I'm building an AM transmitter
 

I finally became fed up enough with the limited program options on today's AM radio band, that I decided to order myself an AMT3000 "Low Power AM Broadcast Radio Transmitter Kit" from SSTran.com. Delivery was surprisingly quick, considering that I ordered the kit just this past Wednesday, and it arrived yesterday (Saturday).

I had considered a number of different transmitter designs before deciding on the AMT3000. The kit costs $89.95, including the 18 volt "wall wart" power supply. This place sells the same transmitter, assembled, for $159.95. This past February, Popular Communications published a very informative article on the AMT3000.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...s/AMT3000A.jpg

I am impressed with the quality of the kit, and especially with the assembly/operating instructions -- very well done. It doesn't look to be a very difficult kit to assemble, with somewhere around 150 parts total. All but one of the five IC's are socketed. The SSM2166S IC is soldered directly to the board, but since the pins are spaced .050" apart, they offer the kit with this item pre-installed for an additional three bucks (which I considered a worthwhile investment!)

I hope to get started on this puppy soon, and I will let you all know how (if) it works out!

Paula

Good deal Paula...I built the better Ramsey AM last year and it sucked.

I had been planning to build the Ramsey too.

The Ramsey's P.S. was a huge source of noise. It's audio was horrid and it barely had enough strength to go across the house. I was very disapointed in it. A far cry from the performance of the tube AM trannies we built when I was a kid...one of which easily went 15 miles.

Paula, how about a bit of background info on the "why"? What is the purpose and how is this AM xmitter used? What problem is it going to solve?

Paul

Having a local AM transmitter allows the restorer to broadcast his own chosen content through his restored receivers.

Paula

Sweet! :hdphones:

Paul

That's pretty cool! I was thinking of posting a politely sarcastic response like "What are you gonna do, broadcast CDs through it to your radio in the same room?"

Got me.

Here's how I'm planning to set it up: since most all of the music I listen to is on my computer, I'll connect the transmitter to the soundcard's output, and will theoretically be able to "broadcast" whatever custom playlists I compile in iTunes to the various radios located throughout my home. :rockon:

[Maybe it'll even work! :scratch2: ]

I can't see why it wouldn't work, and a cool idea to boot...

I don't know if you listened to this station when you were out here but it probably be a fun one to stream off your computer to an old tube radio once in a while. Mostly 40's to 60's - usually softer "sweet music" stuff since CC bought it.

Carl

http://www.960kabl.com/main.html

I'm also broadcasting through my antique radios; right now my system consists of a Yamaha 5-disc CD changer, fed into an old Altec Lansing mixer. The 600 ohm output of the mixer is fed into an Altec graphic equalizer, which is fed into a CBS Audimax compressor/limiter. The Audimax feeds into a CBS Volumax peak limiter, which drives my little 100mw crystal controlled AM transmitter. I built the transmitter from plans which appeared in one of the Mid-Atlantic antique radio club newsletters about 15 years ago. This system works real well. and sounds just like one of the old-time AM stations. I program it with custom CDs which I burn on the computer; loaded up with 50s-70s oldies. I'm considering using an LPB carrier-current transmitter (pulled out of a drive-in theatre) to increase my range.

Yes, I know I'm weird, but I've had a stroke & it messed w/my pea-brain, so there. Anyhoo, while I do still like to kick out the jams, mofos, but now that I'm staring the big 50 in the face, & it ain't blinkin at all, I find myself searching out stations like that more & more. Developed a certain affinity, dare I say appreciation for Les Baxter, Percy Faith, Martin Denny, Vaughan Monroe, et al. Pretty good musicianship, even if the stuff is liteweight enuff to make Madonna sound profound by comparison. Sure beats listening to some hoodlum talking about how many policemen he's murdered, or a discourse on his sexual prowess. I think it would be neat to have all the Boatanchors playing "Riders in the Sky" or "April in Portugal" all at once. -Sandy G.

680 in Memphis plays some nice, laid back tunes...

