Products or projects we’d like to see

[Rattan]

Noting one of the ways the topic has headed over in the thread on “Legality of Kits”, I got to thinking it might be interesting to get a thread going for what kinds of products, kits, or construction projects folks here would like to see. That way if somebody knows of a place that puts out such things or a project on a website that could be adapted they could let folks know, or perhaps one of the talented members here that put out kits and/or products might see where there is a need. I’ll list a few to get it rolling. Since much of the talk here tends to transmitters and antennas already, I’ll list some items that would be nice to see or see more often.. ********** “Brickwall” audio limiter – basically a limiter used to make sure the audio signal to your xmitter isn’t too high, which can cause distortion and overmodulation. Not as much of a concern, maybe, with units like the Rangemaster or Sstran. From what I hear they have very good audio sections. But for people running anything else or homebrew, it’d be a great project or item. Console – yeah, you can use a nice little Behringer or whatever, and they aren’t expensive (and I do use one).. But I mean more of a retro looking “old school” console with the big knobs and the meter and phone jack in the center and some switches for bringing in phone patches and etc. The sort of things they used in maybe the 40’s through the 70s. Maybe as a deluxe option there could be a model that was tube/valve preamps, or a tube/valve preamp right before the output to “sweeten” it a bit for those of us with the near-mystical belief that tubes just sound better. On the air light – A hundred ways to make such a thing, but what I was thinking would rock would be if it actually was activated by receiving the carrier from the transmitter. Maybe a tuned tank like one would make for a simple crystal or one-transistor radio that would output into a transistor switch with a threshold setting, so you could tune it to your frequency when you’re on the air, set the threshold so it just triggers the lights for the “On the Air” display whether they use LEDs or maybe even go with an SCR and 100v ac bulbs, and then it’d always come on when your xmitter is powered up and working right. That way if it flickered or went out while you were running your station, you’d know something had just happened to your signal and it was time to shut down and do a quick check of your system. ************** Basically good prices on such things or construction projects for homebrewing something that looks and works good. All of them at least *were* on my want list, but I built a “brickwall” from junkbox parts and the amplifiers scrounged out of a cheap old casette generic “walkman”, some junkbox parts, an old steel house wiring outlet box and some connectors off an old stereo. I already have a better one planned for when I get the gumption up to cobble it together. The console is an ongoing “side-project” where I’m looking at pics of a lot of vintage consoles and collecting up parts to make a nice looking case and figuring out the best way of going about building it. The carrier activated “On the Air” light is still in the “thinking” phase since I’m currently running FM but plan on phasing it out when I get an AM xmitter and antenna up and running, so it seems nonsensical to build it and then just build it again later since the circuitry for detecting the carrier would be very different for part15 FM and AM. But I figured those might do to get folks thinking about what sort of things they want for their stations. Maybe it’ll get some gears turning in people’s heads or somebody may have already figured out practical ways of doing a lot of what we can come up with. Daniel

[kyradio]

I always thought cart machines and carts would seem to make a radio studio seem like a real radio studio, add a console, real broadcast mikes, some turntables, a reel to reel or two, and of course a see through sound proof glass and thats the “real” deal.

Of course one needs a transmitter room too, where a tall rack mounted “transmitter” with all the lights meters bells and whistles for effect would be located in the next room viewable through the soundproof glass.

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