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Rangemaster/Very Disappointing Results/Rochester, NY

T

Tech Challenged

Guest
Soil Conductivity here is rated as "8." Everybody on the various Part 15 forums says even in the worst soil, a minimum of a one mile range is a given, if setup and tuned properly. I realize being in a urban area I won't get any 8 miles or so, but all I'm getting is about 2 little city blocks and that's north/south. East/west is much less. I have a ground system in my backyard and have had the antenna from 15-25 feet high with poor results. Antenna WAS tuned last year, no difference.

Most responses I'm getting, until today, are that something must be wrong. Now I'm told in an urban area that might be average. I get a lot of different opinions from different different tech folks. I guy I wrote to last year in nearby Buffalo(also an 8 soil rating) gets about a 2 mile radius with a Rangemaster.

Question 1: as my current range doesn't thrill me, is there hope, maybe? If not, I'm selling the xmtr. on Ebay.

Question 2: if you are in my general region and think you can improve, are you interested in contacting me. I'll pay money for improvements.

I know little about broadcast engineering. On-air my thing.
 
2 Blocks Is Good.
Is there anything close to your antenna?

Remember not all Part 15 AM's can be Blowtorches.
Some have Multiple Transmitters to get what they have.
 
With all due respect, 2 blocks is not worth spending over 800 dollars spent on the Xmtr and Orban processor. As Howard Stern once said about WMCA: "more people can you hear you if you yell out the window." In the case of my neighborhood that would literally be true.

The pole runs is attached to the one story wood frame add-on to the main 2 story wood frame house. The Rangemaster is at the top of the pole, which has been higher than the highest peak of the 2 story part of the house. There's a shorter house next door. On the opposite side are some smaller trees and bushes maybe 15-20 feet away, but the Rangemaster is situated higher. There are some very old, larger trees maybe 30 feet behind where the Rangemaster is. I have a "postage stamp" size lot.
 
I saw Tech Challenged on another site, where he got plenty of advice that can keep him busy for a long time. Unfortunately, he can't back off from his house much because of the small size of his lot.

As for the price of the transmitter, I see it as pretty cheap. About a decade ago, LPB came out with the AM 2000, which had cost more than twice as much. It was probably the relatively low cost of the Rangemaster that had forced LPB out of the Part 15 AM business.
 
You only got the antenna up 15 or 25ft hey thats laying on the ground you put that thing up about 40ft and I bet she will walk and talk mess.Levi
 
My Rangemaster goes about a 3 mle radius. It's super! Great sound and stability, too, consdering I've been on 24/7 for about 3 years.
 
Prais,
Can you please describe your setup that results in the 3 mile radius. Is that a good, listenable signal on a car radio at 3 miles, or are you hearing something you know is you through the hash? I, along with many others I'm sure, are interested in how and how high you have the Rangemaster mounted and grounded.
Thanks.
 
With all due respect, if the need and the useage are important - and the audience is there, its good. The Catholic station is 12 hours Spanish and 12 hours English. It is computer automated.
A few thousand dollars in equipment make it work well.

Set up 1 is in a church. It has been certified legal by an FCC Engineer, an old friend, who visited the site and wrote a letter.

Signal at night is never more than a block or 2. You are correct about the hash. Daytime signal on Sunday (then the factories are not working) approaches 3 miles.

Keith Hamilton is a great resource.

There are 2 other set ups.
 
PS
Before you ask,
We have a music library of mostly Catholic artists, and a fat file of letters from these artists releasing us from music payments.

Grade School kids do an hour a day "homework helper" show. Lots of ewtn programs (from cd) and USA network news and a few features.
 
During the week we have difficulty with "noise" from factory machines.

The church is in a VERY industrial area, with many homes, where Spanish is THE first language, over English. The school kids bring the English home, and the parents usually speak Spanish well - and what they have learned from their kids, in English. We have a group of volunteers who give English lessons on the radio just after suppertime.

There is a grocery store where we are on the pa system, and people walk around the store repeating what the teacher is saying. The grocer is a great supporter of the station.

Sundays, when the factories are off, coverage improves. The Orban processor made a BIG difference. We had a different brand, replace it, and the coverage GREATLY improved.

Nothing helps at night. There are many factors all working together to really take our juice away.

It usually takes about 90 minutes of maintenance a week at the site, (I go there about 5:30 Saturday morning) to change a few cds, that I cannot dofromt home. I can control alot of the system from my home with pc anywhere.

I started with 3 music cds and now we have about 300. MOST artists gladly sign the form letter I provide that says they agree that there is no monetary value exchanged for playing this cd. The music library is a great success story, too.

Legal id goes like this;

(one of about 50 5 second versions of the first 9 notes of Holy God
we Praise Thy Name.)
ANNCR: From the belltower of -..THIS is 1630, (our station name), legally broadcasting by authority of Part 15 of the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. You can call us at -, you may e-mail us at - .

_____
When we broadcast in Spanish 7pm-7am, this is repeated in Spanish.

(hourly tone) and USA Network News
 
It seems to me, after many years of experience, that users tend to overlook or get mislead by local electrical noise levels. After the usual suggestions for best range, antenna height, proper tuning and a good ground system, the transmitter produces a disappointing range, the local noise level is a very likely culprit.

In a densely populated area with a lot of commercial buildings, the sum total of all the noise sources can sound like a simple rush of static. Without an S meter on the receiver or some other way to quantify the signal level, it is very easy to judge that the transmitter range is poor when, in fact, the noise level is high and is burying the signal after a half mile or whatever. A signal disappears when the signal level drops below the background noise level. If the noise is high, the signal will drop out at a shorter range. Listening on a car radio will not allow you to determine whether the drop out is from a poor signal or a high noise level.

I have found it useful to tune the car radio to a vacant channel and drive around to get a feeling for the noise level in various parts of your desired coverage area (in a 2-mile radius around my house, I have identified one full 90-degree quadrant that has extreme noise). Then, drive around again tuned to your transmitter. I expect you will observe the same results I did. The signal is perceived to be weak in the noisy areas and strong in the quiet areas.

Good AM radios (most car radios) have a very effective automatic volume control function (AVC) that causes the volume level to be pretty much constant regardless of the signal strength. This prevents you from making a valid audible judgment of your transmitter signal. If you have a mobile “communication receiver” that allows switching off the AVC, then you could make a much better audible judgment of the signal level, but then, such a receiver would also have an S meter that would tell you exactly how your signal is fairing.
 
I remember Keith Hamilton commenting about a guy who was disapointed about his range only to learn that a high power AM station could not be heared in the same area. Good point about noise.
 
I LOVE the whole deal.

It's great pr for the church (gets us some newspaper stories) and a tool for evangelization. It helps the kids have teamwork, and is an educational tool.
 
The Church is in Michigan, in quite a valley, sorrounded by lots of power lines, factories, and semi-trucks. Tough location.

Is that what you are asking?
 
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