Interesting comments re the Decade MS-100. I operated (and still do occasionally) a Decade MS-100 in a weatherproof box and had no issues with Industry Canada. I even told them what I was going to do (and they basically told me to go away - they would only look at what I was doing if there were complaints). Perhaps in my case no one complained (and I was getting that 1 km range which is about the maximum you can get if you are running a legal field strength).
As for your ProCaster issue, it's important to remember that everyone's mileage varies (literally). If getting your transmitter up high without a ground maximizes your range, then there are grounding issues when it's down low. I've found with my testing that the type of soil is perhaps the most important, unless you can lay sheets of metal below your antenna. When I was on Bowen Island (pretty much several rocks sticking out of the ocean), range was 1/4 to 1/2 mile maximum, depending on the transmitter (the Rangemaster coupled with an Inovonics 222 achieved the best, the AMT3000, the Procaster, Talking House etc all achieved less) - the transmitters were mounted high on a mast. But where I am now in Pitt Meadows (in the Fraser valley with moist, rich, organic soil) the range for that same Rangemaster, mounted near the ground ws well over a mile, more in some directions. And I didn't even use radials - I just grounded the transmitter to a metal pipe that was pounded about 4 feet into that soil.
Also, please note that I use a listenable signal as a benchmark, but that is highly subjective. I have little patience if I can't clearly hear what I'm listening to but to someone else, they might accept far less. So it's difficult to compare apples to apples, so to speak.
Perhaps instead of radials you could try mesh (such as chicken wire) under your antenna? Not something that you'd want to leave above ground, but if it works, you could bury it. Or some sheet metal, at least for testing. Alternatively, temporarily, if you could find something that has a metal roof - you don't even have to physically ground the transmitter with something like that, but just mount it an inch or two above it and let capacitive effects do their magic.
Yea must be ground issues, Strange that even going all at it like I did still is not that great considering what it is.. Can audio proccessing really make things that much better range wise? Right now I just use old MBL4 software cause it runs on low end laptops just fine and I get a good cleer sound.
I have an inovonics 230.(kinad huge) Would running a real thing be better then software emulation?
I'm gonna make a movie showing the setup tower tree ground rods etc.. and I'm going to go for a drive and film it and show range markers on the screen as we drive alone listening to it.
Like one said here maybe range is subject to wide range opinions. You will see for yourself. Then tel me if the setup is optimal or not 😛
It hasn't been mentioned because it may be obvious to part 15 broadcasters, but is the antenna portion of your setup insulated from ground?
For example, while mounted on the tower, it cannot be shorted to the metal tower, or the antenna would be shorted to ground.
On the earth mount your metal pipe or wire, the vertical antenna, must be electrically isolated from contacting the ground.
Come to think of it I think the Procaster has a built-on antenna, so I guess I'm not helping.
"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."
Plenty of ground radials and rods, nothing wrong there, the problem is where they are located near that tree and not in a clearing. Being over a clay belt is also the reasons for the unusual field patterns and range, all the more reason to set up a very good grounding system in a clearing with the TX mounted at the center of that ground system.
As far as the fading in and out under power lines etc, that is gonna happen no matter what. A 100mW signal simply cannot overtake the high level EM field coming off those power lines and combined with sensitive radios adds to the noise.
At night when skywave kicks in that noise level will vary with the seasons, sometimes worse, sometimes not. That's just the nature of the MW band.
Good luck with everything and keep us all informed on your station's progress! Great to see another low power station get started and going!
RFB
I made a movie but for some reason youtube deletes the audio track cause of copy right. Still dazzled that an automated system picked up on a song with all the car background rumbles... what is this world coming to..... Any one know of any other site I can upload the movie to?
If only the RF power really was 100mw then it would work real good!! We are lucky to get over 2% efficiency if your lucky with the help of the best ground system because of the antenna lenth limitation. Even with a high Q antenna. Having a tuned system is a good idea for the transmitter to play nice and for the antenna system to function. But at this lenth a tuned circuit almost acts like a leaky dummy load more then an antenna. My erp is estimated at about 1 mw with this setup. But is is still amazing to see what 1mw AM can do vs FM.
I would not mind driving 100mw AM into a more proper longer antenna, if I had the resources for a quick test to see what it would do 🙂
The Your Tube uses a Stazi-style short-cut right out of East Germany. which came to us when they took down The Wall...
For quick action the Tube detects music and assumes it is stolen, then gives it the chop.
The fact that some people have rights, permissions, public domains, Fair Use, etc., is not part of The Homeland (formerly the U.S.).
You may be in Canada, but I think Silly Tube uses the New World Orderly approach of "all alike."
Not to get off topic but since you mentioned it...
What was the music in your movie that YouTube found to be a problem?
Plenty of cover bands upload videos doing popular tunes without trouble.
Well hahaha If youtube bots listen to known music and bleeps the audio then I guess my AM station is working out ok if it can make that out from the built in low quality mic mixed in the the car noises rumbles etc.... 🙂
not so new Country music like lonestar - amazed and such..... Was what was played in the movie that drove youtube nuts.
My remark about Their Tube may have been premature, because it is uncertain why the audio was erased without polite notice.
I have decided to redact the remark. That means a black line is drawn through the words, making them unreadable.
If you learn why your sound was redacted please let us know.
I got the movie working with facebook. Here is the link.
Please let me know what you think of this range and the noise I talk about under a few power lines in town.
Should I be getting better then this?
Dear cjflfm:
I rode along in your well done video and am super impressed by the range you are getting. It is the best (part 15) range I have ever witnessed from one of the 1/10th Watt transmitters. It seems to me like you are getting a wonderfully good coverage from your setup.
If there is a way of doing better than you are already doing, we all want to know what that would be.
Excellent work.
Well thanks.. I guess this is working good then and I was just complaining for nothing 😛
But yea like I said before. The Procaster setup was not a big deal. Tuning is quick. Hitting the mass for the ground rods I think was the hardest work 🙂