Those 1960s easy listening stations are the best! We had one in chicago at one time, AM 850 and its long gone now, since around 1998:( The only AM stations to play 1950's 60s tunes now is AM 1690, but its all the typical oldies that youve heard about a billion times. What I like to call the "car show soundtrack" If you've been to car shows, you'll know exactly what I mean. (the same oldies everywhere you go, over and over)

I always had my Grundig 1088 table radio tuned to 850. the best is when they played "A Walk In The Black Forest". that was the perfect radio to play that tune, and it sounded great!

"A Walk In The Black Forest"* is one of those instrumentals that brings back fond memories of my youth. Kind of like looking at old Heathkit and Allied catalogs. :) (*Horst Jankowski 1965)

Great old tune... So many great instrumentals I remember from the 60's.

Paula

Hi Doug,

When 850 went off the air (or changed formats) it broke my heart. You're right, 1690 is a lot of the sameoldsameold, but at least it's better than 104.3 FM, at least for me.

And I like hearing the static bursts when a thunderstorm is on the way!

Clay

Paula!!!!
 

I've still got mine, too!! I had a hell of a time convincing my dad I needed such an expensive slide rule. He wanted me to get a plastic drug store model. Luckily, he was working for IBM at the time, and several field engineers told him (literally!) that expecting me to go four years in a EE program without a good slide rule was like him going through four years of life without hands at the end of his arms.

That did the trick!
Clay:D

I have an AM transmitter that I bought several years ago as a kit from AES. It uses a 12SA7 tube and performs quite well. I could tune in the broadcast from it while standing at my neighbor's back door. It is pretty simple looking and took only a short while to throw together.

Looks like the one Paula is building should be quite a performer! Alot more hi-tech than mine.

That's the advantage of burning your own CDs; you can put on whatever you want. I have been a record collector for 30+ years, and know too well that most oldies shows only play records which hit in the top 5 on the charts. The programmers have also forgotten that there was more to music in the Sixties than the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Motown! (Henry Mancini, Tijuana Brass, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, etc)

Paula, Have you checked out circuits for AM tranmitters with tubes??
 

You might find a better range, more quiet signal, better quality sound, you might be surprised to find out when dealing with tubes in this type of circuit, I think they are far superior. I know you already bought this unit, but for a secondary system, look around for a tubed unit, I think the superior performance will win you over.
Ron

Yep, tube transmitters can be great. My brother built at least two of them in the 60's where a tube power amp was used as the driver. That, along with a really long (and properly cut antenna) had a range of around 15 miles...and speaking of spastic er, plastic! slide rules...

Paula- Here's a few more for ya:"Summer Samba-Walter Wanderley,1966, "No Matter What Shape"T-Bones,1965 (Alka-Seltzer commercial), "Mission:Impossible",Lalo Schifrin,1968,"Girl From Ipanema, Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto, 1964,"Michael", The Highwaymen,1961. One more-"Peter Gunn,"Henry Mancini,1958.Yeah,I know, its 1958, but its Mancini, & its a very "baaaaaad" song,just accept it...<Grin> -Sandy G.

Hi Sandy,

Great songs!

Paula

I still have my Liberty 45 of "No Matter What" too. Well worn and pressed off-center to boot! :rolleyes: Speaking of Getz, here's one of my favorites that had the hit "Desafinado" on it. "Jazz Samba" Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd (Verve-MGM Jan. 1963)

Nice to see I'm not the only one who likes "easy listening". Of course, who was it that made a big deal about that obscure song "1900 Yesterday" a week or so back ?!? I'd never heard that one completely thru-I'd catch the better part of it maybe once a year thru the years, but now I've got me own copy of it, & I ain't gonna let it go !!! It's one of those songs everybody's heard, but few know what it is-ultimate background music song, sorta like. -Sandy G.

Re: Paula, Have you checked out circuits for AM tranmitters with tubes??
 

