I have ordered the Rangemaster AM1000 Transmitter for AM1700WEFR. Hopefully it will perform as well as the Procaster has been and still doing. Will provide my thought and experience after it's on the air.
Nice, looking forward to the report on how it works.
Why are you getting another transmitter. .... I saw your post yesterday about poor range on 1630 . If your transmitter is outside and adjusted properly, it should reach at least a mile or many miles on a sensitive radio . Did you retune the transmitter when changing frequency. ... In some cases it's better not to ground the transmitter., that depends on if the transmitter is grounding through the house ground system. ..Two grounds really pull it down . It's better not to bury any of the feed lines , everything elevated above ground. 1560 to 1640 generally provide the best range , 1620 at night is decent , and main station on it is in Cuba . I've been to your town , long ago . I can picture in my mind what it looks like . The soil conductivity is most likely low , very mountainous, and not many farms . There's places around here that are very rocky with poor soil , but then there's many places with very fertile. One of the main elements of very productive soil is conductivity. The low frequency bands need high conductivity.
@1620am 1630 is just a noisier frequency around here for some reason. I get roughly 2.5 miles on 1700 in daytime about 1/2 mile at night most times. Because of the noise on 1630 daytime is cut down to about a mile in daytime, and at night just unusable to do a commercial just wipes it out most times. I did retune after the frequency switch. GC is around 2-3 around these parts. Got a new transmitter to maybe in the future put another one on in another part of town.
The ProCaster is a great transmitter, easy to tune up, reliable and gets good range. It also has built-in sound processing, so it's an all-in-one solution. I've owned several over the years.
The Hamilton Rangemaster I owned, however, always got better range. I had one of the earlier ones, frequency agile, and also with the tuning module (with an LED that glowed green - supposedly - when it was tuned up correctly).
I always found that manual tuning did a better job, as there were different shades of green on that tuning light, and it was not entirely accurate. Maybe they've improved it since then, as it was a while ago.
In any event, using the manual tuning process, I was able to get exactly 100 milliwatts input to the final stage of the transmitter. Combined with the final stage efficiency, in identical conditions it was always getting better range than the ProCaster. I used a Symetrix 421 compressor with it, along with an Inovonics 222, and the sound was fantastic as well (and may well have contributed to the listenable range).
Unfortunately, the Rangemaster is not certified for use in Canada, so I reluctantly sold it. If it ever was certified for use here, I would consider purchasing another.
That's the big problem, the Canadian certification. If ISED(Canada) would recognize the FCC certification as it's the same as I was told they do, all the Rangemaster would have to do is pay the $1500 to get it registered here as the tests have been done. I think the problem is they don't think there's a market for this here. May be true but not much more $$ to get the RSS-210 certification valid so their product would be able to be sold here.
No doubt the Procaster is a great transmitter. That's what I'm currently using. I using the Schlockwood SW200 Audio processor. Sounds great on air with the Procaster. I don't understand why the Rangemaster isn't certified in Canada. The Rangemaster I requested a internal VOM meter to be installed. But I ordered it through a broadcast supply dealer. And found out I may have extra purchases to make. Because the cable and mounting brackets aren't included like should be from manufacture.
Not to get too far off topic, but Industry Canada does recognize FCC tests. You still have to go through the application process, but I don't believe you have to retest.
I think you're right in that manufacturers in the U.S. just don't believe there is sufficient market for their products in Canada to make even that worthwhile.
The new transmitter should be shipped by end of Nov. Manufacture has a 4-6 week lead time.
@mark 1500 dollars. ....For a small company very much money . Considering most of the AM stations are off the air in Canada I think they can be less restricted with the regulations outside of the Toronto area . Toronto is the only metro area to gain AM stations , largely because of the lack of FM open frequencies. I saw an article about Bell Media turning off more AM stations. I believe nine more . I don't see the point of Canada being so restrictive with the band anymore . Many AM stations went off the air in this region since 2020 , more are in trouble and will join them. A few Are operating at low power currently, their fate is sealed .
@wefr I think the Procter uses a hollow aluminum tube for antenna. You could add a capacitance hat . You have to make sure it's well insulated where it would fit into the tube , they're not to be directly connected to antenna. You would still have to retune the transmitter. The hat makes the antenna more efficient and electrically longer , about 10 dbu gain with output signal . It's also not recommended to make the hat too large for the size of antenna , a foot to 14 inches at the most .
@1620am I paid $1,062 total for mine. But I'm probably going to have to pay for something else before it's done.
@1620am 3 sections total of 10 feet.
There's a station in Texas that uses a Rangemaster transmitter that has a signal that reaches up to 15 miles . I think it's called KLSR 1650 .
Just my opinion but a part 15 legal AM transmitter no matter what you do and no matter how good the receiver can't go 15 miles unless some "cheating" is being done.
Laws of physics come into play here. Not saying it can't be done, just saying not legally.