Non-engineering guy with a question (PA systems)

[Starscream]

Hi there. I not a "tech" guy, but I had a question to put out there to the engineers here who might be able to help.

The problem is that I want to play the station live while we are at events. We have a tuner and antenna setup, but it doesn't work as well as I'd like it to.

When I was at a competing company, our remote PA system had a car stereo that was mounted into the cube/rack setup that worked brilliantly. The cubes had a small flexible whip antenna that was mounted into the side of the cube, and the antenna could be screwed off and in as needed.

So at events, all we did was power up the cube, the radio would turn on, pick up the station as well as a car radio would, and everything was great.

So my questions are the following...

1a) Has anyone ever heard of and/or built this setup before?

1b) How can I convert a car stereo to run off AC Power?

2) Where can I find the flexible antennas that can wired into the car stereo and pick up FM frequencies??

As a newbie, I appreciate all the help. Thanks!

 

[OttoM]

> 1a) Has anyone ever heard of and/or built this setup before?

Yes, it's a very common way to get a high sensitivity tuner at a cheap price.

>
>
> 1b) How can I convert a car stereo to run off AC Power?

Go to your local Radio Shack and buy this:

http://www.electronixwarehouse.com/car/sgl-prod/accessories/line-converters/pyramid-ns60.htm

That will adapt the speaker outputs to work with your PA system's inputs.

>
> 2) Where can I find the flexible antennas that can wired
> into the car stereo and pick up FM frequencies??

Your local auto parts store should have it.

 

[Starscream]

> > 1a) Has anyone ever heard of and/or built this setup
> before?
>
> Yes, it's a very common way to get a high sensitivity tuner
> at a cheap price.
>
> >
> >
> > 1b) How can I convert a car stereo to run off AC Power?
>
> Go to your local Radio Shack and buy this:
>
h> ttp://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103959
>
>
> That will power the radio.
>
> You will also need something like this:
>
http://www.electronixwarehouse.c> om/car/sgl-prod/accessories/line-converters/pyramid-ns60.htm
>
>
> That will adapt the speaker outputs to work with your PA
> system's inputs.
>
> >
> > 2) Where can I find the flexible antennas that can wired
> > into the car stereo and pick up FM frequencies??
>
> Your local auto parts store should have it.
>


BRILLIANT! Thank you so much. I'll start getting the parts together and post my adventures with the equipment once I get all the pieces.

 

[cc-hou-sucks]

get a radio that has preamp outputs (rca jacks for the newbie) ....this way you will have a line level input for your pa.

> That will adapt the speaker outputs to work with your PA
> system's inputs.
<P ID="signature">______________
http://clearchannelsucks.org</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by http://clearchannelsucks.org on 02/08/06 05:14 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Starscream]

> get a radio that has preamp outputs (rca jacks for the
> newbie) ....this way you will have a line level input for
> your pa.
>
> > That will adapt the speaker outputs to work with your PA
> > system's inputs.
>

The radio I'm experimenting with sadly does not have preamp outputs. It's the stock Ford stereo I pulled out of my truck. (And to be honest, I'm not positive if the radio will work outside of the confines of the truck - I know Ford has a lot of security devices in their keys and equipment to prevent theft) I could probably go to Best Buy or some sort and get a Dual brand with the preamps. Wouldn't be too expensive, but we'll see.

Thanks for the advice, the experiment continues...

 

[jesseg]

> BRILLIANT! Thank you so much. I'll start getting the parts
> together and post my adventures with the equipment once I
> get all the pieces.


I think CCsucks had the best (and by far the easiest) idea. just my opinion.