thevikester Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 On the EDM' FM transmitters...the only piece that needed to be soldered was the power insert...if the power works, but the solder job looks suspect...would that affect the overall distance that the transmitter would transmit?Had neighbor solder it...and although it works(powers up just fine), I'm just wondering as the distance its transmitting is weak, even at the (unlawful switch level)...Have the test antenna running out the window on front of the house,that is also combined with another FM antenna, which runs to the gutter of the front of the house...and that gives it a little more distance, but much less than what I thought would be the case...the ole WHII worked just as well...Any feedback would be appreciated...if I need to resolder , if thats potentially the problem, I will...Why I think it might be a bad solder is from the 3 prongs, I see some of the solder from one hole, very very close, if not touching the other solder on another hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boothguy Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 A solder connection can affect over performance of the transmitter. If the power works okay, then that connection is probably fine. If you are looking at other solder connections in the unit, it may not hurt to touch up anything that looks suspect but only if you can easily do without causing further damate to the transmitter. It sounds like you have all sorts of antenna wires connected and may have a bad match between the transmitter and antenna which can also hurt your coverage area instead of helping it. These home transmitters are too small to get a good idea on power transfer but being an old broadcast transmitter guy, impedance matching is very important so if the antenna isn't loading up the transmitter properly, you won't get all of the power out of transmitter to the antenna that you were hoping to. More wire doesn't mean more power out. You may be better off to build up a dipole antenna, depending on your frequency would be a sideways T with the length of each element about 29 inches long. The Coaxial would feed the center conductor to one element and the shield to the other element. You can use a coat hanger or some dowel with a length of copper taped to it and mounted vertical with the coaxial coming off the center of the dowel. Very easy to construct and probably more efficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Don Gillespie Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 (edited) do not use the other antenea unhook it and only use what they sent you until you can purchase a proper antenea for it, the test antenea will work fine, make sure your volume on the computer (if you are using a pc for your show) is not over 20 - 25 % do you have an inline volume controll? if not get one, radio shack has them they are cheap, the solder job is more than likely fine if it is powering up try the above and get back to us. Edited December 3, 2012 by Don Gillespie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 This FM transmitter is not some cheap transmitter that you can just add wire to it. You could actually end up burning up the final amplifier transistors. As for the test antenna. Many are able to get a good signal a few hours away. But you have to do a few things. One, make sure that the antenna is vertical. Keep it away from window frames. Tacking it up a wall will do just fine, as long as you do not have metal siding. Do not have a refrigerator or any other large metal items between the transmitter and your targeted receive area. And yes it is possible to have a cold solder joint that would power it up per say but reduce the actual power out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevikester Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 The antenna extension I was using was from an old wh2. Basic ally just connected the ends together. I have removed it. We have stucco so I taped it up outside the window facing up on the house frame. I will look at the solder againdo not use the other antenea unhook it and only use what they sent you until you can purchase a proper antenea for it, the test antenea will work fine, make sure your volume on the computer (if you are using a pc for your show) is not over 20 - 25 % do you have an inline volume controll? if not get one, radio shack has them they are cheap, the solder job is more than likely fine if it is powering up try the above and get back to us.how do you add inline volume control to a pc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 Sorry, your still not understanding. By going through the window frame I suspect your wire is right next to the metal frame. This is a huge no no. Bring the wire back inside and tack it with a thumb tack to the sheet rock wall if it is just a simple wire. Keep it fairly straight and vertical. Surprise, surprise. Radio waves will pass through a sheet rock and vinyl or brick wall like it is hardly there. Just like listening to a FM radio, the radio waves pass through the wall. The test wire antenna if near or touching a metal frame will detune it and reduce the range of the signal. Believe me I do have some back ground in radios. Repaired them for the Air Force and have my advance Amateur radio Lic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 how do you add inline volume control to a pc?http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13007616 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevikester Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13007616Surf...how is this different than just controlling the volume of the PC output? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevikester Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 [Will do this tonite Max - Thanks for the insight...I guess common sense thinking on this one is not good common sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 how do you add inline volume control to a pc?http://www.radioshac...ductId=13007616Surf...how is this different than just controlling the volume of the PC output?Was just an answer to your question. Not sure why you would, but you asked. This is more useful if running off a mini-director rather than PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevikester Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 i have unhooked the antenna extender( made the signal worse) removed from the window area...(did not help) have inline volume control attached, made no difference. I shut down the FM signal as its really not good...will wait until after xmas to figure it out, if there are any other ideas, would be open to trying, sad day when WH2 was better than EDM....something is amiss : 0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 i have unhooked the antenna extender( made the signal worse) removed from the window area...(did not help) have inline volume control attached, made no difference. I shut down the FM signal as its really not good...will wait until after xmas to figure it out, if there are any other ideas, would be open to trying, sad day when WH2 was better than EDM....something is amiss : 0You might want to also post to the EDM yahoo group in case you can get any more help there.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/edmdesign/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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