As posted in my radio station I am now on AM using a Talking Sign AM certified transmitter.
This was the predecessor to the Procaster and certified at 100mW at the output, not input, to final in 2000 issue 4 of RSS-210.
Took range with a 2022 Kia Forte which is not as good as older cars that had an outside antenna on fender. Had to back out on Google maps to get all, or most of the range and backing out more would be too much. Heard the station farther east and west on the 401 than was on the map at view I selected. Some of the area it was assumed it could be received as I can't drive into residential parks and back yards and properties but if I could get it on one street or another I assumed I could get it in between also. Same on the 401 as assumed receivable a certain distance on each side. I think this is quite accurate. Center circle in violet is strong reception and larger red area is fringe but could hear it. Scale of distance in meters is at bottom right. Note that small circle is a larger area than looks on map at scale I did this at to get all the fringe in. The red indicator is where I am. This looking south and the 3D makes the bottom of map look larger then foreground.
I didn't see the scale. Am I missing something?
@artisan-radio Yes! Click the picture to full size and look at the bottom right where the scale is on any Google map.
OK, got it.
Your range is good for such a built up area, seems to be about 1km+ East/West, a bit less North/South.
When I was running my Talking Sign in a residential area, not nearly as built up, I was able to get a mile+ range in some directions.
My car radio is probably far worse than yours on AM. I have a Ford Flex, and found out after the warranty expired that Ford would have done a fix if I had complained hard enough. Oh well, it does a decent job when parked. I can really only measure the range of my current Talking Sign in one direction (concrete buildings in all the other directions), so I'll take the car out (once I have a decent install, right now it's temporary), park at various places and have a listen. I'll publish my listening map, as well as a fuller review of the transmitter, in a little while.
@artisan-radio This was the rental I told you about. They gave me a Kia like mine just a newer year but the radio was working as it should not with the electronics wiping all but the strong locals out completely.
Your Flex is no way worse than my 2020 Kia with the AM problem. At least if you park yours it works!
That's weird. Mine even parking and turning off the engine it gets a bit better as some electronics shuts off. But as I said I can't have them taking the car apart not even knowing what they are looking for! Idea is radio is supposed to work when moving!
@mark Is that with indoor or outside antenna? If it's indoor that's pretty good coverage.
@wefr The Talking Sign comes with a 3 meter wire and that's how it was certified. This is from indoors. Gets ground using grounded 3 prong adaptor which are not easy to find. It can also use a desktop 12 volt 3 terminal power supply. A regular 2 pin power supply will work but a little range reduction.
I don't have an option to delete the other posts. I don't know why it dup posted. Unless it was because it wasn't responding when I was posting and I hit post a second time.
.Note that small circle is a larger area than looks on map at scale I did this at to get all the fringe in. The red indicator is where I am. This looking south and the 3D makes the bottom of map look larger then foreground.
Wow. Not shabby for a suburban area. In another thread there is all this talk of dirty power, and in my prior home urban area I think that was a problem. But where I moved it the RF noise was worse. Everything from LED bulbs, transformers, routers. Everywhere.
In that area what kind of things are there inhibiting your propagation?
...In that area what kind of things are there inhibiting your propagation?
It doesn't look like his propagation is inhibited to me...
It just occurred to me that it looks like Hwy 401 is having a directional effect on your signal.. some kind of parasitic re-radiation? -- at least that's the radiation pattern seems to suggest.
@centinel The only thing that inhibits the propagation is the fact I'm doing it from a basement. RF also doesn't always follow a symmetrical pattern.
As for the dirty electricity I don't have it directly plugged into the wall plug. Always use some noise filtering. This works well... https://assets.tripplite.com/brochure/tripp-lite-premium-surge-suppressors-brochure-953229-en.pdf
I can power directly from a power station not the wall where the AC(pure sign wave) is generated from the power station.
But most of the AM noise interference comes from the receiving end on your radio. The range shown is outside in the car. The large area was where it could still be heard. The small circle was where it was strong signal. At night the whole larger area would be gone. And some of the smaller area.
@mark yes, the Tripp Lite is nice. I think Eaton or similar company owns them. Eaton owns old names like Cooper Electric, Buss Fuse and Cutler-Hammer. I have a similar rack mounted conditioner. Yeah, basements are problematic with a 3' Part 15 antenna. I just discovered a propagation problem because I moved the station to a new room in the house. More on that in a new thread.