FM Transmitter Questions

[Mboz773]

Hello! Made my first LOR display last year, expanding this year. Have a few questions about transmitting music. I have the Mobile Black Box V6000 Transmitter. Worked ok, not great. My questions are:

1) In general what are good transmitters to use? I don't want to put together. 

2) My main issue I discovered through trial and error was I need to get my antenna higher up and outside. What are good vendors or solutions for extending my antenna cable?

3) What do most LOR/animated display folks use to get sound out?

Thanks!

[EdNetman]

Hey Mboz773!

I use a Vast Electronics V-FMT212R RDS FM Stereo Transmitter that I bought from Radiant Holidays last year.

http://radiant-holidays.com/radiant_holidays/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=70

I had issues where the volume would be very low so I solicited help in building an external antennae.

I have a cable that runs out the window (through a foam spacer I made) to the antennae, which is mounted higher than possible from in the house.

I built it myself with help (a lot of help) from another forum user (k6ccc).  I saw the one he built posted in a old thread and wanted something similar so he helped me with the parts, cables, etc.

All said and done, the cost was $6.61 at Home Depot, $13.99 for the extension cable from Amazon, and $6.50 for the cable type converter from Amazon.

I went from SMA-F to RG58/U Coax cable since it is more rugged than the super thin SMA-F cable.  Since I already had a bunch of PVC around I didn't include that in the cost, but it's about $2.50 for a 10' pipe.

$ 6.61 - Misc parts from Home Depot
$13.99 - 3 Meter Extension Cable https://amzn.com/B006UZSJPM
$ 6.50 - Cable Type Adapter https://amzn.com/B00COX9MTG
$ 2.50 - PVC

The whole thing took about 30 minutes to build, and I put a coat of black spray paint on it so that it's pretty much invisible at night.

[k6ccc]

Thanks for the compliment Ed. Here is the web page that has the antenna I built and Ed mentioned.

http://newburghlights.org/Technical.html

Bottom half of the page.

Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android

[sticks4legs]

I use the CZH-05b, readily available on Amazon, If you search the forums you will see alot of people that are happy with it.  Its been reliable and zero hassle since the day I plugged it in and I can get great distance with the unit on low power.

[EdNetman]

Thanks for the compliment Ed. Here is the web page that has the antenna I built and Ed mentioned.

http://newburghlights.org/Technical.html

Bottom half of the page.

Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android

No problem, this thing looks and works great!

Just curious, does it make a difference which way I mount the antenna? I think I have the center wire (white) as the upper half, but will need to check to be sure.

[k6ccc]

In theory, it does not matter.  However, the antenna is a balanced antenna design, and of course coaxial cable and the transmitters we are using are both un-balanced designs.  So from a purist standpoint, there should be a balanced to unbalanced conversion (commonly called a balun) between the coaxial cable and the antenna.  I'm not bothering with that for this antenna.  Without a balun of some sort, it makes it a little pickier if one side of the antenna is more blocked than the other.  In my case, there is a lot of concrete and rebar in the column (between the antenna and listeners), so there might be an advantage to having the center conductor connect to the upper element.

 

[EdNetman]

That makes sense, thanks again!

Mine is not obstructed on either end so it is probably fine either way.

[a31ford]

Center conductor should always be to upper portion of a vertical dipole. 

1/2 wave is the technical term for any dipole antenna. You can also go full wave (double the length) off the end of the coax in a vertical format and forget the balun. I guess you could go horizontal like short wavers do. But since FM is a higher frequency than SW you would get better distance with a vertical one.

 

[Santas Helper]

On 11/2/2016 at 7:42 PM, Mboz773 said:

I have the Mobile Black Box V6000 Transmitter. Worked ok, not great.

Welcome aboard this crazy train. I noticed it was your first post here.

The Mobil Blackbox V6000 is Mono output only which sucks. You can go for the Mobil Blackbox V4000 which is stereo and works great. I have one. The  CZH-05b as mentioned earlier works great too. I have that one too.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Santas Helper

[Jaynee]

I also use the CZH-05B and it is fantastic.  Good coverage (about 1/4 mile, which is basically the neighborhood) and no static.  I keep the transmitter in my garage near my controllers and get no interference from anything.

[Richard Hamilton]

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 5:42 PM, Mboz773 said:

Hello! Made my first LOR display last year, expanding this year. Have a few questions about transmitting music. I have the Mobile Black Box V6000 Transmitter. Worked ok, not great. My questions are:

1) In general what are good transmitters to use? I don't want to put together. 

2) My main issue I discovered through trial and error was I need to get my antenna higher up and outside. What are good vendors or solutions for extending my antenna cable?

3) What do most LOR/animated display folks use to get sound out?

Thanks!

Over the years, I have used various transmitters, EDM, RAMSEY, etc.  By far the simplest solution is to just buy one of the CZH transmitters for under $70 and be done with it.  No need to waste time building antennas and running wire outside or all that stuff.  Just plug in the transmitter, and you are done.  The included telescopic antenna is enough to get you more than the range you need.  I use it in the lowest power setting and still I put it on the floor to prevent transmitting too far.

[Ebuechner]

9 minutes ago, Richard Hamilton said:

Over the years, I have used various transmitters, EDM, RAMSEY, etc.  By far the simplest solution is to just buy one of the CZH transmitters for under $70 and be done with it.  No need to waste time building antennas and running wire outside or all that stuff.  Just plug in the transmitter, and you are done.  The included telescopic antenna is enough to get you more than the range you need.  I use it in the lowest power setting and still I put it on the floor to prevent transmitting too far.

 it's been mentioned many times that the telescopic antenna is problematic on that transmitter. The model with what's referred to as the rubber ducky antenna is the best purchase.  I have the model with rubber antenna and I can transmit distances further than what I can mention here, without static.

[Richard Hamilton]

1 minute ago, Ebuechner said:

 it's been mentioned many times that the telescopic antenna is problematic on that transmitter. The model with what's referred to as the rubber ducky antenna is the best purchase.  I have the model with rubber antenna and I can transmit distances further than what I can mention here, without static.

Perhaps I am lucky.  I've been used my transmitter with the telescopic antenna for over a year and working fine with no static or hum.  I also have a rubber ducky antenna as a backup from my last transmitter, but haven't used it or needed it yet.  :-)  My problem was also that I could transmit father than I wanted.

[Ebuechner]

So here's the skinny on the problem with the telescopic antenna without making it too technical. As mentioned before the transmitter needs a balanced load, too much or too little load causes damage to the transmitter and here's where the problem with the telescopic antenna comes in.  the rubber antenna  has fixed load that has been optimized for the transmitter.