Well I hope this is ok to post here as I am not sure what other category on this web site it might go better in so here goes:

Has anyone built any TV transmitter kits?

I've tried the TV transmitter kit from vectronics and it works ok but the signal strength is pretty poor... I practically have to have my tv's antenna sitting right next to the transmitter in order to get a static and interference free signal on my TV...

and the Vectronics TV transmitter kit uses a loop antenna and I have heard that loop antennas are pretty poor for transmitting signals, they seem to work good for receiving but are no good for transmitting...

in the mid 1990's in my high school electronics class I tried the Ramsey electronics TV transmitter kit and so did another classmate as well as the electronics teacher and none of us could ever get the thing to work at all... and the teacher was no slouch either as he had worked for many years as an electronics teacher at an electronics institute... though now it looks like Ramsey has changed the design of their TV transmitter kit I am kind of gun shy about possibly throwing away my money again if it should turn out as poorly as the first TV xmitter kit I tried from them...

So does anyone possibly know of any better TV transmitter kits? I'd love to find a TV transmitter kit that is on par with the SStran broadcast band AM transmitter... That kit is incredable and if I could find a good quality TV transmitter kit I'd be willing to pay about the same price as the SStran kit for it...

I would like to find a good kit as I hate to have my VCR sitting on top of my antique TV's when I want to watch leave it to beaver or I love lucy on them as a VCR on top of a 1954 TV just does not look right :tongue:

any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Antonio
MN, USA

I betcha one of the main problems with getting a TV transmitter with any kind of decent power is due to FCC regulations that prohibit any sort of real power lest you cause interference within your area.

Seeing as how you'd need to have your TV on whatever channel you're broadcasting on why not just use a VCR and hide it and the cable somewhere? Use a 75ohm to 300ohm adapter to connect the coaxial cable to the screw terminals on the TV. Cheap and easy, just like my dates!

Anthony

Unless things have changed in the past 22 years ,unlicenced TV Xmitters are limited to 100mw. I was working for a company that dabbled in the things as temporary security units. I belive other companies sell them today as complete units.

We used short rubber whip antennas with decent results. These were B&W Xmitters and cctv cameras.

Not much to go on but thats all I have. :scratch2:

Let's just say you lived in the middle of Montana, so interference is not an issue :D ... Couldn't you just build some kind of amplifier for your VCR and "broadcast" over channel 3?

Let's just say you lived in the middle of Montana, so interference is not an issue :D ... Couldn't you just build some kind of amplifier for your VCR and "broadcast" over channel 3?

The UK seems to have lots of this stuff. Try THIS (http://www.beststuff.co.uk/video_senders.htm)

Or google.

I have one of the new Ramsey kits. The thing is still terrible. It does transmit a good distance, but converting the audio and video from the VCR to RF frequency it terrible. The only channel I could get to work is channel 5. That's the only channel I could (barely) get A/V sync on the TVs. Very poor gain too. And only my B&W TVs would work with it. Forget about color and modern TVs.

What I am going to do is design and build my own TV transmitter one of these days. Try to build it as powerful as possible within FCC regulations.

If you're in an area where other people picking up your signal is a slim chance, and you can brodcast on a channel that nobody will ever tune to (i have an old B&W set that can tune up to CH82 on UHF, don't know if that's possible today) could you not build a small amp? (Linear Amplifiers in the CB world, AKA "snowshoes", which are also illegal) that would step up the signal to max FCC ratings, or a smidgen above?

Is that even possible on TV Transmitters? If it can be done on a CB Radio, why not?

I know nothing about this, and i've never tried anything of the sort, but this just brought up the idea. just my $0.02

Unca Charlie-the FCC-takes a mighty dim view of running w/snowshoes, but folks do it all the time. Ever hear of pirate radio? Those guys make no pretense at being legal-and when they invariably get caught, they usually klose their gear, & pay VERY hefty fines.But as far as making a "leen-yar" for a TV transmitter, I don't see why it couldn't be done.-Sandy G.

If you're in an area where other people picking up your signal is a slim chance, and you can brodcast on a channel that nobody will ever tune to........

That's kind what I was driving at. As Howard Stern would say, F the FCC.

Well just a stupid idea. I agree with Heathkit TV, though, that's what i'd do at least. Of course the thrill of broadcasting is lost, but the picture is better.

That's kind what I was driving at. As Howard Stern would say, F the FCC.

Howie put the "F" in FCC. :lmao: What a guy. Love him or hate him, at least he has the balls to say what's on his mind unlike all the PC goody 2 shoes out there.

Anthony

TV modulators are somewhat similar to AM modulators, but the video signal is "single ended" instead of "dual ended", like audio. The video signal has to get modulated such that the TV channel carrier is at peak amplitude on sync tips, and around 5% carrier level on peak white. The input video should be "clamped", aka DC restored right at the modulator tube/transistor. You don't really have to do anything extra for color. As for the sound, run an FM modulator at 4.5MHz and add that to the video just before the TV modulator. The video signal may need a 4.5MHz notch filter to avoid video energy at 4.5Mhz from interfering with the sound carrier. Though FM can take a fair amount of interference and not be bothered.

If you have an old notch filter color TV, and a DVD player with an S video output jack, you can get better picture quality by passing the luma video thru a 3.58 band stop notch filter, and the chroma signal thru a 3.58 band pass filter, and then adding them together to make a compsite signal. Then feed that to a TV channel modulator.

A decade ago I wasted $50 on the Ramsey kit to broadcast a VCR to my room upstairs. Just how miserably did it perform?

My bedroom is directly above the frontroom and the total distance was not more than TEN FEET. It could not produce a satisfactory picture! I even tried screwing around with a bigger antenna on the xmitter and rcvr to no avail.

