i have a 50 watt fm transmitter which should give me approx 10 miles range but it is only giving around 1 what are the factors affecting this ... The antenna is quitehigh but i am surrounded by buildings hills etc does the antenna need to be high above all these or are there other factors which affect things, I have adjusted the antenna acording to instructions but do not understand when it says compress or decompress coil... Pleas help and excuse my ignorance... PS any members in Spain
i have a 50 watt fm transmitter which should give me approx 10 miles range but it is only giving around 1 what are the factors affecting this ... The antenna is quitehigh but i am surrounded by buildings hills etc does the antenna need to be high above all these or are there other factors which affect things, I have adjusted the antenna acording to instructions but do not understand when it says compress or decompress coil... Pleas help and excuse my ignorance... PS any members in Spain
Well there are a number of factors that can effect your signal strength. Make sure your SWR reading is as low as possible. Anything below a 2 should be alright, if it is higher then that there is a problem with your coax or antenna system. Also check the radio you are monitoring the system with. Sometimes a cheap radio will give a bad report. With my 10 watt FM station we only get out a mile or two with really cheap radios like walkmans and such, with a nice car stereo or house stereo we have got reports 10+ miles from base.
If you don't have an SWR meter you really need one of these to tune up any VHF antenna properly. Even a cheap old CB radio type SWR meter will work for a basic test but it may not be correct for watt readings.
Other factors to consider is height of antenna, type of coax cable used, if the transmitter is working properly, etc.
If you could give more detail on your transmitter/coax/antenna setup that would help greatly. Best of luck.
A 50 watt transmitter should light up allot more than 10 miles, even if the antenna has no gain. When KKTO FM was in Thousand Oaks, California, it covered the entire city and beyond with a 10watt transmitter and 5/8th wave coliner co-phase antenna at 25 feet above ground which had an ERP of 40 watts.
The terrain in Thousand Oaks, was anything but flat with hills and mature trees all over town. The studio for KKTO was 4.5 miles from the transmitter, and we could still receive a strong signal with portable radios despite the hills between us.
Type in 699 old farm road 91360 on www.maps.live.com/ and go wide, clear out to Westlake Village and Santa Rosa Valley to give you an ideal the kind of coverage you should expect on 40 watts ERP even rough terrain.
Darklife is right! You should have an SWR meter like the Diamond 200SX in line to test your SWR and power output. Your SWR should be very low, there is no point in keeping cable warm! The meter will alert you to any problems like bad cable, mis tuned antenna, or a transmitter that is not working properly.