With SSTRAN sponsorship I don’t know if I’m about to make an undesirable entry here but…..Is anyone using this transmitter?
With SSTRAN sponsorship I don’t know if I’m about to make an undesirable entry here but…..Is anyone using this transmitter? http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/index.html the Hamilton Rangemaster. Their site is claiming pretty considerable (legal) distances. The unit itself is in the $950-1000 range.
I’m curious in part because their site seems to take the tone of it being a bad plan to install these types of equipment yourself, recommending you hire a professional unless you are well versed in radio/electronics.
The site seems…oh I don’t know, loud and bragging. But the testimonials are pretty convincing.
-Dave
Rangemaster..d’oh!
And oh course I hit submit and their ad pops up on the right side of my blog post. Ha! I tell ya! Guess you’ve heard of it, huh? ha ha ha!
-Dave
Rangemaster
Dave,
I suggest that you call Keith Hamilton and present your questions. He is a very nice fellow and he will answer your quesitons.
Neil
Both are great, and…
I am currently in love with my Talking House Transmitter, follow this link to our review section and see additional comments here
The built in antanna auto tuner is quite incredible, especially for casual use.
In fairness to SSTRAN and Rangemaster, however, you will not be able to buy a Talking House from the manufacturer, or get technical support like you can with the other transmitters. Talking House uses some totally delusional distribution process where they sell the transmitters in lots of five, or they want an insane price for one-each.
As noted in the links above, the only hope there is to get one off of ebay or a similar source, usually for around $100.00. Unfortunately, when you buy that way the manufacturer will NOT give you any tech support, which sucks.
Experimental broadcasting for a better tomorrow!
Set Up: Rangemaster Vs Others..
Quote:
“I’m curious in part because their site seems to take the tone of it being a bad plan to install these types of equipment yourself, recommending you hire a professional unless you are well versed in radio/electronics.”
The reason for Rangemasters suggestion is because it’s much more involved to properly set up their unit than it is to set up other units and stay within the legal output levels per F.C.C. limits..
Most of the other units are designed to only put out the legal limit of R.F. with a perfectly tuned antenna system. The maximum output is 100 mW but will always be somewhat lower because a “Perfect” antenna system is almost impossible..
The Rangemaster set up is much more involved. There’s an I/V chart that is used to assure that the output is within or at 100mW to the antenna. It IS possible to adjust the Rangemaster OVER the legal limit if this I/V chart isn’t followed to the “T”. The R.F. output can be increased to allow for set up “Flaws” and still achieve the 100mW legal broadcast level. This is the reason for Rangemaster to suggest involvement of someone with some kind of Electronics/R.F. background..
~Don
I’ve just purchased a
I’ve just purchased a Rangemaster…will be installing it over the next few days. I got the module with the “green light” to help with RF limits, etc.
I’ve used other units in the past, including LPB..never had a problem with anyone. Or maybe they liked the programming:)
WJJD Country Giant:
http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall
NEW STATION: Musicbox 1610 (building in 2007)
http://www.musicbox1610.com
My Space:
http://www.myspace.com/radioboyalan
Tech People
It’s because of the adjustable power and removable antenna and other installation decisions that the FCC wants some sort of technical person to be installing our unit, that’s true with other similar units as well.
When you buy an transmitter to transmit audio to your home stereo in your house bubble packed at Target or such you don’t need any technical ability because everything is done for you. The antenna is fixed, power is fixed, and you will see a note on there about not replacing the antenna except for an exact replacement. But of course there isn’t much range there.
You don’t have to be an engineer, just some sort of tech background. There are usually plenty of folks around who can help those who cannot install their own transmitters, retired broadcast engineers, ham radio people, tech students, just be sure to tell them you are installing certified legal equipment. Some tech people get asked all the time to help build pirate radio equipment and want no part of that. I keep a list of engineers around the country here.
I Run 2 Rangemasters
I run one for fun and profit in Dade City on 1610 and one at Saint Leo University on 1620 for the student run campus radio station. Built like a brick outhouse, designed for continuous operation. Set up and adjust in accordance with FCC Rules and you will be a happy camper.
