[Moderator action, this topic was moved to a new thread because it may be of general interest to the topic of receivers and the title was changed to describe the content.]
Found an Easy no FCC rule breaking solution I posted ALL OVER the Deltaville, VA Facebook page and it's something all of you can do when you advertise your Legal part 15 station. A secret device that my broadcast engineer friend made for me but your listeners can buy under $40.
Tecsun AN 200 AM Loop magnetic wave antenna. I told my listeners to tune to 1640 put the magnetic Wave loop next to or on top of the Radio. Now if you don't live in a trailer you will hear The Legacy 2.5 miles away at 27 dbuV. This beats a 7 Watt pirate FM transmitter.
We will do demos for our past FM listeners. We broke NO rules just made their home Radios as strong as a Kenwood car Stereo.
I didn't give up everyone can do this. I'll try and make a video too.
More information about this solution will be welcomed here.
One thing which I am particularly interested in is how noise free is the received signal? Can one listen for minutes, hours, or beyond without listener fatigue?
It seems that one of the forgotten arts to achieving range with radio is that the receive antenna deserves as much attention as the transmit antenna. A few years back, I heard a transmission from a Talking House or some such system 2.7 miles from the source. I know this because they gave the address and I drove there to observe. My receive antenna was a dipole cut to 40 meters and connected, in turn, to two receivers, both of which could receive a usable signal.
Us longer experienced radio folks (old perhaps) knew as kids that the first thing you did is string an antenna across the "back 40" to get good reception.
If you don't know what the "back 40" is you are welcome to ask. If you do, please tell me.
Neil
back + forty, meaning “back side of a farm”. In the Homestead Acts (1860s–), farmers were granted a quarter section; a section was 640 acres, a quarter section was 160 acres, and the quarter section was itself subdivided into four quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres each: two front forty and two back forty.
Thanks, AMradiolegend, for the history behind the back forty. Where I grew up most of the farms were/are 80 acres though I did not know why until now.
Unfortunately, my "back forty" is more like forty feet rather than 40 acres but I found by trial and error that the noise generated by devices inside my house do not affect reception when using my outdoor antenna. It does not suffice to string a wire through the house since the noise is too strong for good AM reception. Nor does it suffice to just string a wire outdoors without using a shielded feedline, but if done correctly using a balun between the transmission line and the differential antenna input of the receivers noise free (from electrical devices) AM and SSB results.
The loop antenna suggested by theLegacy seems to be a good way around the need for an antenna connector so radios lacking this can also be used but I wonder if it is used indoors how well electrical noise can be supressed.
C. Crane has a very expensive tuner and outdoor antenna element that would really work but I know my listeners won't spend $130 for this antenna to receive my station.
What I hope for is that they will find a spot in the house next to a window and use the loop. It should do wonders for sure. Again its a way to get back the listeners I had when I did FM but it means a lot of demos and maybe I'll have to actually buy the real Tecsun AN 200 or Terk antenna instead of a home made ugly construction version to show my listeners. I'll have to savve for it with donations I get for my station as I am on disability and so is my Wife. After I do that I'll make a video and also schedule demos too. I'm gonna drive hard and try and get that audience I had before.
I have one of these and a hardly heard station suddenly comes in like a strong one with this antenna positioned just the right way beside the radio and changing the position and tweeking the tuner on the antenna will null the noise interference. It works best in the daytime. It will only work with home and portables as it only works with a ferrite rod antenna.
Yes a part 15 station could have much more range if everyone had these as they make a lousy radio into a much better one. Besides Tecson, Terk makes one of these and another one called Select-a-Tenna but I'm not sure if they are still made.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KC579Q/ref=psdc_3236443011_t1_B000069EUW
Here's an excellent demo.....
Back 40, like the lower 40, is an expression for a track of land, probably 40 acres or so.
Farmers use the term when talking about work that has to be done like plowing the lower 40.
In the song, "Ode to Billy Joe" by Bobby Gentry, the term is mentioned in the line...."There's 5 more acres in the lower 40 I have to plow"
Here is the first Youtube video I made of my Ugly construction version of the Loop at the Deltaville Market. I posted this all over the Deltaville, VA FAcebook page and I hope this helps promote the station.
Saw....you should have done the demo with the Tecson or Terk ones as they would work a lot better.
You should also set out a small table and let some others try it moving the antenna away and closer to the radio.
Troy,
Thanks for making and posting this video. It was a bit hard for me to hear the difference as you moved/tuned the antenna due in part to the background traffic noise. Otherwise, nice job.
Neil
Yes my Stepson did this for me and he did have an appointment with his boss as she is a cancer survivor and needed his help so it was a quick video. I tried to do this very fast.
I'm sure the professional Tecsun AN 200 is much more stable and easier to handle.
I may try other locations in Deltaville too as these are going up on the Deltaville, VA Facebook page to show we are trying to be receivable to Album Rockers throughout the village.
I plan on (If I get donations I'm on low income) trying an even higher sensitive Radio the Sangean PR-D15 as well as an actual C-Quam receiver like a Sony SRF-A100, CFS-A6000, Sangean HDR-1, all takes donations to help promote The Legacy's true Album Rock sweetness in C-Quam.
This is the first Video demonstration I did for Youtube and didn't want to get flagged for copyright so I had to make the music Fast and hard for the audio fingerprint to catch. If I could screw up Sound Hound or Shazam I knew I was safe.
Please consider a donation and I'll do more stuff like this.
Fantastic!
Brooce
Troy,
The video was well done and I only meant to offer a suggestion. There is a lot of potential in what you can share via video so please keep going with this.
Neil
Thanks My stepson though he is not really a tech Guru did figure how to make a Live Facebook Video and then I took my Replay Media Catcher program and Downloaded it to the PC. From there I was able to put it on Youtube so everyone can see.
I do plan on doing a test with some different Proessionally made loops you can buy as well as High sensitive Radios so that I can get Album Rock out to this village and have the same amount of listeners as I would if I were FM. Getting the word out that we don't need to break FCC Rolus to do so and just need to look outside the box is the key and these Real World Radio range tests are what will make this station and others who's trying the same thing.
An Album Rock network of The Legacy re broadcasters can also be something to consider too.
Hi...I built two of these years ago, one for MW and one for SW. The MW one works like a charm, increasing the signal strength by at least a factor of 2 when tuned in. The SW one works all right but since I designed it to cover all the way from 1800 to 15000 kc, it needs a geared system on the variable capacitor to be of much use.