Day two since I decided to put another part 15 back up and I haven’t backed out yet! My wife has a job at a local oldies AM here in town, and I went in with her to spin some tunes and do their version of the Party Line (See previous post) last Saturday. That was all it took. The radio bug has bitten me again.
The station she works at is the real deal…a local 5000 Watt AM that plays oldies and has all kinds of deliciously hokey programming like “The Sick Call” “(which people LOVE by the way) Monday morning with the Mayor (it is the actual mayor of our town) and the the Classifieds which is their buy sell and trade program. I really like what they’re doing for the most part, but they don’t broadcast in English after 4PM. I’ll be looking forward to joining her on the air again this Saturday morning, then it’s back home to start work on my part 15.
The first order of business is to clean out the garage and gut the “shop” which will end up being the station’s broadcast studio if I can get it cooled down enough. I’ll post some pics of any progress on that down the road. As for real progress today, the check for the transmitter (it’s a 500mw FM transmitter, FCC compliant according to the manual) cleared, so I’m expecting it sometime in the middle of next week. I’m looking forward to playing with it a little bit, and I’m also looking at adding a digital DSP FM processor before the station launch. Tonight, I’ve been going through tunes and getting a rough feel for what the station might sound like.
In the past, I’ve done a mix of rock and talk formats. This will prove to be much different. The preliminary stages of the station launch are being planned. We’re (that’s me and Lori) planning on a simultaneous on-air and Internet launch TBA.
I will certainly appreciate any ideas on station pre-promotion ideas and tips from all the part 15 pros here at part15.us, as well as any tips on how to make my little out-building cool in the summer. It’s a small wooden structure which I am planning on insulating, sheet-rocking, and installing a small window unit. I’ll be posting pics as that progresses.
WILCOM LABS says
welcome back
Danger,danger Will Robinson!!! A transmitter that is 500mw on FM is definately not legal! Beware of any transmitter that claims to be “compliant” , accept only those that are certified and carry an FCC certification on the tag. Even with a certified transmitter,it still falls on the user to insure compliance. The CCrane and Broadcast Vision are two of the best certified units out there,have a look…Lee
Carl Blare says
Two Vision Transmitters
Interest was peaked by mention of Broadcast Vision Transmitter, one we hadn’t heard of before.
A search turned up two “Vision” transmitters.
http://www.broadcastvision.com/
The Broadcast Vision is popular with fitness centers and is most probably the one referred to by WILCOM LABS.
http://www.wholehousefmtransmitter.com/zen-vision-fm-transmitter.php
The Whole House Zen Vision Transmitter looks well thought out and is also FCC Certified, and according to one report is being preferred by some fitness centers because of better pricing.
We’re getting to have an insane collection of FM transmitters and don’t need another one, yet on the other hand these look good.
jjames says
Hey thanks for the comments.
Hey thanks for the comments. I’ll have to look and see the actual verbiage on the manual for this transmitter. I see all kinds of 500mw transmitters that claim to be FCC legal, but I thought that 500mw sounded like a little much. I’ll look into the units you all mentioned. I got this one at a great price though…under $80 with shipping.
That’s ok though…I will find another unit to use. Its a shame, because the transmitter showed up yesterday. I turned it on and tested it…sounds great and has amazing range for the little 9″ rubber antenna that came with it. I just set it on my desk and drove down the road listening to it. It got weak at about .02 miles out, but I kept going and heard it off and on for 2.7 miles so I knew then I’d have to make some adjustments to weaken it. There should be some kind of dummy load or something I can attach to it to reduce the output power to 1/4 watt? If not, I was thinking about making a mobile unit, so this transmitter will probably end up in it. to take out to car shows and local events.
scwis says
So TAW~Global finally went legal
Color me amazed 🙂
The Whole House unit is now available in a certified unit.
See the FCC Certification info here, some photos, etc., still available
jjames says
Thanks! I bookmarked the site
Thanks! I bookmarked the site and will use this one most likely cince it has the certification.
Carl Blare says
Whole Hog for Whole House
Since finding this Whole House FM Transmitter I’ve been visualizing our whole house as needing one. Some ads are like fly paper and perhaps we have fly DNA somewhere in the genes, and today was the day I eagerly got lured into the questionaire portion of the order form, happily typing in confidential credit card information and estimating the day when the UPS would appear out front.
Since part15.us is a Partner Affiliate, just click on their link to Whole House, that was my port of entry. It means part15.us will have earned 15% of the sale. That’s neat.
mighty1650 says
Try AM or C Crane FM
Hey there,
500mW is a tad bit too much.
I would suggest the C Crane which is the same price as the one you just got. But the C Crane does need some tweaking to get it to put out any signal (just google C Crane Mod) I would be careful though its pretty darned easy to get out of FCC Part 15 FM spec. But I would doubt the FCC would care if you just went out a little bit farther than you should (ie 800 ft instead of 200)
The absolute best route would be Part 15 AM. Which costs a little more but gets more legal range.
Good AM Transmitters are
SSTran
Talking House (On Sale For $99)
Procaster
Rangemaster
Ermi Roos says
Whole House certification data
The certification test data on the FCC website for the new Whole House transmitter is surprisingly complete. Manufacturers have the right to hide critical competitive information from the public. C. Crane, for example, does not reveal what the certification field strength measurements for its FM transmiter are. The only thing that Whole House conceals is what the possible measurement error at the test site is. The certification document for another transmitter gives a possible measurement error at the test site of +/- 4.6 dB. In order to assure that the transmitter does not exceed the FCC limit of 250 uV/m at 3 m, the measurement accuracy should be taken into account. Also, since it is not feasible to perform certification tests on every transmitter that is manufactured, additional margin should be added to the test limit so that it is very unlikely that any transmitter will exceed the FCC limit. I am guessing that C. Crane is very conservative about its test limits, but does not want to advertise how low their certification measurements are. Again, I am only guessing, but why else would they conceal their test data from the public?
The highest field strength reading for the Whole House certification data is 183.7 uV/m at 3 m at 98.0 MHz using vertical polarization of the field strength measuring pickup antenna. This is less than 3 dB margin from the maximum field strength that is allowed. Again, they did not reveal what the measuring accuracy at the test site is.
Carl Blare says
We Agree
1650 The Crow is right about everything, and I’m already there. I operate a legal 10′ stick on 1670 and a C.Crane as transmitter link between two rooms to get the audio out to the AM transmitter. But I’m perhaps irrational in loving this Part 15 habit, and stock a Ramsey 25b and 4x Scosche FMT4R. Getting the Whole House is very extravagant but it’s safer than other pleasures.
The wireless signals are not intended for the public, only for internal use. Yet driving somewhere it’s sad to lose contact only a block or two away when the program is interesting. Off goes the radio.
Our stream is the main public outreach and it would be a good idea for internet listeners to set up Part 15 stations at their end. In a round about way I try to promote that, so I keep a Part 15 page on the website, hoping it’s educational and attracts new followers.
Call me a recruiter for Part15.us