John H. Mouw
Manager of Classroom Technology and Media Services
Department of Instructional Technology
Saint Leo University
Saint Leo, Florida 33574
Hamilton is by far the best
I have tried many of the transmitters on the market. SStran was a big disappointment. Talking house is a bit better but not enough coverage. Rangemaster is awesome, however it took me a long time to get the hang of it. Keith Hamilton is one of the nicest guys I ever did business with. And I have done business with alot of people. He guided me thru many steps. He gives you a phone number! The signal is great. I have many homes that listen to our broadcast in our area. If you are going to do part 15 please take my advice and only do it rangemaster. I got hit by ligthing Keith fixed it and didnt charge. Keith does this because he seems to really enjoy it. He is a talented engineer by profession and has worked for top companies. Anyone who ever did business with the man can tell you that he does it because he enjoys it, not just for the money. He also said if this doesnt do a mile i will buy it back from you. My main concern is that Keith continues his great work, because he is the only one who can deliver great equipment and support, with all things considered at a great price.
Also…….
With all the pirate radio activity in Florida, one would be a fool not to use a certified device.
WDCX AM1610 Part 15
John
Owner-Operator-Chief Engineer-Program Manager
http://home.earthlink.net/~wdcx
Good Feedback
Thanks Keith (right? You’re Hamilton?) and all for the good feedback! I susbscribed to the Rangemaster Yahoo Group and will monitor and be a silent sponge for now. A recent development at my house (Surprise Dad you’re going to be a Gandpa in 2 months instead of by Christmas!) has my Part 15 plans pushed to the back burner for a little while. Like anything worthwhile I find the Part 15 universe is a more complicated one than I first imagined.
I have an extreme compromise option in place. After having read a thread here concerning experiments with a Mr. Microphone type device, surprised at the range such a thing can be capable of, I bought a solid little fm transmitter that throws an uncomprimised 300 feet, adjusts to 200 freqs on the fm dial, powers from my USB port and isn’t the least bit bothered by 4 computers and several wireless household devices all within a few feet of it. So I created some very satisfactory station IDs with ATT’s Natural Voices experimental synthesized voice creator, my annoucer lady has a quite distinct Bristish Accent, and run my OTR shows 24 hours a day. The unit was under $10 on ebay and it works surprisingly well.
I’ll continue educating myself on Part 15 am dos and don’ts until I can find a way to create space for a workbench here at home (I do like to DIY and likely will be able to handle the Rangemaster as I’m more or less handy with a soldering iron and worked in computer repair and video system installation.) Thanks again folks!
-Dave
http://lwww.wdave.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010880/
More good feedback
Dave,
Interesting story about your FM tx. score. And congratulations on the expected arrival of the early Christmas “harmonic” and I hope all is well.
If you get a chance, I, and I expect others here, would be interested in a bit more detail about your FM transmitter experiences.
I have been in radio as a hobby for many years and recognize the value of sharing knowledge and experience on boards such as this. Please throw in your $.02 and add to our library of knowledge.
Neil
The Little TX that could
Hey Neil, Info-wise, here is the tx in all it’s glory: http://tinyurl.com/2fzb9v I’ve bought 3 through this vendor and pay $8 and they arrive in Valencia, CA in 2 days. It’s performance as I mentioned is unhampered by all the crosstalk from 4 computers, 3 wireless connections, wireless keyboards and mice…etc. It’s lightweight and hangs from my front headphone jack and USB port (Conveniantly side by side). Further testing yeilds a solid 300ft on all frequencies I’ve tried. I stay in the 87-90 range as it has the most openings, the stations that do exist down that way are generally low power college stations that don’t make it up out of Los Angeles into the mountains. Experimenting with a few I’ve found I can extend to 500ft on a few, and one lets me get it across the street at a Shell station, a good 1000ft away, but that’s fringe limit.
I’m generating some quite satisfying station IDs here; http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php
and I get some often amusing reads from the various characters there, it all depends on your use of words and punctuation.
Maybe someone here can tell me; I seem to recall reading that laying my TX on a metal shelf will extend it’s range. I may have misunderstood what I read. I am curious if anyone knows how one might extend the range of a sealed unit like this. Is there such a thing as “proximity boost” from certain types of metal shelves, slinkys…etc?
I’ll keep playing with this little guy and seeing what it’s perfect combination of freq and positioning is.
-Dave Adams
http://www.lwdave.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010880/
Great Little Box
by MRAM 1500 kHz
I have two of these units. The first I purchased appears to be the same as pictured on that Ebay link. The second, from the same seller, is white and slightly different not having the flashlight LED or the thermometer as the black unit does. Also, the white unit has a regular DC input jack which makes it nice as the other unit went through the batteries quickly. I tried the USB port the black unit has to power it. Melt-down… OOOPS.
Only problem I have with the white one is it shuts off automatically after 10 seconds of silence which, if a power glitch reboots my PC, the transmitter shuts off.
