FM Transmitter

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › FM Transmitter

Al

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Topic # 22676 4-Jun-2008 21:45

Anyone here toyed with the concept of having their own home radio station using a 1W FM transmitter?

If so how did you do it?

Made your own?

Built a kitset model?

Brought a manufactured off the shelf model?

Brought a radio station?

allstarnz

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Reply # 135569 4-Jun-2008 23:07

i have a Belkin Tunecast, to make my own personal radio station around my house

(well most of it anyhow)

nav2u

42 posts

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Reply # 135637 5-Jun-2008 11:02

I used the DSE XH1927 USB FM Transmitter at some stage and then finally gave up on the idea...bought a 60GB ipod.

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 135671 5-Jun-2008 13:49

1 Watt is still illegal in NZ. The LPFM laws are changing sometime in the future though to allow 1 Watt.
You can still get a 1 watt, the way around it is to have a looooooong coax lead to the transmitter to bring it down to the 500mw.

I run a station myself (FM, Internet, Digital TV (TCL). Been on air for 2 years next month. Transmitter bought in kitset form (pre-made) from veronica.co.uk in the UK. There's also nrgkits.co.uk though with the exchange rate it can work out to be expensive.

Be wary of the transmitters being sold as 'new' on Trademe. They are overpriced @ $900 each or more, plus they're only mono.

I got mine for around $400NZ complete with a stereo coder.

Cheers,
Grant

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

mentalinc

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Reply # 135672 5-Jun-2008 13:51

Awesome Idea.
Im now going to use my old belkin tunecast II http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=166893
Works ok as well.

CPU: Intel 3770k| RAM: F3-2400C10D-16GTX G.Skill Trident X |MB: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB | GFX: GV-N660OC-2GD gv-n660oc-2gd GeForce GTX 660 | Monitor: Qnix 27" 2560x1440

Al

16 posts

Geek

Reply # 135680 5-Jun-2008 14:10

ZollyMonsta: 1 Watt is still illegal in NZ. The LPFM laws are changing sometime in the future though to allow 1 Watt.

Dang! I thought that they had finally got around to adjusting that law.

I've seen the Veronica and NRG websites but also stumbled across this one

pci fm transmitter card

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 135698 5-Jun-2008 15:01

Yeah I looked at those a while back. Good for an all-in-one solution for a radio station.

Then I thought about it further.. if the PC blew up then the transmitter would be useless...

At 159.99EUR its not a very cheap solution.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

Al

16 posts

Geek

Reply # 135750 5-Jun-2008 19:22

ZollyMonsta:
At 159.99EUR its not a very cheap solution.

True, not when compared to the 1Watt transmitter kit by NRG. This currently costs NZ$122 and includes postage.

pjamieson

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Chorus NZ

Reply # 136393 8-Jun-2008 11:36

Anything over 0.5 watt you need a commerical FM license, available by tender or short term license etc which is quite costly. Although I believe this is going to be lifted to 1 watt eventually.

0.3 (i think) - 0.5 watts (enough to cover a small suburb) you are regarded as a low power FM broadcaster and have to follow very specific requirements, and use specific transmitter design. There are restrictions around how far either side of your frequency you can spill over (much lower than a normal transmitter), restictions on the frequencies you can use (in the 88 and 107 areas), you have to follow an agreement in your area to space out the transmissions (eg: either odd or even freqs with a 0.2 MHz gap between) and there are squatter rights etc - eg: if someone is on the freq you can't go and broadcast over top. You even have to broadcast your contact details every couple of hours and not re-broadcast the same station within so many kilometers of the other to get a bigger broadcast area.

So it isn't as smple as just buying a transmitter from Dick Smith and chucking it on the air. There are very hefty fines for not following these rules. More info available at http://www.lpfmnz.com/.

Below 0.3 I beleive you can do anything almost, but is only enough to cover your property and maybe the rest of your block if you are lucky. This is intended for remote control garage door opener type devices etc.

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 136397 8-Jun-2008 11:49

...and you need to be licenced with PPNZ and RIANZ (around $300-400 a year). An additional licence required with PPNZ if you simulcast on the internet.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz