I’ve been using a Talking House for about a year. I checked it’s output on a Motorola Station monitor and the output from the “external antenna tuner” jack was almost 100 milliwatts. The modulation runs up to about 98% and then hard limits.
Out of the box it’s fairly simple to use as it has a built in auto-antenna tuner that works with the wire antenna supplied with the unit. On the wire antenna at 1500 khz, the solid range was about 1/4 mile with the transmitter/antenna on the second floor inside a frame house. Beyond that the signal drops quickly.
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Using the external antenna jack feeding a 3 meter vertical the usable range was almost doubled. The antenna was ground mounted with practically no radial system. I’m sure with some effort put into the antenna system, the range could be much better.
The internal RAM audio recorder/player can store about five minutes of program. It must be a fairly low sample/bit rate as the audio is only suitable for voice. There is also a “live” audio input which when fed with good audio, sounds fairly good. There does seem to be some very low frequency carrier shift when modulated. Wether or not it’s acceptable is subjective.
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I got a deal! I bid at the last second on Ebay and got it brand new for $9.95 plus shipping. Seems it was listed under some obscure listing. No one else bid on it. If you get a good deal like that, it’s worth it.
I have a Metzo also and the Talking House beats the Metzo on output power and ease of use. The Metzo has a nice audio section (gain, compression, limiting) but you’ll find yourself tinkering all the time to get a better sound. Besides, I use ZaraRadio automation which has an excellent audio processor so the Talking House doesn’t have to do any processing.
Talking House advertises a “remote” antenna system (antenna and tuner) but I’ve yet to get a response from them regarding pricing.
And if you’re feeling lucky
Talking House Transmitter on ebay.com
Talking House Tech News Letter stuff
editor’s note – I’m kind of sorry I posted this link. There are a lot more bids for these now 🙁
Guess I’ll wait untill everyone “forgets” about it before I try to get one 🙂 Hope those sellers are grateful!
I am new to this. Would the
I am new to this. Would the talking house work with something like this????
http://antenna18431.tripod.com/antenna.htm
Thank you for your time.
Neal F. Fischer
Yes, if you use the correct connection on a newer Talking House
The newer editions of the Talking House (Black unit that is noted above and that looks like a DVD player) have two antenna outputs.
One output (usually a binding post or clamp connector) connects to a 3 meter piece of wire and uses the built-in auto tuner.
The second output uses an “F” conector (think cable TV) and is used to connect to what Talking House calls their “external antenna.” That output is not routed through the auto-tuner and would be a suitable connection for Carl’s antennas.
A number of Talking House users have used the external antenna connector for various experimental configurations.
I have two of these and they are quite a bit of fun to play with.
The down side is that attaching anything other than the 3 meter wire or the type accepted Talking House external antenna will probably be outside the type accepted form of the transmitter.
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
Talking House ATU
by MRAM 1500 kHz
I bought the Talking House external antenna/tuner unit. It works very well for an out of the box easy setup.
The plastic box at the base has a tuner which is switch selectable for the low end or high end of the AM band. There is a variable adjustment for tuning and a peaking meter to put it on frequency.
There is a standard threaded antenna connector (female) atop the box to attach a standard 102″ whip antenna. Next to it is a ground connection. On the bottom is an F connector for the coax.
I bought this assuming that Talking House included it in the FCC certification. Emailing Talking House to verify that, I have yet to receive an answer.
Here is a link to the instructions that came with the unit: Talking House ATU
Right click on the link and select “save target”.
I am sorry, it seems I can’t
I am sorry, it seems I can’t get anything from the picture.
Neal
Talking House Instructions
I am just getting started in AM radio transmitting. I recently obtained a Talking House without the instructions. I am not sure if the unit functions correctly. When you first plug in the power the screen flashes back and forth between -CAL and 1610. It eventually stops with a steady 1610 but you can hear the tuning servo continuing to run. The up and down buttons will not change the frequency from 1610. Any words of wisdom or source of operating instructions would be appreciated.