As for the range, my PC and transmitter are located on the 2nd floor of my garage/barn. I get at least 500 feet solid and then falls off quickly.
For less than $12 shipping included, you can’t beat it! Stereo, covers the whole FM band, sounds great. The only thing I’d like to see in it would be a limiter as it’s very easy to over-deviate, watch the input level setting.
Sounds too good to be true
Is this unit FCC certified and properly labelled? I may grab a few. My experience with the cheap units is inferior audio quality and pilot crashing. I love my C.Crane unit,best sound so far,even better than the EDM,and its certified!
Regards,Lee
http://www.freewebs.com/wilcomlabs/index.htm
too good?
I agree in light of the CCrane at $70 needing a mod to reach 300′ that this sounds too good to be true. The only certification on the back is the CE safety logo . “Wireless FM Transmitter Model No. 668A Working Current 38mA/1.5v x 2AAA size battery” that’s the sum total info. If you do buy one get the black one, I own 3 and they power fine from my standard USB port and always include the USB cable and Car charger end. If you buy from another vendor than mine above, check what accessories are included, some on eBay do not offer them. Tell him “lwdave” sent you, he’s been quite good to me, shipping it to me so that it arrives in 2 days (I assume he is in LA).
-Dave Adams
http://www.lwdave.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010880/
Anybody try one?
Just curious if anyone has picked one of these up and tested it. I picked one up for a friend and he was deleriously happy with it. Could anyone tell me if elevating the unit 20 or 30 ft might extend it’s range?.
Currently I run a Lux Radio Theater Playlist that loops several dozen shows 24 hours a day and use some vintage FM radios around the house that sound ideally suited to the material.. My wife and I love to tune in what ever happens to be playing when we turn on the radios- it makes a great background at night for drifting off to sleep and it feels very much like we are just catching whatever happens to be broacasting at the time- it’s easy to forget that I made the choice of shows…”I wonder what ‘KOTR’ is playing tonight?”, “Let’s tune in and find out.” The station IDs I created help keep the illusion going. Perhaps a few of my neighbors have discovered our broadcasts and are also enjoying them, who knows? Certainly 4 other apartments fall within our transmission range,
-Dave Adams
http://www.lwdave.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010880/
Can’t … Stop… Must buy another…
by MRAM 1500 kHz
I picked up another one. It’s the black model with the LED flashlight and thermometer but, this one came with the USB power cord and 12 volt “lighter plug” adapter.
This one came from the west coast seller on Ebay and I had it in two days. Total price with shipping under $10. The power cord is worth that!
It runs non-stop (unless the PC crashes) 24/7. I have a list of 60’s/70’s music running with an ID on the hour and half hour.
Me…Too…Stop Me Before I Buy Again!….
MRAM, I feel the same way about these little wonder-gizmos!
I bought 3 and I may buy more and give them as gifts, or put together some old radio reproductions with them and sell them on eBay as a kit. I have a jukebox style radio made in the late 60s with nice light tubes running around the front edge that make a pleasing night light, I broadcast OTR to it all night as it sits by our bed. The tone of the speaker is just right for the shows (Lux Radio Theater usually). The TXer with a radio of that type would make a dandy kit for those who want the illusion of listening to OTR “on the air!”
Well, I’m way off-topic from Part 15, so I’ll sign off.
To good to be true.
Hello Mram,
I’ve been following this thread for sometime now…and decided to purchase the the TIny FM Transmitter that you guys have been talking about… Just received it today…installed it and broadcasting noaa weather for a test and I must say that I was very very surprised on the performance . Wow!!! I was a sceptic at first but now I’m not.
Maybe we should keep this a secret! Ha.
thanks for leading me to a decent fm transmitter…maybe now I can enjoy my Ipod while mobile.
GYJERRY
This unit is NOT certified
I have been following this thread and thought, “what the heck”, for $12 on ebay I will try this little transmitter thing. It came quickly, looks sharp and sounds great. And for $12 includes the usb cable and cigarette lighter adapter. A good deal.
BUT…
Although it has a CE logo on the unit, there is no FCC sticker. And checking the range, there is no way this thing is operating within part15 limits. Some causal range checking showed that plugged into my computer, under my desk in the basement, this unit got outside and about 300 feet on a cheap fm pocket radio with no antenna, and over 1200 feet on a decent car radio. From the basement. Yikes!
Digging a little deeper, I saw this unit throw harmonics all up and down the band – you could clearly hear the signal over other stations not just 10.7mhz up and down, but in several other locations also.
