Blonder Tongue AM-60-860 to get around the house..

[centralradio]

Hi all . Happy weekend to all.

I'm looking at a Blonder Tongue AM-60-860 to transmit around the house.
Is this model good enough and enough power to do a good job.

I know some of those has the MTS stereo encoder option..

BTW .What is the difference between an Blonder Tongue AM-60-860 and a AM-60-550 units..


Thanks in advance....

And take care....

[Electronic M]

The first number is the output power in dBmV the second number is the maximum frequency it can make*. An AM40 can transmit usablly with well tuned antennas, but an AM60 is better.

*The 550 can't do UHF but the 860 can, both will do VHF and most CATV channels... Generally VHF is the best place to start out as it tends to be easier to set up and if you collect any pre-1964 sets some of your TVs probably don't have UHF.
That said there's nothing wrong with getting one that can do UHF...All your doing is the equivalent of getting a cheap muscle car and refusing to drag race it or take it over 70 on the interstate.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The first number is the output power in dBmV the second number is the maximum frequency it can make*. An AM40 can transmit usablly with well tuned antennas, but an AM60 is better.

*The 550 can't do UHF but the 860 can, both will do VHF and most CATV channels... Generally VHF is the best place to start out as it tends to be easier to set up and if you collect any pre-1964 sets some of your TVs probably don't have UHF.
That said there's nothing wrong with getting one that can do UHF...All your doing is the equivalent of getting a cheap muscle car and refusing to drag race it or take it over 70 on the interstate.

Thanks Tom for explaining this for me..

Ill look into more on the 860 since it will do most of the channels..

Take care..

[centralradio]

Hi all. I just picked up a 860 model ..

Almost ready to tickle the antennas of my old TV collection with analog RF after years of no signal...

OK. What is the recommended antenna set up for it..

What kind of antenna setup you guys have with these units .

Thanks in advance.......

[Electronic M]

What I did was first scan the TV band for ATSC carriers (the Zenith DTT901 has a manual tuning that lets you scan based on RF channel instead of the make believe virtual channel number, or if you prefer you can usean online station locator) and make a list of all RF channels with measurable carriers present and avoid transmitting on those stations (attempting out shouting a commercial station isn't a good idea)... Adjacent channels may or may not work well so if avoiding them is easy it might be a good first move. Also there's now ATSC 3.0 in some places so you may want to find and avoid those.

Then I follow this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4dhRt7tmd4 my college antenna elective taught me that you don't need a fancy meter for performing the antenna matching. The formula used to calculate the antenna is meant for a 50ohm system (Ham radio and test equipment) not a 75 ohm system and basically the percentage of length you need to remove to tune a dipole of a frequency from 50 ohms to 75 ohms applies to a dipole of any frequency. So I just calculate the percentage of length shango removed then remove the same percentage from my antenna.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

What I did was first scan the TV band for ATSC carriers (the Zenith DTT901 has a manual tuning that lets you scan based on RF channel instead of the make believe virtual channel number, or if you prefer you can usean online station locator) and make a list of all RF channels with measurable carriers present and avoid transmitting on those stations (attempting out shouting a commercial station isn't a good idea)... Adjacent channels may or may not work well so if avoiding them is easy it might be a good first move. Also there's now ATSC 3.0 in some places so you may want to find and avoid those.

Then I follow this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4dhRt7tmd4 my college antenna elective taught me that you don't need a fancy meter for performing the antenna matching. The formula used to calculate the antenna is meant for a 50ohm system (Ham radio and test equipment) not a 75 ohm system and basically the percentage of length you need to remove to tune a dipole of a frequency from 50 ohms to 75 ohms applies to a dipole of any frequency. So I just calculate the percentage of length shango removed then remove the same percentage from my antenna.

Ok Tom .I'll look into it.Thanks for your info and have a nice holiday..