No new stations?

Dear mlr,

I've just created this summer my own part15 am station in Canada. It is located in Lévis, near from Quebec City at the frequency of 1500 kHz (in the coming months, my AM station will move to 1630 kHz once my tests is concluded). My transmitter is open only each weekend in the daytime.

I am still stuck for building my ground system. I've already my 10 feet copper pipe and my loading coil. I know that the ground system needs at least 20 feets of radius.

However, i read your message about the magnum design. How to build the magnum design? You reach really 5-6 miles at 100 mW ?

I am waiting for your feedback.

Thanks! Yves Roy

let me qualify my range: In Manteca, I had some really weird situation with my grounding. It registered as something the engineer referred to as "Infinate Ground". I'm not sure what it means, but the engineer was just as puzzled as I was.

I have heard tale of Rangemasters getting upwards of 10 miles in places (Sacramento, CA for instance) - which goes along with my weird grounding situation. Maybe attributed to (this is a W.A.G.) the high metal content in the San Joaquin Valley (think CA Gold Rush of the 1800's).

SO That said: I really suck at electronics stuff.. I was told by the father of california free radio that "Rick, you should never touch a soldering iron. Ever." ... Even *I* was able to follow the instructions to build this. To tune to other freq's, simply cut the copper pipe (I used "blue" - it is more rigid than the "red"), and stick a smaller diameter bit in there and slide it up and down. No need to make "taps" in the coil itself (I'm told they are great for experimenting, but a bad long term solution)

Here's the link to the howto: http://www.part15.us/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=9