I don’t aim to rain on anyone’s parade – just be careful, because if the Fed’s come knocking on your door and you are running this unit you will get dinged.
Crazy Throws
Seems (sadly) that you’re correct J.
It interferes with my son’s stuff in his room (all my various electronics right next to it are seemingly unaffected) and the fact that you are getting that sort of range from the basement can only mean this thing is hot as a firecracker.
I..ahem…officially unrecommend it.
{;-D
-Dave
Harmonics
by MRAM 1500 kHz
Well… I checked this little box out at work on a Motorola Station Monitor due to the comments here.
I found no spurs within the FM broadcast band but, the 1st harmonic (205 mHz) was nearly as strong as the fundamental of 102.5 mHz. The 2nd harmonic (307.5 mHz) was down a few db but way to strong. The 3rd harmonic was the killer. At 409 mHz it was nearly 40 db stronger than the fundamental. I’ll take my scanner on the road to see how far that goes. The 4th harmonic was still to strong but slightly weaker than the fundamental.
When I get some time, perhaps I’ll open this little box and see what if anything can be done to filter the output. In the mean time I’ll need to see what services are in those frequency ranges and just how far this little box is heard on those frequencies.
I don’t think I’ll run it 24/7 anymore! To bad, it sounds great.
FM harmonics
MRAM1500 has posted information which is very important to FM part 15ers in that he has measured strong harmonics coming from an uncertified FM transmitter. It would appear that these transmitters are being dumped on the marked at a low price since there is no way they could be certified and sold legally and they probably have a warehouse full of them taking up space. This is just speculation but it is plausable.
A couple of technical comments:
Though literally it makes no sense, the first harmonic is the fundamental. So the second harmonic is 2X the fundamental frequency and so on. We do this so we can conviently calculate the harmonics. The ninth harmonic of 100 MHz is 9 X 100 MHz = 900 MHz.
Also, the deviation from a FM transmitter is multiplied by the harmonic number, so if a 100 MHz occupies a 150 kHz bandwidth* at the fundamental, it will occupy a 450 kHz bandwidth at the third harmonic. Couple this with the posssible operation from 88 to 108 MHz and the strength of the harmonics MRAM1500 reported and there appears to be little chance that there will NOT be interference in the VHF and UHF bands to other services and that certainly could attract attention in a negative way.
Neil
* The bandwidth does not equal the deviation since it depends on the modulation frequency also, but for FM broadcast the total deviation +/- and the bandwidth are about equal. Close enough for this discussion.
Ya, it was late
by MRAM 1500 kHz
Yes, Neil, thanks for correcting that. The 2nd harmonic is twice the fundamental and so on. I should get more sleep.
I would guess that since these little boxes don’t have an actual antenna but rather probably rely on the audio or power cord to radiate that the length of the wire resonates better at the harmonic than the fundamental. Hence the big peak output at the 4th harmonic. Maybe some shielding and ferrite beads are in order here.
Well, at least it’s a niffty little flashlight and thermometer!
Bizarre Wrinkle
Having recommended this little firecracker soley on the basis of it’s housebound performance (and my irresponsible ignorance of how radio truly works) I had purchased one for a friend who couldn’t get satisfactory performance with a number of similar units in his PT Criuiser. He was simply trying get his mp3 player on his radio. Blistering confidence in it’s (I now know, wildly illegal) performance made me sure this was the solution for his car audio problem. I bought him one and he paid me for it a few months back. I started a new job this week ( I do 3d animation/special effects for movies/tv ) and my friend was part of our team; I asked him how he was enjoying the TX and he said “I can’t get it to work no matter where in the car I put it! On the dash, in the back seat, in the trunk….nothing.” He gave me the unit to test and of course it works perfectly hooked to my computer’s headphone jack, on all the radios I have used with my unit, even in the car several hundred feet away, down in a parking structure that I generally lose cel phone service in. I can take my portable am/fm/sw and there is no proximity artifacting, I can touch them together in fact, and the reception is solid anywhere in the house and out. I suggested when he gave it to me that there might be something in his car interfering with the operation of the unit but honestly I have no idea what it could be. Anyone have a suggestion as to what could be causing his problem?
-Dave
Different unit
I would recommend that you look into one of the units that goes in the antenna line and sends the signal directly to the tuner rather than radiating it. Not only will this avoid external interference, but it will also not interfere with radio reception for other drivers on the road.
WEAK-AM
Classical Music and More!