dietermoreno
- Dec 30, 2012
- 238
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2012
- Messages
- 238
Hello. I have returned after I successfully built the Ramsey FM transmitter after ordering the missing parts.
I daisy chained 3 Trisonic TV amps from the transmitter 75 ohm coax output to a rabbit ears antenna that has a really thin cable that doesn't look like a standard RG-6 75 ohm coax cable.
I am able to hear my broadcasts all around my house upstairs and downstairs. Also, when I take my battery powered boombox and walk outside down the street I am able to hear my broadcast until it fades out near the street corner about 40 yards away from my front door.
If I don't use the amps and the external antenna I'm not really able to hear it at all past a few feet.
I noticed interestingly that using only the included whip antenna: it works better when the sun is up. The moment the sun set at about 9PM I heard a static fade coming on for 30 seconds after it was getting more and more distorted and staticy for the past 15 minutes, and then when I couldn't see sun light anymore I only heard static. It appears that the low FM band (87.7-91.9 MHZ) that I'm broadcasting on is more noisy at night than in the day time like AM radio. I changed the battery and still only static. Then the static got quiet as soon as I connected to the amps and external antenna, and then I retuned to adjust for frequency drift until I heard the music.
I haven't had to adjust for frequency drift in the past hour to be able to hear it at all, but the audio quality does appear to be slowly decreasing right now from frequency drift so its time to retune it again now.
Unfortunately, when I turned it off and disconnected the rabbit ears from the amplifiers, I noticed that the connector for the rabbit ears cable was hot.
Doesn't heat mean inefficiency?
That heat has to come from somewhere, so that means that the heat is RF energy that isn't passing out of the antenna and is stuck at the connector?
Would upgrading to a rabbit ears antenna that has a connector for a standard RG 6 cable reduce the heat at the connector and increase my broadcast range?
I daisy chained 3 Trisonic TV amps from the transmitter 75 ohm coax output to a rabbit ears antenna that has a really thin cable that doesn't look like a standard RG-6 75 ohm coax cable.
I am able to hear my broadcasts all around my house upstairs and downstairs. Also, when I take my battery powered boombox and walk outside down the street I am able to hear my broadcast until it fades out near the street corner about 40 yards away from my front door.
If I don't use the amps and the external antenna I'm not really able to hear it at all past a few feet.
I noticed interestingly that using only the included whip antenna: it works better when the sun is up. The moment the sun set at about 9PM I heard a static fade coming on for 30 seconds after it was getting more and more distorted and staticy for the past 15 minutes, and then when I couldn't see sun light anymore I only heard static. It appears that the low FM band (87.7-91.9 MHZ) that I'm broadcasting on is more noisy at night than in the day time like AM radio. I changed the battery and still only static. Then the static got quiet as soon as I connected to the amps and external antenna, and then I retuned to adjust for frequency drift until I heard the music.
I haven't had to adjust for frequency drift in the past hour to be able to hear it at all, but the audio quality does appear to be slowly decreasing right now from frequency drift so its time to retune it again now.
Unfortunately, when I turned it off and disconnected the rabbit ears from the amplifiers, I noticed that the connector for the rabbit ears cable was hot.
Doesn't heat mean inefficiency?
That heat has to come from somewhere, so that means that the heat is RF energy that isn't passing out of the antenna and is stuck at the connector?
Would upgrading to a rabbit ears antenna that has a connector for a standard RG 6 cable reduce the heat at the connector and increase my broadcast range?