1610.US
Website

A Part 15 micro power radio station in Canoga Park California
The antenna needs tuning and a better grounding system.
I could connect a grounding stake to the mast.
There must be something tied to ground on top of the house, so I can be complient with the antenna size.

Future programming: Skyscanner Radio Network
I might try to broadcast using Digital Radio Mondiale

2/14/2011
I have been busy and not feeling very well lately. It looks like it's going to rain this week. Next weekend should be a go.
I'm borrowing a soldering gun to solder to the antenna. My regular soldering iron does not get hot enough. I need to solder the wire from the transmitter, shorten the length of the main element, tune the antenna, then seal it up.
This time on 1610.
Next, see about putting in a good ground system in the little area that I have.

1/20/2011
I added some windings to the coil yesterday to see if I can get the antenna working on 1610. I get it all set up and put together to try it out and found out that I had the transmitter on 1660.

1/18/2011
I really don't want to shorten the mast. I could add a ring to the movable element so I can adjust it using a pole, and adjust it slightly until the voltage from the transmitter reads 15 Volts. Right now it reads 27 volts. I will need to be extend it to get it down to 15 volts.

1/16/2011
I have been to sick to do much of anything this weekend. I did have it running for a few days on 1500KHz, and not quite tuned the way it should. It didn't quite make it to De Soto on the east but made it barely to Topanga Canyon west of here.

The antenna is too high for me to reach to extend the tuning element. It's a bit unsafe to be that high up and tune the antenna and the trim capacitor. So I thought of cutting the mast to be 12 to 20 inches shorter.

1/13/2011
I might have this AM transmitter and antenna figured out. I'll work on it this weekend.

12/18/2010
Looks like it is going to rain up to Wednesday 12/22.

12/17/2010
This time I took the antenna off the mast and placed it on the ground, with a plastic chair holding it.  Did what the instructions said to do and had the same results.  Next was to try a lower frequency at 1500.  Readings bounced all over just like at the higher frequencies, so I gave up for the day.  There is always the weekend.

12/16/2010
Playing with the antenna I realized that I need to go higher in frequency to get it to work at resonance.  At 1610 no one is on, even at night but the antenna doesn't work as well.  I tried 1680 and it shows higher readings on my DMM, unfortunately there is a station at night that clobbers it.  This is on the lowest tap of the antenna for the lowest frequencies.  After tuning it using the DMM, I thought that maybe I could use the field strength meter in my SWR meter.  There was no antenna for it so I used a paper clip.  I found a piece of coil wire and going to use that after work today.  The instructions said to peak it on the DMM at 15 volts, then bring it down to 13 volts and that's it.  It didn't go very far, just a few houses down.  I peaked it out and already the night time station can be heard.  This morning three blocks away I can hear it beating with the night time station.  That's a big improvement.  I'll see when I go home if the coverage improves.  It's tough trying to tune it on a ladder.  The SWR meter needs to be a foot or two away.  Next I might take it out in front of the house and tune it on ground level, chose the right tap and slide the 98-inch pipe to fine tune it.  My DVD player is playing music I saved from an Internet Radio station Chez Whitey, 12-hours of music.

Maybe if I can try to add some windings to the coil (which was my idea of adding more taps to the coil, but didn't do it), it would work at lower frequencies.  Or try at half the frequency at 820 or 850 (at 850 get clobbered by a Denver station KOA) and see if that gets out.

Just got the domain 1610.us

Now I really need to get this to work on 1610.  Can I splice more windings on the coil?  This antenna needs to be looked at closer.  It was built to their specifications.

12/15/2010
Yesterday I had it all connected.  Tried to tune it to the antenna as per the instructions.  The directions said to adjust for peak at 15 volts.  First find the tap to connect the transmitter to.  I made 12 small loops.  It looks like this but in line with the pole.

So I tried each tap and got the highest reading on my DMM.  I found a spot where I saw 56 volts.  The coverage was a few houses down.  It turns out that I did not turn off the modulation and gain, so I thought I could continue it tomorrow.  I wake up at 3AM this morning and it's raining.  It was all open.  So now I need to take the board out and scrub it with alcohol to get the minerals off of it.  I'm kind of cheating for now on the ground I'm using.  I have a strap grounded to some plumbing and connected to the bottom of the mast.