I just installed an SSTRAN for a local church, but the range is not what I had hoped for. It is on a 30 foot tower and it is grounded with 6 grounding rods (burying radials was not an option). I am getting 1/4 mile radius of good coverage, and 1/2 mile with spotty coverage. I thought it should go farther than that.
I have heard reports of part15'ers getting 2, 3, or even 6 miles of coverage.
I just installed an SSTRAN for a local church, but the range is not what I had hoped for. It is on a 30 foot tower and it is grounded with 6 grounding rods (burying radials was not an option). I am getting 1/4 mile radius of good coverage, and 1/2 mile with spotty coverage. I thought it should go farther than that.
I have heard reports of part15'ers getting 2, 3, or even 6 miles of coverage.
I realize that this greatly depends on soil conditions, surroundings, electrical interference, etc. And I know this subject has been discussed before (I did go back in the archives and found some very helpful information), but if you all don't mind, I would like to do a survey. 🙂
I would like to get real life information on how far everybodies transmitters are reaching, and under what environmental conditions.
So for any Part15'er out there who doesn't mind telling a little bit about his station, here are my questions.
1.) How far is your Part15 transmitter reaching? If you want to, you can break it down into something like: Clear Range, Spotty range, and Farthest fringes. I am mostly interested in the distance it can reach and still be heard clearly enough for people to listen to. (If it's getting fuzzy and hard to hear, average people just aren't going to listen to it!)
2.) What kind of equipment do you have? (brand of transmitter, antenna setup, etc.)
3.) What is your surrounding situation? (City, country, apartment building, nearby metal structures, height of antenna, etc.)
4.) What state do you live in? (i.e. what is your soil conductivity rating)
Thanks a lot everybody!
Shawn
Hi Shawn,
This is probably going to develop into an interesting and useful thread. So here is my input:
SSTRAN AMT3000 feeding a base coil loaded resonant 3 m aerial mounted horizontally on my basement ceiling and working off a waterpipe ground gives:
Fifteen dollar portable radio good signal range of 200 feet.
Car radio good signal about 500 feet.
Scratchy signal on car radio about 1000 feet.
Farthest I ever heard the signal while mobile 1.8 miles. Audio was barely detectable.
I measured the input power to the final of my AMT3000 and it is 93 mW. with the described aerial.
I live in a low residential density city with underground utilities. Outside my house, there is no interference to AM. Inside, AM is not usable due to electrical noise and the shielding of stucco walls (the expanded metal mesh under the stucco).
I am in central Ohio and if I recall the conductivity here is 8.
My station obviously is not optimized for range so my numbers are probably low compared to those using outdoor vertical aerials. My station is for my personal use and right now I don't plan to "improve" it.
Neil
I'm running the SStran, stone stock with no mods. The antenna is the vertical copper pipe deal shown on the SSTran website. It is elevated 10 ft above ground. There is an 8 ft ground rod buried at the base of the mast, and the soil conductivity is reportedly 2. I have not tuned the coil yet, so I'm quite sure the system is under-performing. We get a good, clear signal up to about 1/2 mile. After that it drops off by about 2/3. This reduced signal strength manages to make about 2 miles before we lose it in the noise. On a clear day I have heard it 3 miles away, but no one in their right mind (other than a radio geek like me) would listen to it at that level.
1620AM Copperhead Radio,
Lucama NC
Shawn
About the same expectations and results for me also. I have the SSTRAN, and the base loaded antenna constructed exactly as SSTRAN shows elevated about 20 feet with 4 8ft grounding rods spaced about 20 feet apart around sides and back of house. My primary signal goes about 3 blocks. The secondary signal is readable for about 3 miles. I'm in town with houses all about mine, and houses around me higher than my antenna. I can go up one more roof level with the antenna which I intend to do when weather warms. I, too, was hoping to about cover the town. Oh, yes, I live in south eastern Pennsylvania. Jim B
Shawn
Jim B again. Just curious, is your antenna radiator outside and clear of the tower, and how did you tune the antenna on the 30 ft tower? Jim B
I run a Rangemaster and I get a solid mile on the Subaru car radio. A portable radio was about a 1/4 mile. This is with the transmitter at 10 feet.
Frank
www.easthillradio.com
Jim,
The antenna is mounted at the top of the pole and it is seperated from the pole by a section of PVC pipe. Is that what you meant by "outside and clear of the tower"? It is outside the building as well of course.