– Chet
Short answer
With the power pack unplugged:
Connect the three meter wire to the antenna terminal (the terminal marked “Antenna” but not the terminal labled “Outside Antenna Connect”) and hang the wire away from big metal things and stuff that generates RF (like computers and electric motors and fluorescent lights and lamp dimmers)
Connect an audio source to the “Line in” connection
Check the jack marked “Control lock” and make sure the key is inserted if you want to change the frequency
If the control lock jack is empty and you don’t have the “key” then use any 1/8″ audio plug, stereo or mono, doesn’t matter. The jack is just used as a switch.
Plug in the power pack
The screen will flash back and forth between -CAL and 1610, and the servo will make a series of smaller and smaller adjustments and then lock.
If the screen continues flash back and forth between -CAL and 1610 then the antenna is too close to something that is detuning the output, making it impossible for the auto-tuner to find the right match. Move the antenna and try again.
Don’t try it without an antenna. I don’t think it will hurt the transmitter but the auto-tuner won’t be able to match the (non-existant) load and it will just keep seeking.
I’ll bet you’d hate to see the long answer 🙂
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
Long Answer
Thanks scwis.
I have been able to get it to calibrate at 1610 and using an input from the computer it has better range than expected. With the antenna strung up in the basement I can receive it a block away. 1610 seems to be a good frequency but I cannot get it to tune to any other frequency if the need arose. The “key” is inserted in the jack but the up/down arrows do not seem to be functional during any part of the tuning cycle. When and how is frequency selection supposed to be accomplished?
I change freq after the XMTR locks on
After the XMTR locks FREQ, I then use the freq up-down buttons to select a new freq. A new fine tuning cycle will start and then the process will repeat.
I believe the up down keys are inactive during fine tuning.
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
Thank you
I found this site and your post yesterday and today I was able to get my black talking house unit fully functional. using a pair of headphones as the key and a 3m piece of wire allowed it to calibrate and let me feed direct audio (from a dvd player, it’s all I had at the moment) and test with an old transitor radio. Thanks for the easy steps and info that clarified how to get it working.
=jason
ATU Link
I’m not sure what’s up with the ATU link. It works, it doesn’t work. The file is on the server and the link is correct but sometimes the file won’t come up.
If the file won’t open for you, I can email direct. Contact me at MRAM 1500.
ATU link problems might be our fault
Linking here can cause problems if there are bandwidth limits on the server where the linked content is hosted. We get a #$%&-load of visitors and that can swamp a free hosting site or item if there is any interest all.
Our file manager is fixed, so you should (the most dangerous word in IT) be able to post a copy here if you wish.
Sorry 🙁
Front End Loading
Some hosts don’t appreciate linking to files on their servers without viewing the hosted webpage so their advertisements are also seen. Although this is the first instance of that from this host.
I tried using the Create Content – Image to upload the ATU paper but it only took the text, not the image file.
Hi, Talking house is a
Hi,
Talking house is a great product with huge range
Regards,
Adora
Trying a outside antenna
First I have to repair my unit that was built without one of the small disk capacitors that couples the external antenna jack to the selector switch. C326 located just behind the internal/external antenna switch was never installed on my unit. i contacted i-am radio and they will mail me a capacitor. They wont tell me the value so I can just go to the parts house and get one. Anyway there are questions here about the external atu unit having an rf amplifier in it. It doesnt. only contains a small manual antenna tuner to manually peak the antenna to the transmitter.
When I get the transmitter fixed i will mount a 108″ whip in the midle of the metal roof of my building and couple it directly to the jack with about a 1 foot coax. My building is 20′ tall at the center and the roof is 100X160′ so it would make an excellent ground plane.
Why put the TX on the roof?
The ISS Info Spot system uses the I AM transmitter(revamped Talking House) and remote ATU antenna.
They advertise using the remote antenna with up to 300 feet of coax as a Part 15 compliant system. They sale the system with 25 feet of RG6 coax.
As you’ve had correspondence with them perhaps they would verify the legality of using these lengths of coax for you.