Mobile Black Box

[crabtreechristmas]

Max-Paul wrote:

My name is Max-Paul and I approve the last 3 post. And for those who do not see it, my approval or lack is not needed, this first part has been a tongue in cheek comment.

Now I have to say that the last 3 gentlemen in my opinion are hitting it dead on. 1) no one needs to transmit across town. 2) doing so will draw attention to you and your display. 3) if it is someone who can not see your display, but yet hears your transmission, is that a good thing?

I'm not trying to broadcast across town, I just want it to go down my block. My MBB will be in my basement this year and I fear that if I dont buy the large antenna, it will not broadcast CLEARLY in front of my house.

[Guest guest]

I visited the MBB website for the first time a little bit ago. I didn't see much as far as the specs on the antenna choices, other than the 1/4 wave ground plane they advertise with the orion unit.

I don't own one, so will defer to those who do, but honestly, if I was shopping for one, the lack of good information, etc. on the MBB website, would steer me somewhere else. Again, I'll defer to what sounds like a lot of satisfied customers.

As far as the "bigger" antenna being needed to get you out of the basement, without seeing specs, hard to say, but I'll venture a guess the two (?) antennas offered aren't that different as far as specs go. I'll assume you're not referring to the ground plane as you are saying you'll be transmitting from the basement.

My expectation would be, the "bigger" antenna may not solve your problem..you're better off finding better placement for the antenna...and since you don't want to eat up any improvement there with coax loss, that means keeping transmitter and antenna close together, but considering bringing them out of the basement.

[Alan C]

crabtreechristmas wrote:

I'm not trying to broadcast across town, I just want it to go down my block. . . .

The FCC Part 15 regulations for unlicensed FM transmitters work out at reception up to about 200 feet from the antenna.

In the end of the day, operating non-compliant equipment is done at your own risk. You can either choose a company that states it "does not advertise its transmitters as being compliant with FCC regulations", or you choose a transmitter that is designed and built to comply.

The "whole house transmitter" as resold by LOR is one example of a transmitter that does comply. The statement from this manufacturer is:

We designed this to comply with FCC’s part 15 rules (FCC ID: XOAWH-FMT and for Canada it's IC.8728A-WHFMT). . . .

. . . . We built our FM Transmitter to be as close to the Part 15 power limits as possible and still qualify under the rules so you can broadcast the maximum distance legally allowed while still not needing a FCC license to operate it.

Regards,

Alan.

[KenL_MCSE]

I have the MBB4000 - Last year I had the teloscopic antenna. I had it in the house on the second floor. With my Toyota I could only hear the music in front of my house. In my Dodge I could hear it about 1000 feet away.