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I need Advise, My pastor had an idea, that we could have Church in the parking lot, people arrive, turn on their radio, and listen to the sermon, and leave.
Never leaving their Cars.
But research on what is illegal and legal, not much legal. and my power is only line of sight.
Any Advise and possible transmitters that would be legal?
Just Asking.
Thanks.
Depends how large the parking lot is. Car radios are very sensitive and if the parking lot is not too large a part 15 legal transmitter should be able to do it. Possible transmitters that are legal….FM….Wholehouse 3, Broadcastvision, would be the two that would have the most coverage and certified legal. AM, without spending a lot a Talkinghouse may work.
Maybe others may have more help.
With all due respect, your question was really answered in the last active Forum thread, ‘How to get started?’
What you want to do is certainly possible, but Part 15 broadcasting is not plug and play except in the most simple of cases (i.e., listening to your music collection around the house). It’s going to require experimentation to get the most range and the best sound, particularly if you decide to use FM. AM, which has the most potential range, has its own set of problems, including being more prone to interference.
One thing that can be said – if you want to be legal and minimize potential negative interaction with the FCC, use a ready made Part 15-certified transmitter. Certified transmitters come with labels indicating such affixed to them, and those labels always have an FCC ID number. Many transmitters claim that they are FCC compliant, but that statement always should be taken with a healthy grain of salt. It is actually illegal to sell or even import non certified ready made transmitters, although it’s not illegal to use them if they truly are compliant (that actually makes little sense but then it’s the government we’re talking about).
There’s no way that anyone can give you any further advice (except in the most general sense) until they know a lot more about your particular application.
the broadcast vision and decade both can have a range of 1000 ft radius. the decade retails for $600-$700 and the broadcast vision for about $300, I also have a new revision broadcast vision for $160.00 shipped conus if you are interested. these two transmitters are FM spectrally clean, FCC certified, and if you get them up high on a clean frequency and centrally locate them in your lot, should cover an average church parking lot. then we have part 15 AM which has more range possibilities but lower fidelity. a decent part 15 am transmitter is about $700-$1000 depending on features and options and brand you get. the three available popular AM transmitters are the chez procaster and hamilton rangemaster as well as the enhanced iAM and it’s ATU. these three are all FCC certified as well.
<p>Ranges in Part 15 broadcasting, for both AM and FM, are highly dependent on a large number of factors, such as the type and quality of installation, geographical location, potential nearby interference, even weather etc.</p><p>Arbitrarily throwing out ranges doesn’t mean much without knowing a lot more about this, or any, potential application.</p><p>I suggest that we let the original poster come back with more details before possibly leading them down the garden path with suggestions that might not work for him/her.</p>
well AR i was getting 1000 ft range with it outdoors in a weather proof enclosure 10ft off ground in very congested denver metro area, lots of interference from electronics other stations, 3 story wood and stucco apartment buildings all clustered together paved parking lot and i was still getting that range. i’m fairly confident that he would get that range if it was up higher than i had it.
<p>Oh, I’m not doubting your experiences.</p><p>My point is that there are lots of potential solutions to problems for which we know nothing about.</p><p>I can think of multiple solutions to the initial poster that don’t even involve the AM or FM broadcast band, including 900 Mhz (Broadcastvision manufactures certified transmitters), wireless microphones (this appears at first glance to be a perfect application for whitespace devices), even bluetooth headphones.</p><p>But we don’t know enough particulars to make any sort of recommendation.</p><p>Periodically, posters come through here with initial questions such as this (there have been 2 separate ones recently) and we never hear from them again when asked for more information. I’m never sure what that means, and maybe they get what they want from some initial answers. But the way I figure it, if they don’t care enough to provide sufficient information so that an informed opinion can be given, I’ll keep those opinions to myself.</p><p>Although why they would take the time to register, which you have to do before posting, and then not help their own cause, is beyond me.</p>
I spoke to Bill Baker of ISS about the iAM transmitter and range extender 2.5. I asked him because I was concerned about the posting about a 2500 foot range because I have talked to folks who had the older ATU which claimed they were getting one and a half to two miles easily with decent am radios where you didn’t have all sorts of electrical interference.
Now this comes from Bill’s mouth exactly he said that they were rated conservatively another words underrated he has gotten plenty of reports of a 1.5 to 2 mile radius on this of portable radios whereas the transmitter is mounted weather is little obstructions or none at all. He suggest putting it up high if you can do so.
Now I’m also going to tell you something else I asked I specifically asked about the ASMAX2 AM stereo transmitter because it was a 50 ohm transmitter I asked him if it would work with that unit he says yes it will work providing you get the adapter to go from the BNC connector 2 f connector. I explained to him that my engineer cannot fix my AM stereo transmitter until the virus situation is over with and that I would be using the transmitter he is selling with the range extender until I can get my stereo transmitter fixed.
Something else he said which maybe to the contrary of what a lot of people believe. He said he has played around with these units and found out that grounding the antenna system actually decreases range. He told me don’t worry about drowning it that I would do better without grounding it. I thought that was pretty interesting to find out because as most people would suggest if you don’t ground it you will never get ranch but apparently with this particular antenna tuner with that transmitter for some reason it doesn’t like to be grounded even though it has the terminals to allow you to ground it. It might have something to do with the way the antenna tuning unit reacts to being grounded.
You can buy the whole system when they get more of them for $495. That’s actually not a bad price with shipping and a full warranty on the tuning unit and transmitter. I would go with that first because I am sure it’s a lot easier for a pastor to be able to tune it from the antenna tuning unit. Worst case scenario he can put the unit inside the church steeple next to the window like the other dude did with the rangemaster and watch that thing fly because that’s in a high place. But if the church doesn’t mind actually putting it on the roof you would really have a good audience.
You could use a Bluetooth transmitter and receiver system to get the audio to the transmitter. Just plug it in to the record monitor out on the church’s mixing board. You might have to use a 3.5 mm to RCA adapter so that you can plug it into the mixing board of the church.
A couple of points.
The Talking House ATU is ONLY certified with the Talking House transmitter as a package. Using it with another transmitter, even a certified one, means that it is no longer certified. That *could* be a problem with the FCC.
If you did decide to use that ATU with another transmitter, the transmitter would have to be able to accept 50 ohm input. Many transmitters with built-in tuners expect something much different, and would likely not be able to tune.
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