On Low power -48 dbm I was using my Sainsonic AX-05B only to transmit my Teamspeak conversation with Station 8 to the Radio as a better speaker than my Laptop. Just as the last meeting the Radio tripped and the audio was muted. I had to wait a few minutes for the Radio to reset and plug headphones into it and unplug the headphones. The speaker finally came on. Then I listened for several minutes to another station and all was well. OK so I fired back up my Transmitter and tuned down the modulation just to be sue it was not because of that. I was able to listen to the Radio until Station 8 keyed up the mic and CLICK the protection circuit was tripped again. Also as you tune from 1.7 Mhz all the way to 12 Mhz I could hear this transmitter transmitting harmonics all the way down the shortwave dial WHAT A NIGHTMARE!! This didn't happen as soon as I got the transmitter but as time went on the harmonics got worse on all Radio's in the house. You can best bet Monday I'll be calling SainSonic and demanding my money BACK. How many Radio's in my neighborhood did I destroy with this transmitter? Thank God I accidentally had this on Low Power all week and my signal unknowingly was not leaving my house as I was going to turn to Low Power and found I was already there. God was looking out for me so Thank you Jesus for doing that.

It seems as though after prolonged use of even the revised SainSonic AX-05B (4 months and 5 days) is when their cheap filters burn out. So it will behave until the filter fries and your left causing all sorts of pollution all over the spectrum. Though this transmitter looks and sounds great when you buy it, it does not stand any real world use. NOTE: I never dropped this transmitter or over modulated it. In fact I babied it and did not let friends borrow it. I would never run it while I was not close by in case it ever miss behaved like Today's circus escapade it pulled on me earlier. If I can't get it fixed or replaced I hate to say it but its going to be sent to a good friend who knows Electronics and rebuilt from the ground up and with 7 pole band pass filters all over it. When done there is NO WAY it will have a chance to miss behave ever again. I'm going back to 1630 AM and my almost $300 Talking House 5.0 Transmitter tested and certified to behave. You have all been warned. Pass this message to anyone you know. Even Your Facebook wall too because something needs to be done about SainSonic's miss practice in making a Transmitter they are unsafe for the environment and a threat to your wallet. Thanks for reading and I hope this is not considered an Agenda thread.

Major disappointment. Shipping and processing took too long. Not as advertised. Same crappy audio as older versions including the Illinois address. Scam or mistake? I paid the 249. Tried to contact Mr. Bill for his opinion but his email is suddenly secret. Sorry Neil but it is what it is. I have pictures. Contacting IAm tomorrow.

So I found one for sale for about $95 with shipping. Is this a good deal? It is the TH-5 NEW. Also is there mutch difference in the versions or no. 

Thanks :)

So im not sure if this is the best place to do this but im wondering how do you get your Part 15 station to get some traffic on it. I know with the FM band it might be eaiser but I am trying for the AM since I can get some nice range and be legal. 

Thanks :)

These notes accompany the Radio News segment posted below:

The digital age and the do-it-yourself movement often conflict, as hacking electronics are sometimes banned or made difficult. The ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, is asking the FCC to clear up if Amateur Radio licensees may modify non-amateur equipment for use on amateur radio frequencies. In March, 2014 the FCC updated requirements for U-NII devices using 5 Ghz bandwidth that includes many Wi-Fi devices and routers with regulatory language that might not allow altering the devices. In an Oct. 8 comment on a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in ET Docket 15-170 and RM-11673 the ARRL wrote, The Commission should clarify that the ability of licensed radio amateurs to modify and adapt non-amateur equipment for use in the Amateur Service is beneficial, is permitted, and is not restricted by any rule of general applicability adopted in this proceeding. The ARRL also asked the FCC not to apply any limitations proposed for Software Defined Radios, and addressed the problem of marijuana grow lights and AM and amateur radio interference. The FCC is overhauling the process where any device that might emit radio waves has to be approved to get that little FCC sticker. Electronic ballasts used in 1000W high pressure sodium or metal halide lamps have interfered with certain radio signals, with a few police officers using AM radios in their vehicle radios to locate illegal indoor marijuana growing operations by listening for interference. The ARRL said, the only opportunity to preclude widespread sale and deployment of non-compliant RF devices, including unintentional emitters, is via the equipment authorization process

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/83203

Good Morning All,

Well I got home to find the transmitter shipped as promised. Upon opening the package I found the transmitter along with a small microphone. Peeking through the air vents on the top I could clearly see that modifications had been made to the circuit card assembly as there were components that were "roached" on.

