transmitter group buy for PC members - Buy/Sell/Trade/Announce. Read Only. No more posting. - PlanetChristmas! Forums. Read Only. We've moved to http://talk.planetchristmas.com - The Forums of PlanetChristmas have moved to http://talk.PlanetChristmas.com
Since I live in the Phoenix Area, Open radio stations are few and far between. I ususally test my list as I come ina and leave my neighbor hood each day.
I have been testing frequencies in my neighborhood for about a month now. I thought I had one a good one, but on my drive home last night, I think I have someone else that is using that for their MP3 a 1/4 to 1/2 mi up the block up now.. BUT as long as I do not interfere with that persons broadcast at my end of the block, life is good!
here is my recomendations from my tinkering.
I have seen many links to websites that you input your zipcode and gives a list of open frequencies. These are frequencies that have NOT been asigned by the FCC to a licnesed broadcast station. Also use your car radio as their tuners seem to be of better quality and reception on the move. You also may want to have a co pilot for this to do this safely.
Once you have that list, ride around your neighborhood at least a block or 2 in all directions from your house if possible, and test those frequencies. find one or 2 that appears to be the quietest..
Let me define quiet. You will hear static or a pinknoise sound while you are moving. You may actually have some station drift from out lying stations. This is terestrial and just stray signal drift. ( I have one from tuscon that will come and go here and there by my house on a certain open frequency)
If you seem to have a fairly clear channel and seems usable, Hook your FM TX up and set it up on a CD, MP3 etc and test it. I suggest finding something that WILL not be mixed up with normal music. I use a "BlueMan Group" DVD, so i can easily tell what is mine and what isn't.
Once your FM radio picks up the pilot freq, it should lock onto your signal pretty well. You should get roughly 200 feet give or take with good quality signal, once you are outside that range you should start to get get a bit of drift off of your broadcast.. A good estimate of size is just shy a football field of good signal with your TX centered in the middle. I am thinking of getting my 100ft tape out and measure off 200 ft. This should be 5 houses down from mine as most of the lots are 40 to 50 feet wide.
When I get home ( SHHH... I am at the work place taking a quick break) I will posts some of those links to help locate open channels.
William
Last edited on Tuesday March 4th, 2008 09:53 pm by mnkyboy
I would ask the folks on the EDM group about that. I haven't tried tuning .1 increments ... just rolled it up to 93.9 and left it there. I used a paperclip through the case to tune mine ... one button goes up, the other goes down ... very simple.
( you will have to get your Latitude and Longitude for the FCC page.
We were graced here in AZ by having someone that provided AZCLC with a link to all Licensed Broadcasters in our area.. This had made looking for open spots much easier...
Thanks, that FCC link is a new one for me. I only had a little trouble entering my location in terms of lat/lon hrs min sec ... but I finally found a combination of sites to figure it out.
The output was pretty typical for government agencies:
"The coordinates ...... cannot be used to apply for a low power broadcast station on ANY FM channel due to interference caused to authorized FM broadcast stations."
In other words, no vacant frequencies .... consistent with that channel finder had told me.
I think the other one was a easier and more helpful in that it suggested other stuff, not just 'nothing available" ... probably because the FCC site is to see if you can actually get a low power FCC license.
Last edited on Wednesday March 5th, 2008 01:18 am by taybrynn
taybrynn wrote: Thanks, that FCC link is a new one for me. I only had a little trouble entering my location in terms of lat/lon hrs min sec ... but I finally found a combination of sites to figure it out.
The output was pretty typical for government agencies:
"The coordinates ...... cannot be used to apply for a low power broadcast station on ANY FM channel due to interference caused to authorized FM broadcast stations."
In other words, no vacant frequencies .... consistent with that channel finder had told me.
