Post by bluebucketradio on Apr 12, 2016 3:47:07 GMT
We have talked about this in the past, how sometimes our little AM transmitters induce a carrier onto the power lines even though some of us use a radiator and are not intentionally coupling a signal to the power lines via , well a coupling unit.
Since moving to 1620 AM , our coverage has doubled a bit. The weather has been horrible lately, mostly just windy , rainy and just plain miserable to do any kind of work in the yard, that includes the outdoor antenna for AM 1620.
Despite the crummy weather, i have had a chance to listen on the car radio while making our way to town for some grocery shopping and I have been pleasantly surprised by a very nice clear signal for nearly a 1/4 mile from the house, maybe even further than that!
I really don't understand how this can be working so well considering the following conditions involved, you see as long as the listener is in their car or house they have a really good chance to hear Blue Bucket Radio on 1620 AM. Especially if the listeners radio is close to the power lines or better yet, the radio is plugged into an AC outlet. The key is they have to be within view of the power lines which follow the main road that branches off of my short no outlet road.
The conditions in the house, the SStran AMT3000 is using the short wire antenna provided in the kit, the transmitter sits on my desk, the antenna runs up the wall for 2 feet before making an inverted L across the ceiling. The ground (black wire) is not connected to earth ground, it just hangs off the back of the desk.
The only grounding i can think the transmitter is using would be the connection made through the power adapter and the audio chain.
In fact the outlet i am using gets it's power from the house wiring that runs the length of the house to the bathroom which is towards the back of the house at probably 80 feet total length from the studio to the breaker panel in the bathroom. Weird Huh?
Included is a map of the area my signal can potentially cover and if you download the map and enlarge it, you can see where the house's and roads are but it's not that easy to see the power lines. Some of the power lines weave in and out , near the road in some places and then back behind a few houses before going back out to the road and eventually meeting up with 4 huge transformers, from there the power lines go North and disappear into the hills.
I doubt the signal passes through the transformers considering those things put a loud buzz in any radio close to them.
I really hope this isn't some kind of a fluke and continues to reach out there beyond our road, for a good idea what i am rambling on about, view the attached map, download it too for a bigger view. If you download the map, you can zoom in to get a better idea how things are laid out here.
I think 1620 is going to work out just fine for Blue Bucket Radio.
