FCC Rules and Regulations Part 15 refer centrally to technical aspects of low power license free broadcasting. The technical heart of it is the transmitter, antenna, and modulated carrier combination. But for many entering the hobby of broadcasting the focus of attention points toward the appeal of delivering certain program content with thoughts of transmission systems taking a secondary role. Of course the Part15org Forum exists for discussion of all of it, but I would say the Forum is most healthy when contributors bring a wide array of relevant topics, and in recent times there's been a shortage of transmitter/antenna related activity. It has long been my opinion and observation that very little work, for example, has been done on inventing novel indoor transmission antennas, given that a large number of Part 15 hobbyists do not intend to construct an outdoor array, yet fully hope to reach out from inside the house with a firm receivable signal.
Yes Carl made a good point that not every one...probably the majority have do it from indoors.
There's the vandalism problem, lightning problem, and needing your own property and place to put transmitter and antenna and also dig up the ground(radials). If you have your own place there's still the other problems. Especially if you follow AM installs to the letter of the law where it has to be ground mounted. Then there's the question...do you have a way to get power and audio from inside to outside? A hole through the wall/side of the house or window?
Fortunately FM works much better from indoors as much less blocking of signal getting out then with AM from indoors and much better penetration into houses as the weaker signal doesn't have to fight with the noise plaguing the AM band that even the local commercial stations have a hard time getting through in a lot of cases. But I am speaking from Canada where we have a better signal to work with.
But when I was using the Procaster indoors I had a way of maximizing the range by using a wire clipped to the antenna lug and found taping it to the wall in different shapes and certain ways increased the tuning peak and signal from the antenna. I also made an artificial ground inside the cabinet that I have posted in the past by wrapping a thin wire around the circuit board from the ground lug inside and back to it in a loop to make a two or 3 turn loop. You can't just have the antenna it came with as you need 10 ft ceilings! Then the Procaster has to be on the floor! FM lends itself much better to work from inside.
But one thing...I hear how many with AM have impressive ranges of miles but I never hear of any having listeners other then themselves. And those ranges are outside in a car, in the daytime, and most likely not in houses. With me, I want listeners other than myself and AM is a hard sell. But contrary to what the Procaster says about where the antenna is, that it can't be against a surface, even non metal, I found the taping of wire in shapes on the wall made a difference for the better.
If you're using a certified transmitter, experimenting with other types of antennas could void your certification. That probably discourages a lot of experimenters (at least it does me in Canada). We're not allowed to even have home built equipment here. Homebrewed transmitters used to be allowed in RSS210, but they took that provision out a while ago. They brought it back for the draft version of the latest RSS210 Issue, but it never made it to the final version (likely at the behest of the licensed broadcasters).
@artisan-radio I should add that the wire I was using with the Procaster was the exact 104" and with no external ground. Did this void the certification? I never thought of that!
I thought all that mattered is don't go over the legal length. Wow! This can start another topic.
This makes for an interesting discussion.
Probably the only ones that could answer that question would be ISED, and since their agents typically know little or nothing about the unlicensed rules, who knows how they would rule?
I would think that technically, it would void the certification. You're not using the antenna supplied with the transmitter with which it was certified. That would constitute a modification.
On a somewhat related issue, I know of one BETS user who was warned about putting a Decade MS-100 in a waterproof box, and mounting it outside. He was told that that was not how the transmitter was intended to be used. That, however, is far shakier a justification, as nowhere in the rules does it state where you can operate a transmitter, at what height, what you can place it on, where you can plug it in, etc. I did that very same thing on Bowen Island, and I was prepared to justify it if Industry Canada (as it was known then) came calling. They never did.
@artisan-radio That's scary! That the ISED agents know little to nothing!
But it does say in the owners manual that the Decade was made for indoors or out with a wide temperature range of operation in a dry location.
Yes, we've talked about this before.
Whenever I call into the ISED field office here, I've always had to explain to the agent I was talking to what BETS is (and even RSS123, which is a licensed service). Probably because the vast majority of their time is spent dealing with licensed broadcaster issues.
@artisan-radio Me too, anytime I have contacted them. I hoped that they didn't have call display to know my location, if call display shows that.
I think is best not to call or email them at all. Even Decade once told me when he has contacted ISED that he got the same thing we get talking to someone there.
I was told once on the phone when asking a few things "you can't go on the FM or AM bands" "they are broadcast bands" I said what about BETS or RSS-210?....then...."what is it you are trying to do"? I knew then to end it.