Well, it turns out that my ProCaster wasn't broken. There was a flaky component (the antenna tuning capacitor) which, when turned multiple times, started to work (must have been oxidation or something).
It's interesting, though, that there really isn't a significant range difference between the ProCaster and the TS-100 Talking Sign I've been playing around with.
I managed to get the wire antenna of the TS-100 up almost as high as the Procaster's by stretching it along a piece of PVC pipe. In those conditions, and with software audio processing on both (I've yet to use the built-in hardware compression of the ProCaster), they both get ranges of approximately 1 1/2 miles in some directions (the ones with the fewest obstructions, mainly level open field).
The ProCaster sounds a bit better, and interestingly enough, it also appears to do a bit better in terms of range where there ARE obstructions. Not signficantly, but I can hear the ProCaster probably about 1/4 mile further throughout the built-up directions - it must just have the extra ooomph to take
an unlistenable signal and make it barely listenable.
I also changed frequencies from 1570 to 1690; it didn't seem to make a significant difference in range, but subjectively, seemed to clean up the signal a bit closer in. I suspect that has to do with the fact that where I live, at least in the daylight hours, there are far fewer stations heard above 1600 than below. There's one, I think at 1650 and it's pretty faint.
So, I'm going to use the Procaster as my main transmitter, and keep the TS-100 ready as backup. And stay at 1690, at least for now.
p.s. Still haven't heard anything back from Radio Systems about Industry Canada certification of the IAM Talking House. If this is an example of their customer service, I don't think I'm going to touch them. ChezRadio, on the other hand, ALWAYS gets back to me, generally within a day, and they've been extremely helpful, pointing me to the tuning capacitor as the likely source of my problems. They were also willing to troubleshoot the transmitter and fix it for a very reasonable fee. I'd certainly recommend any of their products and the company itself.
"Still haven't heard anything back from Radio Systems about Industry Canada certification of the IAM Talking House."
Well with what you were stating a couple of days ago in the other thread, you were pretty sure that if there was a complaint about your station and IC showed up and found you were using a non IC certified unit that you would get tagged, so considering no reply from RS, and not wanting to chance anything, then you should consider nothing else to operate than the Procaster since it is manufactured there in Canada and carries both IC and FCC certification.
The sure fire way to worry free fun!
RFB