It Lives!!! HAHAHAAA!
I cant believe i had two chips reversed on my amt3000.
I have placed the chips in their rightful places and the transmitter works.
It Lives!!! HAHAHAAA!
I cant believe i had two chips reversed on my amt3000.
I have placed the chips in their rightful places and the transmitter works.
The signal could be stronger, i am getting a hetrodyne or whine mixed in the signal and the signal isnt very strong.
Then again i am listening to it from inside a mobile home. Could not hear it outside with the wire antenna hanging on the wall and the ground not connected.
My mobile home is roughly 70 feet long and the signal was weaker on the opposite side of the house.
So it sounds like i may have caused some damage to the unit somehow maybe there is a transistor in the wrong place. I have the capacitors in place for use with the provided wire antennna and cannot tune it for anything above 1000 khz as you may know.
What should i look for now? Again, i do not have meter to check for voltages or other trouble so it makes this tough.
Electronics are surprisingly tough, but…
Putting things in backwards (I’ve done that!) can leave a mark.
On the positive side, parts are cheap, so you might consider ordering replacements from your favorite supplier and repopulating the circuit board.
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
AMT 3000 adventure
Congrats on finding your problem. The chips you reversed, I assume, are the two which are used in the synthesizer circuit and the fact that you get a signal at all would lead me to believe that they are not damaged, though anything is possible. It wouldn’t hurt to follow the advice given previously to replace them.
The only reason I can think of that you are getting heterodyne interference is that your frequency is shared with a broadcast station yet I cannot rule out that the chips are damaged. Try a different frequency.
If you have a digital multimeter it will be worth your while to check the terminal voltages at Q1 thru Q5 and compare the readings with those printed on the schematic. Also carefully check that these transistors are not installed backwards. Surprisingly, a transistor will still “transist” if the emitter and collector leads are reversed but the performance will suffer since the gain is reduced. Unfortunately a DC voltage check may not catch this error so a visual check is needed.
Neil
My kit building days i fear are over…
A medical condition has caused some tremors in my hands and my eyes arent as good as they used to be. And im only 41!
I really feel it would be a good idea to send the kit to sstran for repairs and invest in a good meter as well.
After alot of careful tuning and listening on the am band here in London, 1630 khz would not pan out for us.
The station i used to work for was a am/fm combo has moved their a.m. station to 1600 khz and located it in Corbin,Ky. Their signal is strong both daytime and nightime. It looks as though 1520 might be a good choice wich was their old frequency when i worked for them.
Now when they were in Stanford,Ky WRSL-am was designated as a daytime only station to reduce interference to another station on 1520.
Since they moved to 1600 khz they were granted daytime and night time broadcast privelages with reduced power at night.
I really dont mind if my station doesnt broadcast at night, it would give my equipment a rest and i could sleep better not having to hear the hum of the fans while im trying to sleep. lol
So I think am 1520 would be our choice for Free Radio London and it would go off the air at about 7:30 eastern.
I want to congratulate WRSL and the staff for bringing back local radio to the community of Crab Orchard and Stanford Ky.
Your presence was missed in the community.
From what i have read so far , they are once again a am/fm combo and are in partnership with the bank in town.
And what i have heard they sound as good as they did when i worked there in 1996.
Anyways back to my station, I will send the transmitter back for repairs and the fm will remain broadcasting on 95.7 fm for the time being. I would like to find a quieter frequency to transmit on for the fm. The interference on 95.5 and 95.7 makes listening to my around the trailor park unbearable. I have let managment know that i have the station on the air and have given me the green light to install the am antenna on our deck. So thats a plus.
After we get the antenna installed, ill post some pictures here.
So that’s where we stand as far as FRL is concerned.
Until next time, keep on rockin’
Free Radio London