This has been brought up before in another part 15 forum or thread but I'm thinking of doing it.
There are dry docked boats on the lakes and bays around Deltaville,VA. Water should vastly improve Range so I'm looking at putting a second C-Quam AM Stereo transmitter out on the water at Stingray Point Marina and using a tablet as a STL and the ground load going into the water connected to a ground rod.
Any experience?
Hi. If you're going to use water to enhance your signal make sure you use sea water only. Lake water will have little or no effect as it's not as conductive unless you're in the Great Salt Lake.
I'm not sure if a bay is salt water or not? I'm not sure if you can get to the ocean from Deltaville, VA. This is something I'll have to research because yes I'm looking for some serious enhanced range. Just have to rethink how I'm gonna play this game ha ha.
A bay is salt water as long as it's connected to the ocean, even with a river flowing into it.
All you have to do to confirm is taste a mouthful....is it salty?
Where you are on the map, yes it's salt water.
Funny how you mentioned that Mark I was thinking the same thing stick my hand in the water get me a little bit of it and taste it and find out. An easy way to find that out right?
Also it's not unusual to find boats with a copper plate mounted to the hull for grounding of RF.
Sippy River
Just before getting cramps and diarrhea TheLegacy said: "...stick my hand in the water get me a little bit of it and taste it and find out."
Must be cholera.
I don't think this would be helpful to you. Most of your power would just beam into the Chesapeake Bay.
You might skim a tiny bit of the Northern Neck, but the majority of your signal would just keep the oysters warm.
Boat Rentals
TheLegacy could run an Album Rock Radio Boat Rental Service to put listeners out in the water.
Oh that would be funny!!
But the bay does go a 1/2 mile behind my house too and there is another marina that bay also is right next to the Galley sea food restaurant whereas people do have a Radio out there at times and some really do listen to Album Rock as I was in front doing a signal test and many folks were really interested in my signal getting better. I was hoping folks in the boats would hear my station as they sail off and that the station would cover 2 miles out. I know once the signal hits land it would decrease a bit.
I may just buy a brand new cheap Talking House just to experiment before trying another expensive ASMAX2 because a Talking House is a dime a dozen but I'd use a Red Horse antenna on it. That coil antenna he has does fly and I talked to him about how easy it is to make the antenna. It even tunes on the Wire Side so I would not have to retune the antenna. If it worked well I'd have the transmitter modified for C-Quam to meet Album Rock standard and promote AM Stereo Radio's still sold on kakaku.com and Ebay and the "Don't get caught with AM RAdio that sounds like your talking through your nose promo will air. I'd be the first C-Quam AM Stereo station that broadcasts from the boating capital of the Chesapeake. Later I'd get donations and buy my own boat whereas I could be sure the station would always be there.
Another idea is put the station on the shore at the dock and run the ground right into the water which may do the same thing as having the transmitter on a boat. I could then either use an ASMAX2 from the marina, bury the coax and run it to the ATU. Same thing as the Talking Hous ATU. Something to think about.
Two Responses
The pics of WSUN towers are very beautiful and makes me want a water tower.
And all this talk of radio boats remind me of Radio Caroline, the famous radio ship named for Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy.
TheLegacy could launch Radio Ivanka.
I replied to your post of the same in the other forum already. But to sum it up, I found that it does provide more range - but not particularly for the dry land areas inland, but mostly specifically for the shore vicinity locations and/or the boats out on the water. It is ideal if that is your intended target area for signal coverage.
Something that just kind of occurred to me.. A legal 3 meter install on a boat actually puts the transmitter below the average terrain of ground level!