Belkin verse others - Christmas Radio/Music/Videos/etc. 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
Out of interest I tore into another brand of wireless transmitters and did the modification to it (Virtual Reality Sound Labs VR3) ($10 Frye's Electronics). When I pulled the case apart I was looking at a board similar to the one that the Belkin had and it was easy to determine the antenna wire.
After adding the longer wire and closing the case back I plugged it into a computer, went to youtube and started a Charley Brown cartoon. The range in the car was 2 houses 1 way with heavy trees 160 foot range ....4 the other no trees that side. 300+/-feet
I had not had time to find out the correct length of wire so I had about 6-8 feet. This transmitter is running on 2 AAA batteries.
I did this at my mothers, while I was waiting for her to get home, using a "HOTSPOT" iron that use 5 AA batteries. This modification was so easy all I used was a screwdriver and the iron while sitting on her driveway.
The question's I have is:
Has anyone else used anything other than the Belkin?
What brand?
What results?
Well my work is done on this item. I plugged it in to a notebook, booted it up, tuned the car radio to 88.1, heard music, 88.3 heard music,88.5 heard music, 88.7 heard music.............NONE WERE CHRISTMAS
Weeeellllllll, I guess it is on to find another Transmitter. Any ideas for something CHEAP, can not afford $200 but I do need to get about 200 ft. This is in the country and I have little fear of the "air police" showing up as it is on a private camp grounds and over 10 miles to a main road.
Last edited on Tuesday October 16th, 2007 04:20 am by tcoody
tcoody wrote: Well my work is done on this item. I plugged it in to a notebook, booted it up, tuned the car radio to 88.1, heard music, 88.3 heard music,88.5 heard music, 88.7 heard music.............NONE WERE CHRISTMAS
Weeeellllllll, I guess it is on to find another Transmitter. Any ideas for something CHEAP, can not afford $200 but I do need to get about 200 ft. This is in the country and I have little fear of the "air police" showing up as it is on a private camp grounds and over 10 miles to a main road.
Make sure you find a station that's empty. It's going to be hard for a little ipod transmitter to overpower an existing radio station and you shouldn't anyway regardless of whether you're going to get caught or not.
Im preliminary tests it transmitts easily 200 feet. I did the belkin thing last year including the mod and people had a hard time picking up the music and it was a bit fuzzy. The whole house transmitter is $89
I did an antennae mod to my Belkin TuneCast II and only got about 30 feet more range (from the default 4 feet). That made up my mind to get a Ramsey FM30. Oh boy, the range out of that!
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Visit Santa's Landing at http://www.twinkleclaus.com
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"64 monkeys flipping 64 switches on and off in time to music"
Trowelfaz wrote: I did an antennae mod to my Belkin TuneCast II and only got about 30 feet more range (from the default 4 feet). That made up my mind to get a Ramsey FM30. Oh boy, the range out of that!
I also chose the FM30. I initially had trouble with blowing out the final transistor, (from touching the whip antenna while unit was turned on). Ramsey said that it is very sensitive to static discharge and should never touch the whip when it is on. I now use the 50 ohm cable with antenna. With the antenna about 10 feet above ground in an urban environment I get about 3/4 mile of range with no interference. That is with the power set at about 70%. So we have to turn the power down to 50% or less to keep it legal.
I also choose the Ramsey FM 30, I had a Belken the first year and it did ok for It's intend use, but found that it did have dead spots in it's transmitting range, The Ramsey with it's PLL synthesized for drift free operation gives a solid signal 360 degree coverage and will transmit clear as a bell well past 200 foot limit set down by the FCC rules part15. So in my case I had to turn it down to stay within the limits and it still transmits well past the viewing range of my display. and thats all the really matters.
Last edited on Friday October 19th, 2007 10:57 pm by RayNMesa
The Ramsey was my first component soldering project besides small replacements and I was surprised when it worked the first time! I get tremendous range out of it, and turned the output down to reel it back in a bit. I also liked the PLL to stop drift and the front panel tuning. I don't regret the purchase at all.
____________________ --------------------------------
Visit Santa's Landing at http://www.twinkleclaus.com
--------------------------------
"64 monkeys flipping 64 switches on and off in time to music"
Im preliminary tests it transmitts easily 200 feet. I did the belkin thing last year including the mod and people had a hard time picking up the music and it was a bit fuzzy. The whole house transmitter is $89
I looked at those and the Belkin. Both were limited as to their frequencies. Here, the high end of the FM is packed. The low end is more available but I heard something on all of the frequencies available on both of those units.
I ended up buying a Ramsey 30. It took three evenings for my son and I to assemble not working hard at it. I bought a breadboard and a few resistors for about 4 bucks at Radio Shack so that we could practice a little before we put heat to the real thing. I'm glad that I did. That breadboard is a mess. The instructions were clear and a bit comical. At one point, I was supposed to install a small red variable cap. I couldn't find it so I skipped it to deal with the missing part later. It turned out in the end that the red cap was actually a green cap...whew.
We fired it up this morning and tested it. Transmitting through a stucco garage wall, it has a range of two small blocks before it starts to get noisy at half power. The reception within visiual range of my yard is perfect. I'm very pleased and it was fun to assemble. I even have spare parts, two caps and a resistor!
Last edited on Sunday October 21st, 2007 03:22 am by Entropy
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