Transmitting your own signal

[Earp]

AM transmitters



CharlieH,
After purchasing two, and building a couple more from plans, I was thoroughly discouraged and thought I'd never find one that would meet my needs. A lot of junk out there, Finally I bought a kit to build the AMT3000 from SSTRAN. This is one fine transmitter and a stellar performer. If you'd like more info on my experience with it please feel free to PM me.

Disclaimer: I have no connection to SSTRAN nor do I profit in any way from my recommendation.

 

[CharlieH.]

Ah yes, I've heard of that one. It has some pretty neat features, but... $160!
Here's one more for the christmas wishlist!

 

[Earp]

If you feel confident about soldering you could get the kit. It's substantially less expensive. I have some important advice if you decide to go that route.

 

[CharlieH.]

Didn't know about the kit, maybe I could handle it. But I think I should finish repairing the radio first! Thanks for the tip.

 

[Mr. K.L.Bowers]

Earp,
If you have tried the Comtronics AM-100 in the past, is the transmission range with the AMT3000 from SSTRAN better? I also tried several kits before buying the AM-100. It works well in the house, but when you move outside it is very limited, to about 15 feet.

 

[Earp]

Mr. Bowers,
I haven't tried the AM-100. I tried so many and was so disappointed with the quality and performance. I know the AMT-3000 by SSTRAN is a very solid performer and the quality is 100%. However, before giving up on your transmitter I wondered how long your antenna was and if you had the transmitter grounded? Perhaps you already know how these two things can make a world of difference. There are legal limits to how far one can transmit and the length of the antenna and ground wire can affect that. If you stay away from any frequencies in your area that are being used you may be able to push that a bit. How much range are you looking for? If you have these two things accounted for and it doesn't perform to your expectations, you may want to check into the AMT-3000. Also, they have free plans for a special high performance antenna at their website that you might want to check out. Just Google "SSTRAN" and "AMT3000."

I use my transmitter to broadcast golden era radio programs and music to my 1932 Kolster. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear those vintage sounds coming out of it as I watch the little dial glow. Sometimes I get lost in another time.

Take care,
--Wyatt--

 

[Mr. K.L.Bowers]

Radio's golden age

Wyatt,

I do the same whenever possible. When everyone else is out of the house I crank up all of my radios and run The Great Gildersleeve, Jack Benny, Camel Caravan, The Whistler or the 1939 WJSV broadcast. The family thinks I am lost in the past. I created my own broadcasts using period commercials, programs and music on cassettes, (haven’t moved up to MP3 yet), I have a dual cassette deck with auto reverse.
I’ll turn all of them on that will play, about 37, and just let them go. I have mostly 1937 Philcos with a few other years and two Bowers brand radios, I can’t pass them up when I run across them.
Mr. B

 

[Kimberly]

Mr. Bowers,
I haven't tried the AM-100. I tried so many and was so disappointed with the quality and performance. I know the AMT-3000 by SSTRAN is a very solid performer and the quality is 100%. However, before giving up on your transmitter I wondered how long your antenna was and if you had the transmitter grounded? Perhaps you already know how these two things can make a world of difference. There are legal limits to how far one can transmit and the length of the antenna and ground wire can affect that. If you stay away from any frequencies in your area that are being used you may be able to push that a bit. How much range are you looking for? If you have these two things accounted for and it doesn't perform to your expectations, you may want to check into the AMT-3000. Also, they have free plans for a special high performance antenna at their website that you might want to check out. Just Google "SSTRAN" and "AMT3000."

I use my transmitter to broadcast golden era radio programs and music to my 1932 Kolster. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear those vintage sounds coming out of it as I watch the little dial glow. Sometimes I get lost in another time.

Take care,
--Wyatt--

I understand how you feel but from a listeners perspective. I have loved AM radio since I was a little girl. I remember back then there was a lot more music than there is today (a lot of what's out there on my AM is talk radio now). Anyhow, there is something truly magical about AM because it's fun too tinker with the dial to see if you can pick up reception in areas that are far away from you. On a cold, clear night I can get stations in North Carolina, Delaware and Montreal!! I had a shortwave radio once that was digital and I used to tinker with it for hours just to see what I could get for stations.

Somewhat OT, but I saw a thread on AM radios and I couldn't help myself.

 

[Flivver]

I built a milli-watt AM transmitter when I was a teenager and had a lot of fun with it. It was a box kit from Radio Shack, that featured perf-board construction. My best friend and I had great fun with that, even going so far as to create our own radio station (with a 100 foot range!).

And Kimberly, I share your enthusiasm for AM radio. I still enjoy tuning in distant stations at night. It was really fun back in the 1970s when most AM stations still featured unique programming rather than the syndicated talk shows of today.

 

[Fletch]

Yeah, DXing for the thrill of it is pretty much dead. As a kid in Iowa I used to do it now and then - I recall getting WCCO-Mpls & WBBM-Chicago good and strong, KAAY-Little Rock once even 3WE-Cleveland. Last try was here in the east 10 years ago - nothing but 5 min of plug & 5 min of syndicated chin music wherever you tuned, KDKA-Pittsburgh, WWVA-Wheeling, WBT-Charlotte, WGY-Schenectady. I think I got WLW-Cincinnati one night...still clear channel...in the 30s they used to cover the continental US with 500kW power nights.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As a teen, I enjoyed DXing with a two-tube Crosley 51 regenerative set from 1924, running off a hot-spark electric fence battery for the "A" current and a bunch of D-cells wired together for the B, and a long strand of copper wire running from my bedroom window to the willow tree in the backyard for an antenna. The trick was to run the receiver right on the brink of oscillation, and just at the point where you could feel it beginning to howl, you'd hit a sweet spot where you'd be able to pull in lots and lots of stations. On clear winter nights I used to get WLW, WMAQ, WHO, WWWE, WJR, and various other clear channel Midwestern stations with perfect clarity from 1500 miles away using this setup.