I think the other one was a easier and more helpful in that it suggested other stuff, not just 'nothing available" ... probably because the FCC site is to see if you can actually get a low power FCC license. **I got lucky that someone had already done the FCC page for arizona. I will play with it more later and see if I can come up with a better result to help everyone. ( I got a throbbing migrane right now) The FCC page should show all the "licensed" Tranmsitters, so you can pick out frequencies that are knowningly open in your area. For me 96.1 shows nothing over 100 miles close to Phoneix. But I still get some very faint broadcasts from a Tuscon station, especially at night. When I did my drive tests initially with my FM tx telescoping antenna, , this station would somewhat come in and out with me right in front of my house. With the new external antenna I am good well past both sides of my house with clean signal.. when I get to the ends of my block to go one block behind my house I get some fade, as i approach my house from behind and it gets strong again until the end of the street so I can return to my street again where its fades...As usual, typical GOVT webpage is confusing, but I will get to the meat n taters of it!William
The EDM LCD FM transmitter remains an outstanding value compared to the Ramsey FM30 or FM100b, It’s like getting a Mercedes Benz for the price of a KIA in terms of performance and quality. For the difference in price between the Ramsey FM30 & the EDM LCD FM transmitter, you could add the Behringer DSP1424P 2-band loudness processor to the EDM for a sound that will rival any FM station on the dial, and still have money left over.
BTW, I just got a DSP1424P off ebay ... I'll be able to provide more information on this unit, as I work with it and learn more about it.
This just in from EDM support, regarding static considerations: NO damage will be done to the RF stage of our kits by touching the antenna with the normal static body charge often present in dry conditions. We never had this problem or anyone complaining about this before. We had a few problems in the past were people used the unit on full power with a faulty shorted external antenna or with even no antenna connected for long periods. This can be classified as negligence or abuse of the unit and failures should be expected to occur.
Thanks for your patience everyone. We are as close to 10 as you can get without being there. Once I get confirmation that we hit 10 from EDM, I'll let you know here first.
I believe we are on the cusp of hitting our first 10 quota. I'm thinking we are at ~ nine currently and either have #10 pending or we could get one more in the next day or two quite easily.
If that happens, then I would guess the ball would start rolling for this batch by next Monday or Tuesday at the latest. My guess is around 10 days from then ... since my order took 10 days (to CO). I think EDM states "up to" 15 days officially.
Then we'll start all over with another 10 batch probably the day after we hit 10, that is my guess on how it will work.
So if your sitting on the sidelines ... this is actually the best time to get in on this deal, because your wait will almost be nil and you'll be getting a great transmitter for 10% off.
I encourage anyone buying here to followup on your experience with your transmitter and how its working for you. And join the EDM yahoo group if you want to really get into these units.
I just wanted to throw in my .02 for the EDM transmitter. I bought the LCD model with the case and power supply included.
I just received it yesterday afternoon and "assembled" it this morning. Way simple to put together, only have to solder a power connector on (3 pins) and install the microprocessor chip and it is good to go.
This things is fairly awesome from what I can see. It powered up just fine and puts out a nice clean signal. I was getting a 1/4 mile on factory settings with the supplied antenna strung up over a curtain rod in the back of my house in my office.
I will have to cut it back some since this is way too far to transmit for me, but the unit works great.
I have to say that it is a good deal so far. Once I get some more time to test and adjust it I will post better findings, but so far so good.
beeiilll wrote: I just wanted to throw in my .02 for the EDM transmitter. I bought the LCD model with the case and power supply included.
I just received it yesterday afternoon and "assembled" it this morning. Way simple to put together, only have to solder a power connector on (3 pins) and install the microprocessor chip and it is good to go.
This things is fairly awesome from what I can see. It powered up just fine and puts out a nice clean signal. I was getting a 1/4 mile on factory settings with the supplied antenna strung up over a curtain rod in the back of my house in my office.
I will have to cut it back some since this is way too far to transmit for me, but the unit works great.
I have to say that it is a good deal so far. Once I get some more time to test and adjust it I will post better findings, but so far so good.
Bill
AWESOME NEWS!! That is the model which I bought and am happy to hear a review of that particular model. I am getting more and more excited.
The first 10 LCD orders have been reached. 