Hi Everyone this is Sean I am back

Hi Sean and welcome back. Sorry to learn of your troubles but it is good to hear from you again.

The board is busy and I trust you will find the posts interesting. Jump right in and enjoy.

Neil

The past year has seen several reports of health difficulties here in the part 15 world. But, if my count is accurate, every member has returned with good recovery news. I think I see a pattern.

I believe part 15 contributes to good health. It gives a person a reason, a purpose, a cause, and poor health stands in the way. Therefore we have the best state of mind about getting over the ailment so we can resume the happy life as a part 15 broadcaster.

Take part 15 daily. It's more than a placebo.

Hi Neil

It sure has been along time since we talked. WOW the last time we talk
we were trying to come up with ways to make the Ramsey transmitter
legal in power input.

I think I finally came up with the answer on that and posted it for
everyone could make the modifications needed to place that transmitter
at 100MW dc input.

Did you know the Talking house was bought out and now a new company has
made some significant changes to the transmitter for better
audio and and now have a really great antenna set up for it.

You can see a who studio set up for a school use and there is Videos on
the site how they improved the transmitter.

take a look at this and their site.

http://www.talkinghouse.com/schoolradio.php

This is the new company,o it no longer owned by Talkinghouse

A Division of Radio Systems, Inc.

So the ones on ebay that are selling real cheap are Talking house
products,but the audio cicuits on them were never good enough
for music. The new company has gone in and made the correct changes
to the audio circuits and they sound great now.

Sean

i have tried several times to contact them and they seem to not be interested in replying to my questions i asked about their transmitter and atu.

I thought Talking House was a brand name for the units and not necessarily a company name.

Wasn't the "WholeHouse" units made by the same company as the TH units?

Anyway..first time meeting you Sean so welcome back to the forums! Look forward to future exchanges of radio conversations!

RFB

I tried to post something.

I hope there was nothing worng with it but it said it needed to be reveiwed
by the monitors..

If I said anything wrong. Please accept my appologies

Thanks
Sean

I got it... all good!

"I will leave the rest up to your imagination,but that cheap for a transmitter, and Audio circuits can be rebuilt."

I doubt you would want to leave it to my imagination! My imagination tends to over-imagine that thing turning into a 1 Million Megawatt sub-space faster than light interstellar galactic universal cosmos either low power Part 15 transmitter! 😉

Yeah I got both versions of the TH V5, the "real estate" and "iAM" versions with their ATU's. They stand by in the X closet as last ditch emergency red alert shields up evasive maneuver backup to the backup for the backup of the main backup to the standby CC system backing up the main CC transmitter. 😀

RFB

So did I am radio fix the audio circuits as they claimed or does
the thing sound the same after they had worked on the audio
circuits.

I know people said the old talkighouse units sounded terrible on
the audio before. That music sounded terrible over them.

What about this claim they say if you get their antenna for outdoors
you get 2 miles.

My only problem i have is. I even wrote them on this. They say you can
get their extended range antenna and they supply 100 ft of coaxle cable.

Here is my problem since I was best friends with the head of the FCC before
he retired 2 years ago. Anyways the rules clearly say the antenna and lead
in to the transmitter will not exceed 10 ft putting it simple.

They claim their anteanna is roughly 8 ft in hight. that leave you 2 ft of
coax cable to play with. So why would a 100 ft of RG6 cable do me any good.

This is one reason why you see the procaster antenna coming right
out of the transmtter. Also the same reason why the Range Master did the
same thing. This is why they have you run power cables and audio cables
to the transmitter instead on coaxle cable. Just the simple reason is
if you do it you are no longer in FCC rule part 15 for LPAM.

Now that 100FT of RG6 would be great for LPFM since there is not limit on
the feed line. Just the power radiated from the antenna.

My thing is if you buy one of their transmitters and studio set up
for a public school set up. You will just be out of accordance for a part
15 broadcast station. Really then the school could be fine for breaking
the law.

I agree that those transmitters really doe not catch my eye but for someone
who could not afford alot who has to have a FCC label on the transmitter.
Well $99.00 would do it. Me I would want to built a kit for $99 and hope
it works better.

Sean

I would like to mention that I like my TS-100 Talking Sign tansmitter.

Great little transmitter when everything is set up correctly.

Not a talkinghouse machine. I saw them years ago and was almost drawn to buy
one just because of the digital frequency readout. I am so glad that I did not.

That because I am a very technical person,and their ATU look nothing less
than a Variable inductor to adjust the electrical length of an antenna.

Really if it was a true antenna tunner it would look more like a collons
antenna tuner. That was good equipment back in the day.

SeanKW40

i emailed RS Inc about the 100ft (up to 300ft) cable issue and part 15.219. i got no reply. my guess is they don't want to give out any answers on the issue.

i personally will not buy from them because they had not returned 3 separate emails sent from 3 different domains over a 2 month period they can not say that they didn't get it or it went to junk or spam which i do check.

so basically they didn't want to answer it.

The TH V5 (black cabinet/VCR) has better audio than the previous TH 4's and below (grey cabinet). And just like the TH V5, the iAM unit (black cabinet/VCR) has a slightly wider frequency curve on the op amp driving the current amp on the finals, however..everything else is the same.

"the rules clearly say the antenna and lead
in to the transmitter will not exceed 10 ft putting it simple."

Well here is the brick wall both sides of the issue will run into regarding that.

The unit (TH/iAM/ATU) carries a certification number. It is registered at the FCC's OET database. That number is on a sticker attached to the unit. The manufacturer/retailer continues to sell these within the USA, and has been so for quite some time..all carrying that same FCC certification number.

