Post by Admin on Jul 1, 2015 3:58:53 GMT
Well, I've decided to reactivate the carrier current station after a long silence.
I am using neutral injection. Previously I powered up to about 10 watts and was hearing the thing all over town. Then my Magic Jack AC adapter quit working and I decided it could have been the large amount of RF from the carrier current. So, I shut down about 6 months ago.
Well, I got the itch to try it again as the Talking House with ATU range changes to much with weather. I'm running the Radio Systems Phase II transmitter with an LPB TCU-30 coupler again starting out at about 5 watts.
I'm able to receive the signal reasonably well (I can tell its my station) around the south eastern quadrant of the city. Spotty coverage as many of the power lines are back-lot away from the roadway but the signal remains fairly consistent once I'm away from my house a block or so. I've been over 2 miles out before losing it.
I have an isolated ground rod about 20 feet away from my house. The transmitter is in the basement. The connection to the neutral is by simply plugging a line cord into the outlet and connecting only the neutral to the coupler output. The ground side of the coupler connects to the isolated ground rod outside.
The SWR indicated by the coupler is about 4:1 so I'm losing a lot of the power due to the mismatch. So, of the 5 watts applied I may be getting 60 to 70% into the neutral but it's doing fairly well.
So far the Magic Jack AC adapter is happy. Details to follow....
I am using neutral injection. Previously I powered up to about 10 watts and was hearing the thing all over town. Then my Magic Jack AC adapter quit working and I decided it could have been the large amount of RF from the carrier current. So, I shut down about 6 months ago.
Well, I got the itch to try it again as the Talking House with ATU range changes to much with weather. I'm running the Radio Systems Phase II transmitter with an LPB TCU-30 coupler again starting out at about 5 watts.
I'm able to receive the signal reasonably well (I can tell its my station) around the south eastern quadrant of the city. Spotty coverage as many of the power lines are back-lot away from the roadway but the signal remains fairly consistent once I'm away from my house a block or so. I've been over 2 miles out before losing it.
I have an isolated ground rod about 20 feet away from my house. The transmitter is in the basement. The connection to the neutral is by simply plugging a line cord into the outlet and connecting only the neutral to the coupler output. The ground side of the coupler connects to the isolated ground rod outside.
The SWR indicated by the coupler is about 4:1 so I'm losing a lot of the power due to the mismatch. So, of the 5 watts applied I may be getting 60 to 70% into the neutral but it's doing fairly well.
So far the Magic Jack AC adapter is happy. Details to follow....
