Scosche in Second Life
Posted on June 30, 2009
What I mean is, that this is a continuation of rock95seven’s “Scosche FMT-4 Review” blog, which is well worth browsing through so that what I say now makes more sense.
What I mean is, that this is a continuation of rock95seven’s “Scosche FMT-4 Review” blog, which is well worth browsing through so that what I say now makes more sense.
rock95seven’s discovery of a $10 CERTIFIED FM transmitter got me back into FM, which I left when I sold my Ramsey 25B. Now what about that. After building the 25B I tinkered with it for awhile, decided to concentrate on AM, and sold the 25B to a friend. Is that illegal? Never mind. That’s not why I’m calling.
Another outstanding feature I’ve noticed about the Scosche, is that the audio hasn’t overmodulated, even though I have no limiter attached. This suggests an in-built limiter, and it seems to be unnoticable. Tonight I’ll really overdrive it and see if I know what I’m talking about.
Scosche isn’t in my dictionary, but I would have sworn that it’s a vocabulary word. It would be used like this: “How much vodka do you want in your drink?” Answer, “Just a scosche.”
The amazing ranges achieved with various antenna lengths are reported in the other blog, but this addendum adds more to the story. When tested the Scosche was plugged to my indoor audio system, which adds a major layer of grounding. But today I tried a reverse setup.
I wanted to fine-tune the Ramsey AM 25 at 1550 KHz with its indoor antenna. So I took the C.Crane Plus radio back to the mulch pile about 100′ behind the house where the reception was very wobbly. I plugged the Scosche to the radio’s audio out and put the AM 1550 signal over to 107.1 MHz FM and went back indoors.
Reception of FM 107.1 was terrible even using a 1/4-wave antenna which had done a solid 400′ from inside the house. I raised the whip on the RCA Super receiver and added two more feet with clip-lead so that I could indeed diddle until the AM 1550 fringe signal was as buff as I could get it.
Conclusion? Probably that the grounding matters a lot for distance transmission on FM.
At the same time I scrolled through forums and blogs reading FM transmitter reviews and could now hypnotize a dinner companion until she nodded face-forward into her soup while I went on about FCC certification and how milliwatts count under the law.
As soon as I hang up I’m getting a C.Crane FM transmitter so there’ll be a point of reference in this madness.
