Home › Forums › General Discussion › SDR#, RTL-SDR, and Part 15 Radio
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- March 17, 2021 at 9:44 am #117047
Is anyone using SDR# and an RTL-SDR to improve their part 15 operation?
I have had a hard time finding a good FM channel for my C Crane FM2 transmitter. I am northeast of Baltimore MD so the FM dial is crowded here. I have used radio locator’s open channel finder. I have used FM fool to see where should be quiet on the dial at my site. I have sat in my vehicle and gone channel by channel to see what I can hear. I have used a good sangean FM radio with an outdoor antenna to see what I can hear channel by channel. I narrowed it down to a handful of possible channels but could not figure out the “best”.
I got an e-book The Hobbyists Guide to the RTL-SDR and an RTL-SDR Blog R820T2 Dongle. I hooked it up to a vertical omnidirectional antenna I have above my roof and started looking at the FM band. A station with HD radio takes up a ton of spectral real estate. Where I can see the HD sidebands for some of the DC stations in addition to the Baltimore stations. The HD stations near me have obviously maximized their HD coverage, I can see some are using asymmetric digital sidebands. Translators have been shoehorned in anywhere they can. There are a few spots on the dial by me where there is no room. For example, HD on 105.7, translator on 106.1, HD on 106.5, translator on 106.9.
Instead of finding a best spot for my part 15 transmitter I have ended up seeing how full of garbage the FM Band is.
March 21, 2021 at 9:17 pm #117154FM has become useless for hobby Broadcasting south of Gloucester, VA too. I’m seeing less space on FM. AM is your best choice.
March 22, 2021 at 3:48 pm #117159FM has become useless here in Toronto also as not only the Toronto stations but from all the areas around. Buffalo, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Oshawa, Barrie, Richmond Hill, Kitchener/Waterloo, Rochester NY etc. No place where there’s blank space with clear adjacent spots each side. Going one frequency at a time in the car there’s something on almost every frequency.
Last spring, a year ago switched to AM. - AuthorPosts
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