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Hi, I am new to Part 15 radio and would like to get started. It looks like AM is the best, where can I go online to buy the necessary equipment to get started?
Go to these sites..
https://www.chezradio.com/
http://am1000rangemaster.com/
http://www.talkinghouse.com/
Welcome to the hobby. Assume you are in the USA so yes AM is better.Is this everything that I would need? Could you please give me more information on the talking sign? Thank you,
at a minimum you would need a audio source (typically a computer) 12VDC regulated power supply, AM Audio processor and a 3m long antenna.
if you are going for minimum then am audio processor can run as a software program on computer.
Here’s some of the things that I’ve learned in doing legal, unlicensed, broadcasting over the course of 14+ years.
There are a great many self-proclaimed experts in this field. There are entire websites and Forums dedicated to ‘proving’ to the world that the practitioners contained therein know more than anyone else. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve worked in the computer industry for decades (in which there are a great many ‘experts’).
Ignore the opinions. Read as much as you can, gather all the facts that you can, and then come to your own conclusions as to how to proceed.
For there are no absolutes. AM, even in the U.S., is not always better than FM. It all depends on what your application is. Who is your target audience, where are they located, what kinds of radios do they have, what kind of programming will you provide, what kind of sound quality do you need, and what may be the most important question of all, what is your budget?
Here is what I suggest. Spend as little as possible and try out various options. For in this field, almost more than any other, you really have to try things out before you can start asking the really important questions that matter. Those could be as varied as ‘How do I get better sound quality?’ to ‘Where can I get programming?’ to ‘How do I get better range?’.
Right now, you don’t even know what questions to ask until you get some experience, and we don’t know how to answer because we don’t know what you’re trying to do.
And remember, the ‘experts’ aren’t always right.
Just as an example, the ‘experts’ will tell you that in the U.S., FM is suited best for around the house or yard broadcasting (i.e., to yourself, basically).
That is generally true, due to the limited field strength allowed to legal transmitters. Virtually any obstruction or minute interference will attenuate your signal. Add to that the fact that even good, portable FM receivers that most likely would be owned around the house are pretty deaf, with relatively poor sensitivity and selectivity.
However, let’s say that your application was to broadcast within a parking lot, and the signal was to be received by a car radio. Most car radios are extremely sensitive and reject interference from adjacent channels (almost as important) due to the nature of receiving mobile. You can also elevate your transmitter so that all car antennas have direct line of sight to the transmitter.
In that scenario, it would be entirely possible that your signal could be received 800-1000 feet away. And if you could place the transmitter dead center in that parking lot, you could potentially cover a parking lot 2000 feet in diameter. Quite a difference from yardcasting.
Admittedly that is an extreme case, but it’s pretty close to what I did on an island, where my target audience was the ferry lineup.
I’d advise getting an inexpensive Part 15 certified AM transmitter (Talking House, Talking Sign) and a Part 15 certified FM transmitter (Whole House, Broadcastvision). Try them out. See what’s possible. And then you can start to figure out what you really want to do.
I have a broadcast vision FM as well and would make you a nice package deal on them.
hey part 15 engineer I heard that the broadcast vision FM transmitter is really clean on the spectrum analyzer. Plus I hear it has extremely good range. How much do you want for that because I don’t trust my whole house 3.0. you could email me about that.
Voodoo hippie_radio@yahoo.com
I was reading I’m one of these forms I can’t remember which one but there was a gentleman that had a Scosche FMFreq in his house connected to a cigarette lighter adapter to AC.
The gentleman also posted it on a forum on Facebook that was ran by Michelle Bradley I’ve already seen it. So I posed the question would that still be legal since the transmitter was originally met to be in a car. The transmitter was certified because the gentleman posted a picture of the transmitter with the label on it and it had the FCC ID number on to it.
Now according to Michelle Bradley it was totally legal to do that and the gentleman was getting well over 300 feet in his house with that transmitter using the AC adapter as I described earlier.
Because of my situation I am thinking about trying it until I can get the am transmitter fixed because I would get a few people with that distance especially on car radios nearby.
The broadcast vision transmitter that was talked about as artisan said I have read plenty of range reports of 1000 ft plus on that particular transmitter but again it’s certified so I’ll run it at least you have the deniability because the back of the transmitter is labeled which is the first thing the FCC looks for because when I was visited that’s what they looked for a label on the transmitter with the FCC ID number. Depending on the agent that might get you off if that transmitter happens to be a little bit over but a car transmitter connected to a converter for the house to me is questionable and might not give you the same deniability. But then again at this point with a shortage of transmitters I’m willing to try something. I’ll be waiting a long time until this coronavirus is over with because now rumor has it in Virginia we can expect it to be until July.
<p>The car transmitter guy here…</p><p>The Scosche FMFreq has a couple of model numbers.</p><p>The current model on Scosche’s website, the FMTD10 has a 3.5mm input, so any 3.5mm male to male audio cable will work. I bought mine on eBay for about a third of or half the retail price, but there’s not many left.</p><p>The old model FMTD8R, which there are a few still on eBay, has a 2.5mm input, so you’d need a 2.5mm to 3.5mm male to male audio cable, which can also be found on eBay.</p><p>The FMTD10 is a little easier to work with, but the FMTD8R is pretty good too.</p><p>If you run out of luck getting a Scosche, Insignia has their Universal FM Transmitter (Best Buy and eBay should have it) and rivals the range of the Scosche transmitters.</p><p>Expect to pay between $10 to $40 for a good “car FM transmitter”.</p>
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