Hi Ron,

When I was deciding on an AM transmitter in my price range, I heard positive comments on the better Ramsey unit.

Paula

I use a Ramsey FM transmitter fed by a stereo preamp to broadcast all over my house. I've got the computer, a cassette deck, and a VCR plugged into the preamp. The VCR picks up the music channels from my cable and the computer does CD's and internet streaming radio(KBON for Cajun and WDVX for bluegrass are my faves). I found that amplifying the input to the transmitter boosts the relative strength of the signals to where the hum level is inaudible.

It's a neat setup. It also lets me hear the tone when I receive an email. I told my local home theater shop about it and they have started selling transmitters in their installations.

I have an AM transmitter as well, but prefer the sound quality of the FM. I use the "Radio DJ" toy setup to test AM radios I sell but that's about all it's good for.

A buddy wants to sell me a ten watt FM transmitter.

Pirate radio, anyone??

Cheers!
Lee

Heh heh heh...a FM pirate station would be totally cool. If you get it, be sure to get a properly loaded antenna on that puppy or it will surely burn up!

Be careful, though. One call from some little old lady who can't get her daily dose of Radio Bible College, & Uncle Charlie comes to visit. They tend to get VERY pissy about that sort of thing !! Alone in our gummint, the FCC is judge, jury, & executioner, & they take no prisoners. -Sandy G.

Well yeah...be sure to select a frequency that is unoccupied day AND night...good luck with that too! (Our AM and FM bands are completely full here.)

There's a proud tradition in the Minneapolis area of pirate radio. People have been thumbing their noses at the FCC since it's inception a century ago. I can think of a few things FCC stands for....

We'd like to start a low power FM (LPFM) station here but guess who isn't allowing any more applications.

You're right, if they ever nail you for an unlicensed broadcast, you can forget about ever being annointed with a license of any kind.

http://www.dxing.com/pirate.htm

Lee

Hey I know what would be neat. After dinner on a winter's evening you could turn off the TV sets and computers in the house, turn off most of the lights, and pretend that it's 1935 and the depression again and listen to tapes of The Jack Benny Show, Fireside chats from President Roosevelt, and old big bands like Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey through your old radios. You could hear Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" and imagine all of those stupid people who believed it was real, got in their old Studabakers and headed for the hills of West Virginia to escape the Martian invasion. 23 Skidooooo. Here's looking at you kid!

(Your family probably thinks you're nuts already so what the hell.)

That sounds like a great idea! That's more or less what I had in mind.

My family KNOWS I'm nuts! :screwy:

Paula

Hey Indiana. Land of Gene Shepherd. Ever read "In God We Trust, All Other's Pay Cash" or see Gene Shepherd's Christmas Story? He made a living on WOR radio NY partly out of talking about growing up in Indiana during the depression and he was a ham radio operator too. That is until lightning hit the house they were renting and split it in two. Years later as an adult, he went back and could still see where it had been patched.

Never read the book, but I've certainly read that phrase, pasted behind the counters of countless retail establishments. As far as "A Christmas Story", I can't believe that anyone hasn't seen it by now -- it's a treasure!

Shepherd, though much of his best work was "before my time" (I swear), I do know that he worked at numerous radio stations in Cincinnati that I grew up listening to: WCKY, WKRC, WSAI, WLW. He was evidently something of a latter-day Mark Twain, in his own way.

Paula

He was what is termed a "racounteur", a story teller. His stories about growing up in Indiana were captivating and hillarious. I listened to him as a high school and college student almost every weekday night on WOR. WBAI in NYC rebroadcasts one program per week early on Tuesday morning on their program Mass Backwards. You might get it on the internet.

Paula- Here's a few more-"A Swingin' Safari" billy Vaughan,1962,"Route 66 Theme", Nelson Riddle, also '62, "Java",Al Hirt, 1964, "Washington Square", Village Stompers, 1963. If you'd like, PM me yr address & I'll make you up a tape of these & others. -Sandy G.

As usual, mine is the last post in the thread.