Deciding not to open it up I connected it to a TenTec power supply that I use for my amateur radio gear. I used an iPad as an audio source and compared to the unmodified V.5 the results were astounding.  Listening to a receiver close by with no antenna connected and at 6 kHz audio bandwidth, the playback was very smooth to the ear. The music selection was an early Beatles album.

Keep in mind that this evaluation is not scientific and I made no measurements with test equipment. But that being said, for those who are not inclined to solder and cannot afford the higher end transmitters like the Rangemaster or Procaster, the modified i.AM V.5 is well worth the $249.

I will evaluate range later on.

So I was checking out some of the FM transmitters out there and I came across the SainSonic AX-05B. Reviews show that this is illegal to operate without a license. From what I have read about it is that they use to be FCC certified but took that away. Is this true or false? 

(No I don’t have plans on buying it just wanting to see which side of the argument is true)

Great effort goes into staking (not stalking) the frequencies used by KDX Worldround Radio.

AM1550 and FM 89.5 are our main channel frequencies, but at times get moved to 1670 AM and 89.9 FM, since we are Non Public Radio.

On halloween, since the whole idea is to pretend being evil, I may do a broadcast on 87.7 FM of two songs I'm working on, "Door to Door to Door to Door" and "Candy Coma."

There are other frequencies, other plans, we'll talk about it sometime.

As a guy who has owned two Ramsey FM25B Transmitters, I have been thinking of ordering another one.

But why, Carl Blare, would you need three of them?

Because the first two were walked out the door by lovely ladies who wanted to try them, and never got around to returning them. As a perfect gentleman I am not taking them to small claims court.

Thing is, though, we have two C.Crane FM Transmitters, four Scosche FM Transmitters, and a Wholehouse 2.0 FM Transmitter. There's absolutely no need for another fm transmitter. Trouble is, my happiness depends on it, but I did consult with wiser calmer colleagues.

Neil Radio8Z advised that "wanting it" is good enough reason. Not needing it doesn't lead to fun.

Bruce Dog Radio Studio 2 suggested that we all need everything connected with part 15, as he has. Has done. Does do.

Logging in at ramseyelectronics.com with credit card in hand I saw something curious... the FM30B Transmitter. It has front-panel display complete with controls to alter and show all aspects of operation, i.e., frequency, output power, audio levels, what not, has a metal case, and is built upon the same circuit as the FM25B. Frills that I need.

That's why I placed an order for the FM30B. I need as much of what I don't need as possible.

Has anyone tuned in to this thread used a 30B?

By a stroke of luck, today we were blessed with a sunny 58 degree day, just what I needed to schlep out into the test field once again with the C. Crane FM 2 transmitter that arrived over the weekend while we were in Kansas visiting my Son and his family. The rest of the week is forcast for 30's and rain. So I had to jump at the chance. 

Same idendical test setup as the previous tests.  Same field, same location, same calibrated (by Potomac) Potomac FIM-71 field intensity meter.  Same setup, 3 meters between receive and transmit antennas, both antennas exactly 7 feet above ground as outlined in the Potomac manual, etc.. etc..  Tests were run operating the transmitter on brand new "AA" alkaline batteries.  Here are the results.

The C.Crane website, other sellers websites, and the included manual state that the coverage for this transmitter is "between 30 and 75 feet, line of sight with no obstructions".  Well, this is exactly right.  As delivered, in " out of the box" stock condition, the field strength at three meters was 110 uV/m.  This is of course EXTREMELY LEGAL. In fact this is less than half the legal limit of 250 uV/m.  This was with both antennas horizontal.  If I changed the transmitter antenna to vertical it dropped to 43 uV/m, but that is to be expected.  I brought the Tecsun PL-310et radio with me to see what sort of actual distance I got, and the receivers dBu scale dropped to zero at a measured 35 feet but I was still able to hear the signal by carefully orienting the radio antenna for best reception, although with noticeable hiss.  By 40 feet away I couldn't hear the signal at all.  So, quite literally, the transmitter as shipped covered to about 35 feet.  This is in wide open space, line of sight.

