink in to where things are logical. I have played with electronics with no serious intent (when it quits being fun, I tend to quit doing it), but for a long time ... something like 55 years. A number of the folks in this forum are engineers with professional backgrounds in radio, they know lots more than I, but I adapt to understanding easily, being able to visualize what's happening just because I've been around this kind of stuff so long.
I guess I'm saying ... be patient with yourself, it will come together. When you can see what's happening in your own mind from following advice and experimenting, you'll be able to take better informed steps, and somewhere along the line you will hit the right combination and Bata-Boom, your signal gets out.
Thanks.. I don't know, I think it might be woking as good as it can ....
I have a good ground system as far as I can tel. I don't see anything wrong with 50 feet plus of ground radials plus ground rods into the ground. We are over a clay belt earth wise.
The signal works but acts strange. Like I mentioned earlier it can be full blast and 200 feet away under a power line get drowed out completey and then back full blast again. Does reach strong all over town as long as your not under power lines lighte etc,, any electrical seems to drown it out, Even in a small town environment for some reason. But like I said some car radios don't seem to get effected by the power and the station is very cleer all over town, But that seems that its only a few cars I tried so far..
Beleive it or not guys.. What seems to work the best from everything I tried is the tower/tree setup
As far is the tuning, I notice with all my messing around that it does not change much. Most of the times when I go to re-tune it does not chance much. I end up turning the cap back to where it was for max reading. Tuning only takes a few mins. I even tried dead slow just to see if it would give of a sharp krazy peek but not so.