It doesn't matter what an ex FCC head says, or what an agent says, or what anyone else says. Until the FCC revokes that certification to the TH/iAM/ATU combination, it is perfectly legal to use it.

The ONLY thing I see that can cause a problem is using ANYTHING ELSE BESIDES what comes with the units when you purchase them. That is..using any other type of coax, or longer lengths of coax that RS does not offer with the TH/iAM and ATU, or using a longer whip or different style of radiator that takes a different mount on the ATU other than what is already there meant to mount up a CB whip, even using a different power supply will void legal use under the current certification.

And just like a Part 15 3 meter antenna system would do very little without one, someone with a gripe about the TH/iAM/ATU and coax will have no ground to stand on arguing about it's legality...not even an ex head or current head of the FCC.

Regardless if they answer questions or not, the bottom line, and can be found on the bottom of the units, the required sticker carrying the required certification number is there and like I said..until revoked by the FCC, pretty much closes the case on it's legality to use.

The only debatable issue would be mounting that ATU up higher than your average yard sign like those found in the real estate business...ie about 1 meter above the dirt surface. Wow..funny but that height matches what the certification process does..places the device 1 meter above ground!

In any case...a Rangemaster was mounted up on a water tower some 80 feet in the air and it used a tiny ground "lead" attached to that water tower, and down below was a ground system. Well unfortunately due to stubborn mule attitudes the station got tagged and shut down and even a filter didn't solve the issue causing the violation anyway simply because of the length of the ground. It is still a highly debated issue and rightfully so since about half of the radio world thinks a metal mounting pole is not a ground lead and the other half does think that metal pole completes the ground path to the little flea sitting up on top.

I tend to agree with the short lead off the TX IS the ground lead as the rules state and specify. However, technically that lead is nothing unless attached to something to form a circuit pathway for ground for the transmitter, thus if mounted up, it will need a conductor to complete that circuit path..ie the metal structure which the TX is mounted to. Technically, that metal structure is now a part of that ground circuit path and thus becomes a part of that ground lead.

Ground, in the case of vertical LW/MW/SW HF antenna systems, is the area/space located on the surface of the Earth...ie the dirt and below that surface. If something is mounted up 50 feet in the air and needs that ground on the ground to work properly, then a "lead" must be used to make the connection between the device upstairs to the dirt below. Either a wire, or the metal mounting structure can be used to make that circuit path. Either one used, wire or the metal mast, it becomes the completing conductor for that ground path..thus technically it IS the ground lead.

It cannot be one or the other, but it certainly can be both...ie a mounting structure which also is conductive serving as the ground path so that there is a ground path for the circuit.

If the mast was not intended to be part of the ground system, then mount the TX up on a PVC pipe and leave the short ground lead dangling.

Oh but that wont work!

Well duh!

So what do you need to make that work? A conductor extending down from the TX to ground below it. What is that called now?

GROUND LEAD.

It's all a matter of how ground lead and ground is interpreted. Amazes me how so many different interpretations can be applied to a single word these days. I never got my copy of the new age encyclopedia and dictionaries where the definitions to words are blank lines. I like the old versions just fine.

Well the bottom line here is that the TH/iAM and their ATUs are certified..not compliant mind you, CERTIFIED with a certification number meaning use it till the cows come home and long after that..because until that certification is revoked by the very entity that gave it to them..no one has any ground to argue it is illegal to use.

To each their own if anyone wishes to not use one and goes with another option. Ain't America wonderful where we can choose what to do, what to use..and all that!

I agree though it's strange RS has not returned emails or other communication. However another vendor of a transmitter seems to drift into the communications abyss often too and I see about as much griping about it as the griping about RS. So what's the difference?...nothing really..except one is certified and the other isn't. Oh there is a 2nd difference, one is a kit and the other isnt.

Oh wait there is a 3rd! One is certified by the FCC with a certification number sporting an outdoor antenna/ATU and the other is not certified and not even designed to work with a home made outdoor 3 meter system without modifications and butchering.

Birdie on a wire I guess.

Chirp Chirp!! 😀

And remember, lawyers are not engineers and engineers are not lawyers...remember that and there is no difficulty with interpretations!

RFB

The word "ground" causes confusion in electronics because it has more than one meaning. The negative side of a circuit is called "the ground side." A wire attached to the negative side of a circuit is called a "ground lead." The soil underfoot, forming the surface of the earth and the mud, rock, debris & mulch composition of the planet, is known as "the ground."

But of course that is not the only confusion when talking about RF grounding. The other matter is whether "a ground lead radiates."

Beyond that, confusions arise when different persons have their own way of interpreting all these differences, and who might not be as clear a thinker as (obviously) I am.

Anyway, in the most fundamental sense, I define "earth ground" as anything located below the surface of the soil, down in the dirt.

I define "circuit ground" and "ground lead" as anything above the soil surface.

But even those definitions are not final, because a "ground lead" can be designed so it doesn't radiate.

Take for example a balanced line or coax (above the soil surface) which has perfect common-mode rejection and therefore no ground-lead radiation. I would guess that it is exactly that which allows the 100' coax and ATU from Radio Systems to perform compliant to part 15.

the problem with ground lead really becomes and issue when you live in an apartment or condo or have ccr's not permitting outdoor antenna's with either no earth level ground to place tx at or no dirt access at all only having a outlet or faceplate screw or other electrical ground that ultimately ends at earth ground after several hundred meters