Tuning the antenna while it was on the top of the pole was almost impossible. So we let the pole down (it hinges in the middle) and I tuned the antenna as well as I could. We tested the range while it was down and then again after we had put it up and it was about the same.
I even tried connecting my ground to the city water main, but it didn't seem to change much (I didn't have that great of a connection either though).
I have the six grounding rods in line along the side of the building, and interestingly enough we seemed to get a much better signal in that direction. I suppose that is acting as a single radial. I would like to bury radials all around the mast, but that isn't really an option is this case.
Frank,
You said you were running a Rangemaster. I would be interested in knowing more about your setup. Is it on a house? Or a tower? What kind of grounding system do you have? What about your soil conditions?
Since I am setting this system up for a church they need something that will reach farther that our current transmitter is reaching right now. So my next option is to try the Rangemaster. Whatever info you can provide on your setup would be helpful.
Thanks,
Shawn
PS. Does anybody know Hamilton's email address? I couldn't find it anywhere on his website.
Shawn, Not being a technician, here are a few thoughts anyway. When tuning the SSTRAN its VERY important to find a sharp peak with your meter on one of the taps of the antenna loading coil. tweaking the copper pipe to peak is important too. I realize you're at a disadvantge with your tower arrange. Next, I'd advise you to E Mail Phil Bolyn, the designer and owner of the SSTRAN at [email protected]. Phil is very knowledgeable and helpful and gives all of the help he can to his customers.
Now, I don't own a rangemaster. At a thousand bucks it's beyond my scope. From a lot of reading on this and other forums I don't think you're going to get a lot more PRIMARY range where the average indoor am radio can receive you. Keith Hamilton does give good discounts to churches on the rangemaster. His website is www.amrangemaster.com. There is a lot of good info on Keith's site. Also, if you're interested in the rangemaster check out www.lpam.net, a rangemaster site with a forum that has some information.
One last thought. If your church is really interested in radio as a full time operation and has some money to invest you may consider looking into a licensed low power fm station. Right now there are no channels open however that may change in the near future, so, you may want to look at and even contact www.prometheusradio.org, an organization that helps churches, communities, etc., apply for and set up a low power licensed fm station.
But your first step is to E Mail Phil Bolyn at SSTRAN and get all of the help he has to offer. Jim B
My Rangemaster is 10 feet above ground, right at the top of my deck railing. The grounding is a simple ground rod into poor ground conductivity soil. I want to move it higher and thinking of putting up a flagpole with the transmitter on top.
Frank
www.easthillradio.com
For those wanting a close encounter with Keith Hamilton of Rangemaster fame, here is the not-so-secret email adress:
Marshall Johnson, Sr.
Rhema Radio - The Word In Worship
http://www.rhemaradio.org
1) its getting about a mile On a day with no tropo-no static or anything-im at the bottom of 2 hills-around the house-I Have A Ramsey FM 30 Transmitter-Works great.(Im only using the whip antenna they gave me)
Also-I Have A NRG 1 Watt Transmitter and it does basicly the same thing- its like a normal suburb community- Houses a little far apart.
so there is it all in a wrap
And Im In NJ
MLR (now gone.. I moved) Stats:
Range: about 3 to 6 miles (3 miles were "ok" reception, 1.5 miles were SOLID, up to 6 miles away, the signal could somehow be heard in 2 different communities as though the TX were right there.. it was weird.
Transmitter: Jack Gittings 100mW (actually, more like 98mW)
Antenna: Tesla Style base loaded 9.81 foot copper pipe base loaded.
Grounding: Water pipes, ground rods, and VERY good soil conductivity (Manteca, California)
Before the "oooo.. something you did HAD to be illegal" junk starts: 2 FCC agents lived in Manteca, I spoke with one regularly to check to see if anything was out of wack with my system and when I made changes. He was happy with me - and that's really all that matters 🙂
by MRAM 1500 kHz
I'm curious to know how you got aquainted with the two agents.
I don't think there are any field offices near where I'm located so it would be tough to establish a personal contact.
I emailed a question to the FCC and never got a reply, of course that's only been two months ago.
It would be great to know someone there a person could call about questions.
MLR, you mention owning a Jack Gittings 100mw transmitter. Where can I get the plans? I'm also interested in your antenna. Also saw on this site reference to a Jack Gittings 5 watt transmitter. Can anyone lead me to info. on it? Many thanks, Jim B