Old graymark radio trial#
Old graymark radio series#

In that mode it will cover your home with a strong signal that will extend well out into the yard as well. Part 15 compliant it is completely legal as long as it is used with the supplied wire antenna. I bought one and spent the weekend assembling it and IвЂ™ve got to say that this is without a doubt the finest home AM transmitter IвЂ™ve ever seen.

Old graymark radio series#

Their website proclaimed that their new AMT3000 series AM transmitter were high fidelity with wide, flat frequency response, low distortion, and flexible grounding options to eliminate hum. I heard through some internet discussion groups of a new company called SSTran. They were, after all, toys, and thatвЂ™s just how they performed. All were fun but none were satisfactory for real listening, suffering from miscellaneous noises such as whine and hum, miserable audio quality and limited range. Having started collecting radios and also having an interest in Old Time Radio shows I started experimenting with every mini AM or FM transmitter I came across from a Radio Shack wireless lapel mic to toy broadcasters. It wasnвЂ™t until years later that I again became interested in mini broadcasting. Unfortunately I never reclaimed the transmitter at the end of the school year and thatвЂ™s the last I heard of it. I eventually handed that transmitter over to someone else to operate, as my activities were in conflict with my involvement with the campus student radio station. Broadcasting from the 18th floor of my high rise dormitory, with a wire antenna hanging down to about the 3rd story level, the station covered most of the campus. The transmitter did have a second lease on life though when I attended college. At age 15 I received a telegram from the FCC office in Boston, requiring me to cease and desist immediately! I never understood why the neighbor didnвЂ™t let me know I was causing him grief but that was neither here nor thereвЂ¦it was the end of my mini broadcast station for a long time. For another it was evidently rich with harmonics, as I later learned that my transmissions were interfering with my neighborвЂ™s police monitoring hobby. That transmitter was not, however, without its problems. My friends would bring their records to the house and we would play all the top hits. Now I was able to produce programs for my station then listen to them while I rode my bike around the neighborhood, transistor radio precariously taped to the handlebars. For my 13th birthday I received a Lafayette RK-142 mono reel-to-reel tape recorder. Almost certainly illegal, I had no idea what its power output was (it could have been a watt or so), but with the array of wires and aluminum poles I strung up on the roof I was able to hear it for several blocks with ease. Well my uncleвЂ™s home brew transmitter was a revelation. It boggles the mind that never once did I get shocked by that rigвЂ¦but can you imagine that today? Lawsuits would be flying everywhere. вЂњDonвЂ™t ever touch the live wires,вЂќ and he also explained that I should never be grounded when I was using itвЂ¦that is, donвЂ™t use it outdoors or in the cellar. All the wiring and connections were completely exposed so he gave me a quick safety tutorial. It was about a one foot square peg board with three tubes, a big variable capacitor, a transformer and spring clips for audio input, antenna and ground. Still this was one of the most exciting toys I had and it was a thrill to be вЂњon the airвЂќ with my own station.ДЄs it happened my Uncle had an electronics background and when he saw my setup he said, вЂњWe can do a lot better than that!вЂќ In actuality, he had previously bread-boarded an AM transmitter for his own sons, but they were never bitten by the bug, so they gladly turned it over to me. Of course the range was very limited and the audio quality was miserable вЂ“ notably inferior to real broadcast stations. I knew nothing of pads, proper loading or impedance but it didnвЂ™t matterвЂ¦with this arrangement I could listen to my records anywhere in the house and even out in the yard.

Old graymark radio trial#

After the initial fun wore off I removed its built-in crystal microphone and replaced it with a connecting wire for a direct input to be fed from our Webcor phonograph using a dropping resistor I selected through trial and error. This looked like a toy walkie-talkie but was actually designed for one-way broadcasting to any AM radio. It all started with a Tiny Tim AM transmitter. Actually IвЂ™ve been fooling around with low power transmitters since I was a kid. One of the things that has done more to enhance the enjoyment of my vintage radios is the ability to program my own radio station to feed my favorite music and Old Time Radio Shows to them.