You may know (or not) that inside this transmitter there is a power output control potentiometer. You can find all sorts of websites and even YouTube videos showing how you can turn up the power for "better results". Of course none of these posters have any clue if their transmitters remain legal once they turn this control.  So, there I was, standing in a field wondering.....  I didn't bring any tools with me at all.  But I did have the small Swiss Army knife that I always carry, and darned if the screwdriver blade didn't fit just right to remove the screws to access the inside of the transmitter!  There are two screws under the little rubber "feet" on the transmmitter bottom, and one inside the battery compartment. Remove the back carefully making sure to clear the input level control and the power adapter jack.  Now, I didn't want to get into a complicated testing routine here, I just wanted to turn it up to full power and see what she'd do. I watched the FIM as I turned the control and verified that COUNTERCLOCKWISE increases the power.  I gently turned it all the way CCW, put the back on, and returned it to test position and manned the meter.  With the output turned to full, the field strength at three meters was now at 5850 uV/m! That's a heck of a jump and over 23 TIMES the legal USA limit.

Naturally I thought.... wonder if this would be legal in Canada!  So I hoofed the FIM out to 30 meters (98.4 feet) hoping it would come in under 100 uV/m. Nope.  Full power at 30 meters gave me a solid 270 uV/m, nearly three times the legal limit in Canada.

Just for the heck of it I did a quick reception test with the Tecsun with the transmitter on full power -- I was out well past 250 feet with clear signal and about 4 dBu on the meter. I got tired of walking. I'm sure I could have gone quite a bit further. 

So, the result is...  The C.Crane FM 2 is clearly legal as shipped, and by a wide margin. Access to the "secret" power output control is pretty easy and if you had access to an accurate FIM you could indeed readily adjust it to full legal US output level limits. 

The audio input cable is built into this transmitter.  So any testing or use would have to include the audio cable. You've seen how plugging the cable into other transmitters greatly increased their output. This one is clearly built with setup done with the built in cable at the factory. It also tunes down to .5 steps, e.g. 92.75 mHz. Which seems silly to me unless you're receiving it on an old school "dial" type radio. 

I didn't do any serious testing for audio quality -- what I heard on the FIM and the Tecsun sounded just fine. I also didn't set up the Spectrum Analyzer to test either.  Perhaps when I have more time and I'm sutck indoors over our 6 month winter :)  I rather like this transmitter.  It's solid, sits well on a table, comes with an AC adapter and is easy to operate.  I just might hang on to this one to use to distribute station audio around the studio. 

TIB

My Talkingsign Transmitter arrived from Canada today, I had just enough time to turn on the automatic message loop and hastily string the antenna in the window.

Here are the results

Antenna drooped over the blinds, not stretched to full length.

Meter peaked slightly over halfway, so not tuned the best. I had it pegging the meter with the wire just on the floor, but I figured the window would be better.

Frequency of 1590, turns out not a very good frequency, severe splatter from 1600.

The Range:

Coverage was incredibly suprising.

1,500 feet(1/4 Mile) feet of solid coverage

2,500 feet (~1/2 Mile) Slop from 1600 makes things very difficult, but the message is still audible.

3,300 feet (~3/4 Mile)  signal finally disappears underneath skip and slop.

With coverage like this, with a less than ideal setup with a less than ideal frequency... I can only imagine how good it will be with the antenna outside with a good X-Band Frequency (Likely 1670)

I built all these Science Fair P-Box kits when I was a kid.  It took some willpower but I managed to stop myself from bidding on this.  Fun, however. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNBUILT-vintage-vacuum-tube-AM-radio-Transmitter...

TIB

Ok so I have been doing about a year of searching about transmitters and I'm ready to buy one i'm sick of searching. I wanted the Ramsey FM25B but I don't want to build it. The pre-built one are expensive. I found this PLL transmitter with a wattage of about 0.5W. What do you think is it worth buying? 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-5W-05B-Long-Range-Dual-Mode-Stereo-Broadcast-P...

Here is an LPB 6a Carrier Current Transmitter for someone, and oh by the way there is also a coupler listed:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LPB-6A-AM-Broadcast-Transmitter-Carrier-Current-...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LPB-Transmitter-coupling-unit-TCU-30-Ham-radio-b...

In his radio engineering blog Paul Thurst gets very blunt about the declining state of AM radio today. It's worse than we thought.