(And I wondered why nobody ever asked me out...)

 

[Fletch]

If it actually HAD been 1924, you'd have been fighting the boys off with a carpet beater!

 

[Kimberly]

As a teen, I enjoyed DXing with a two-tube Crosley 51 regenerative set from 1924, running off a hot-spark electric fence battery for the "A" current and a bunch of D-cells wired together for the B, and a long strand of copper wire running from my bedroom window to the willow tree in the backyard for an antenna. The trick was to run the receiver right on the brink of oscillation, and just at the point where you could feel it beginning to howl, you'd hit a sweet spot where you'd be able to pull in lots and lots of stations. On clear winter nights I used to get WLW, WMAQ, WHO, WWWE, WJR, and various other clear channel Midwestern stations with perfect clarity from 1500 miles away using this setup.

(And I wondered why nobody ever asked me out...)

LOL Lizzie!!! lol

I hear you on that!! I was always a radio geek and remember one boy thought I was very odd because I had my own CB radio!!

That must have been very cool to get staions in the mid-west while being in Maine! I bet you got a lot of stations in Canada too!

 

[Flivver]

As a teen, I enjoyed DXing with a two-tube Crosley 51 regenerative set from 1924, running off a hot-spark electric fence battery for the "A" current and a bunch of D-cells wired together for the B, and a long strand of copper wire running from my bedroom window to the willow tree in the backyard for an antenna. The trick was to run the receiver right on the brink of oscillation, and just at the point where you could feel it beginning to howl, you'd hit a sweet spot where you'd be able to pull in lots and lots of stations. On clear winter nights I used to get WLW, WMAQ, WHO, WWWE, WJR, and various other clear channel Midwestern stations with perfect clarity from 1500 miles away using this setup.

(And I wondered why nobody ever asked me out...)

Wow Lizzie, I was also DXing with a vintage regenerative receiver when I was a teen, except I was using a Westinghouse Aeriola Senior with a WD-11 tube. I had a 50 foot longwire antenna from my bedroom to the garage in the back yard, and used a steam radiator pipe for my ground. I can just immagine the squeals I was causing in the neighbor's radios as my receiver would occasionally go into oscillation! I also had the best luck with midweatern clear channel stations, particularly the ones in Chicago like WMAQ, WGN, WLS and WCFL.

But I did my serious DXing with a 1938 RCA 813K that my grandfather gave me. This set had 13 tubes with 2 RF, and 4 IF stages so it was both sensitive and selective. I had a map of the U.S on my brdroom wall showing all the stations I had received. I think I logged over 600 stations, the most distant being KOA in Denver.

And Fletch is absolutely right, had you been a teen in the mid 1920s, the boys would have been lining up to ask you out! If only there had been girls like you and Kimberly in my neighborhood when I was in high school...but I was such a geek then, I probably would have been too shy to ask you out!

 

[The Reno Kid]

I have an SSTRAN AMT3000 and I love it. I built an antenna for it following the plans on their website. I can get a pretty decent signal on my car radio out to about a mile (after tuning the antenna). BTW, Phil at SSTRAN is extremely helpful. I am in no way affiliated with the company, just a satisfied customer.

 

[dhermann1]

Me three

I got my girlfriend to give me the AMT3000 for my birthday, and it's one of the greatest things I've ever had. It works like an absolute charm. I just had my 1941 10 tube Zenith 10-567 restored, and on Sunday nights I listen to Rich Conaty's Big Broadcast on www.wfuv.org. I send it through the receiver to the transmitter, to the radio, and boy is it nice. I also play any of my 30's and 40's music through it. All the music of that era is recorded with the same 80 to 7000 hertz frequency response that the radio is tuned to reproduce, so the sound matches up perfectly.
And I likewise am not getting any royalties on the SSTran AMT3000. But I swear by it!

 

[plain old dave]

You know a plate-modulated tube transmitter would be JUST the thing for this. Nothing quite has the tone of plate modulated A3E... I just don't know of any transmitter low powered enough to not require a license. Solid state transmitters sound, well, tinny.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Bottom of the page, I have a locally built similiar type that I use here at home.
http://www.ontheair3.com/index.html#bc-100

 

[plain old dave]

Cathode modulation just might be better for low power, but I for one am glad the people that have that website think cathode modulation sounds better than plate modulation. Cathode modulation (like old Drake Twins or any rig that has sweep tube finals) just doesn't have the full, rich sound of a plate modulated rig like a Collins S-Line.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The tube unit that I use works well and has decent sound quality, though it's not quite the same as the above transmitter, so I can't say how the MW-250 sounds.

I'd imagine a Collins rig is a good deal more expensive most people would justify, to play OTR recordings through their collection of old radios.

If one was an Amateur Radio operator, that may be a different story.