I've been looking at a lot of low power AM transmitters and kits available. They seem to be ideal for playing modern formats through older (read better) radios. Has anyone tried them yet?

:I've been looking at a lot of low power AM transmitters and kits available. They seem to be ideal for playing modern formats through older (read better) radios. Has anyone tried them yet?

Robin:
Poke around in the posts of yesteryear on this forum. There have been several spirited discussions about low power AM transmitters.
Lewis

Hi, I recently put a SStran together and it works great. Fairly easy to assemble. www.sstran.com The AMT300 sells for around $98.00. Many of the radio people on this site recommended it. I'm really glad I took their advice. Now I can run CD's, Ipod, FM, TV, cassette player, etc. Very nice!!

I found a great kids toy that works really well and has high fidelity.It has a self contained microphone, cassette player and jack for external sources such as a CD player. It runs on four AA batteries. It even has an "on the air" light that lights up when you turn it on!!

I am in the office and do not have the make/model with me but if you are interested I will find out. The unit does really play with full fidelity and even has an input volume (AM modulation!!) control.

Lou

:Hi, I recently put a SStran together and it works great. Fairly easy to assemble. www.sstran.com The AMT300 sells for around $98.00. Many of the radio people on this site recommended it. I'm really glad I took their advice. Now I can run CD's, Ipod, FM, TV, cassette player, etc. Very nice!!

I vote for the SStran AMT3000 AM Transmitter. It has very good audio processing and sounds great. It has two inputs for the left and right channels and mixes them with two resistors and two capacitors. It is a professional design.

The SSTran has adjustable gain, modulation percent, and audio compression ratio - nice features, much like commercial AM broadcasters.

My only criticism is that instead of adjustable compression, I would rather have adjustable expansion. Broadcast stations (AM and FM) and even some CDs already compress the audio way too much - so expansion, starting at 1:1.

But, I agree, the SStran is a very desirable transmitter.
Doug

Finished construction of the SSTran about a month ago, It works very well. I have it plugged into a laptop pc to send www.am740.ca to my old radio's. On friday nights they play 50's and 60's music. Sounds great on an old Zenith. Construction is straight forward, if you have trouble soldering surface mount ic's get the kit where it is soldered in for about 10 dollars more. I found that it has greater range on the high end of the band if you can find a blank spot in your area.

:The SSTran has adjustable gain, modulation percent, and audio compression ratio - nice features, much like commercial AM broadcasters.
:
:My only criticism is that instead of adjustable compression, I would rather have adjustable expansion. Broadcast stations (AM and FM) and even some CDs already compress the audio way too much - so expansion, starting at 1:1.
:
:But, I agree, the SStran is a very desirable transmitter.
:Doug

What kind of range do you get on the SStran? Do you need a fancy antenna or just a 10ft piece of wire?
David

:What kind of range do you get on the SStran? Do you need a fancy antenna or just a 10ft piece of wire?
:David

Oops. Hit return by accident on posting above. Anyway, I just have a piece of wire strung along the floor joists in basement and signal carries about a one block area. Mark from Kalamazoo

[b][i]I've been looking at a lot of low power AM transmitters and kits available. They seem to be ideal for playing modern formats through older (read better) radios. Has anyone tried them yet?[/i][/b]

You can buy a Talking House transmitter off eBay for less than 20$ + shipping. It offers a digital frequency display, excellent coverage and great audio. Easy to mod. There are many on eBay right now.

Here's one: http://cgi.ebay.com/TALKING-HOUSE-Real-Estate-Holiday-Radio-Transmitter_W0QQitemZ250345414947

I like building my own using either tubes or transistors. Tubes make nice transmitters. Two I made and sold a few years ago:

http://www.oldradioz.com/radioatticsales/sylvainia_2_front.jpg

http://www.oldradioz.com/ebay2/2.jpg
http://www.oldradioz.com/ebay2/3.jpg

There is also a simple transistor transmitter you can build for a few dollars which performs excellent:
http://www.techlib.com/electronics/AMxmit/transmitterpaper.htm#Schematics

There is a simple mod you can do and make it fully adjustable and very low drift (actually much less than any tube type radio). Ask me about it if you go this route.

Or you can buy or build a SSTran (seems almost everyone is happy with their purchase). I prefer to build my own, more fun chasing parts and building from scratch.

Syl
p.s. I've heard the Ramsey kits are crap. Use google.