His blog of Oct. 23, 2015 is titled "The Inglorious Task of AM Antenna Array Maintenance":

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/

Some folks may remeber me asking about an AM Stereo Transmitter in this post http://part15.us/forum/part15-forums/transmitter-talk/c-quam-am-stereo-t...

Well I bit the bullet and purchased this transmitter.

The sound quality is pretty good, nice and loud. The sound quality is on par with the Full Power AM station, which is a great thing.

The internal compressor is a bit weak IMHO, but seems to work well and keeps the modulation full.

A bit of an odd feature of this transmitter is it tunes from 1024 kHz to 1775 kHz.

I did a VERY brief range test at the Full Power's studio. The Transmitter was placed on my desk with the supplied wire antenna stretched onto a ceiling fan, not at the full length either. The Full Power station has 2 foot thick concrete adobe walls, my office faces the street with a window. No ground connected at all, there is no ground prong on the wall wart either.

The signal was absolutely solid for 300-500 feet before dropping to a weaker signal.

The station remained listenable beyond 1,400 feet before I reached the end of the road (closed for construction). Turning onto an adjacent street the signal remained just as strong (now on the backside of the building, so the signal had quite a bit of building to make its way through, as well as a few other buildings). The signal again popped into full strength at 500 feet.

I do not have an AM Stereo tuner available to check how well the C-Quam works.

I'm sure you know I have been on some of those “other” sites. However I do agree not to mention anything like that on part 15 dot us. As for pushing for the FM Initiative I've decided also to push for it on those sites as those folks may be more interested in getting 1 Watt and under legal. I'm not going for massive amounts 7 Watts, 50 Watts but I just feel like some have pointed out I may get more accomplished on those “other sites”. Its not I don't like this site and I'll try and keep things very basic here 15:209, 15:219 and 15:239 not discussing anything of improving power in any way. I will withdraw any of my opinions I have (if you need to know google Thelegacy, The Legacy or listen to my shows because I do discuss what I really think of hobby Radio and where it is headed). I'll talk about Radio Automation, sound quality, Internet Radio, certified FM and AM transmitters on this site and refrain from any opinions I may have about why we are where we are here again those who have followed me should know me. For the folks who have been talking to me privately about the FM Initiative we can do that and or talk on the pass coded section of the Teamspeak server. Maybe start a Pro FM web site. I won't be a person detrimental to the extinction of the ALPB or this web site because of my opinions. Sorry for any headache I've caused since June 5th 2015 here on part 15 dot us and now I'll just sit quiet and wait. But those who I've talked to we'll keep pressing privately to get something done. Want to contact me text or call my Rockline. If your outside the USA Download TextMe for the Android. I keep my smartphone near me at all times. We will make the change. Have fun and really and truly mean this when I say have a blessed Hobby and a blessed day. Let the lord love you all. No hurt feelings here. Keep the faith and don't give up.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B0000E6I1N/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&co...

C.Crane FM 2 transmitter for $5308.23 CDN$.!!!! and FREE shipping!

Can this be for real?

Mark

In psychology and philosophy there is an ongoing question whether brain and mind are perhaps the same thing. I can tell you they are not.

The brain is a low power transmitting mechanism made from beef-patties which operates on a frequency band from 0 to 25 Hz at very low power, not subject to FCC rules which don't kick in until 9 kHz on up.

The mind is the intelligent modulation of information carried on a brain's carrier. Speech and the written word, two auxiliary outputs of brain, allow mental thoughts to be translated for other people to hear or read.

Part 15 radio broadcasting depends on thinking brains to manage and operate the transmission equipment in the regulated higher frequencies, and the rules are written especially as guidelines for us brains to go by in exercising our program business.

Wearing a hardhat helps shield the brain from flying objects, like out of control hobby drones.

Playing football or soccer may be harmful to the brain.

Join me in thinking about this.

Short years ago a group of us collaborated to design a shortwave radio transmitter compliant with FCC 15.225 and capable of amplitude modulation. We called it the Big Talker, and it worked!

However, it was left unfinished, never installed in a proper case, so we are returning to the construction site to get it built and placed into service.

For melodramatic purposes this will be a joint venture between part15(dot)us and thealpp(dot)com.

This thread continues at this link:

http://alpb.boards.net/thread/195/big-talker-basement-venture?page=1&scr...