While the various FM xmitter kits generally do a respectable job, I think part 15 (iirc) prevents TV transmitters from doing much more than what comes out of your average RF modulator.

Forget about the transmitter. Would be nice but the cash you blow for this project could be better spent elsewhere. Get a 300->75 ohm impedance transformer and enjoy some Soupy Sales reruns...

A decade ago I wasted $50 on the Ramsey kit to broadcast a VCR to my room upstairs.

Yes you did. Now go find an old VCR Rabbit. End of story.

A decade ago I wasted $50 on the Ramsey kit

Yes you did.


I've never heard anything good about Ramsey kits.

Almost 35 years ago I ran a 100-mw Part 15 AM radio station from the basement of my boyhood home (located in a well-populated Cleveland suburb), but that was radio, and the rules were rather clearly spelled out. Because it operated completely within the law, I had absolutely nothing to worry about as far as running afoul of the FCC was concerned. Now, I am 48 years old, live in a small town and am an amateur radio operator. I would not dream of putting my amateur license in jeopardy by running a television transmitter of any power level here; besides, I live in a TV fringe area. Even though most folks here have cable, I would not want to risk causing TVI (television interference) to the few still using antennas by running even a 100-mw (0.1 watt) television transmitter in this area. This is a very small town (1 square mile in land area), so if I did manage to foul up someone's TV reception, I would probably hear about it in very short order.

The suggestion another person made in this thread regarding running a high-power TV transmitter on a channel "no one ever tunes to" almost sounds as if it would work, but the FCC rules regarding unlicensed transmitters still apply, even at what used to be UHF channels 70 through 83 and all frequencies above 890 MHz. Ordinary viewers may not be able to tune to, say, channel 83 these days because all TVs made in the last 15 years or so, and all current sets, only tune UHF channels 14-69, but the FCC does monitor the frequencies above the top end of the present UHF television spectrum. Believe me, they can and will confiscate equipment and/or fine unlicensed persons, even if the transmitter being used is operating in the GHz range. Back in the late '60s, a couple of youngsters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, one of whom was an amateur radio operator, set up a bootleg shortwave broadcast station. The call sign was WBBH, and the frequency they used was in or near the 80-meter amateur band, a range where U. S. broadcasters are not allowed to operate under any circumstances. The station used an old 60-watt AM/CW ham transmitter, a couple of beat-up turntables and an equally old microphone as audio sources, and, IIRC, a wire antenna outside the home of one of the station's owners. To make a long story short, the station was put off the air by the FCC when a listener called in (on their usual telephone number--I don't think there was 1-800-CALL FCC in the '60s) and asked for information on station WBBH on 4.9xxx MHz. The FCC responded by saying they never heard of such a station (at the time), so they started an investigation, of course. Their RDF (radio direction-finding) gear eventually led them to the home of a young high-school student, in whose basement the FCC representative eventually found the WBBH studio-transmitter installation. Being unlicensed for broadcast use (on 4.9 MHz yet), the FCC rep informed the young man that he was operating an illegal transmitter and would be fined if such operations continued. The young man and his friend, the latter being the one with the amateur license, were also found guilty of misrepresentation of their small station on verification cards (representing the small 60-watt ham transmitter as a "Gates BFE-60C" broadcast transmitter) and several other violations, but amazingly, both kids got off with little more than stern warnings against further unlicensed broadcasting. Even more amazing, the amateur licensee didn't even lose his license over this; but that was then--this is now. Today, if an amateur licensee pulls such a stunt, he/she will either be fined or lose the license, no questions asked or allowed. There are no second chances, apologies the likes of "I'm sorry--it won't happen again" won't wash, and the Commission won't let anyone off with warnings. One goof and it's good-bye ham license, for good (no chances of ever having it reinstated).

BTW, the callsign WBBH is today assigned to a television station in Fort Myers, Florida. WBBH-TV operates on UHF channel 20 and a digital channel, is an NBC affiliate, and has been operating under an FCC license since 1968.

Wow Jeff, sounds like you learned your lesson! :naughty: :lmao:

Anthony

Wow Jeff, sounds like you learned your lesson! :naughty: :lmao:

Anthony


Anthony, I don't quite follow you; in fact, I think you must have misunderstood me. The small radio station I had from 1970-72 was entirely legal, no license required under Part 15 regulations (the transmitter, a 3-tube Lafayette KT-195 "wireless broadcaster", only had 100-mw [0.1-watt] input and probably much less output). The station only reached 500 feet, give or take, and was located in my basement to boot, so I was playing records and things to myself most of the time. (The best reception report I ever received was in the spring of 1971 when a kid told me he'd heard the station down at the end of the street, just a short distance from my home at the time.)

That little station, which had many different callsigns (WADE, WNBQ, WYYN, et al.) and operated all over the upper half of the AM radio dial (1000, 970, 1330, 1460, etc. KHz--I used to operate on the dial positions of daytime-only stations after they would sign off for the night) was loads of fun while it lasted (I had to take it off the air in mid-1972 when I moved--it had nothing whatsoever to do with the FCC), but I had a lot more enjoyment when I got my first amateur license in the summer of '72, 32 years ago; I still enjoy ham radio today with a 100-watt rig (and a 1.5-watt battery-powered hand-held radio working through an automatic relay station), and am able to transmit a lot further than 500 feet, even using an indoor antenna.

That story about radio station WBBH appeared in Electronics Illustrated magazine in, IIRC, 1967-68. It may have been fictional.

Again, I need you to understand that my small AM station was operating entirely within the letter of the law, and I personally wasn't doing anything illegal by operating it. (I also had small 0.1-watt CB walkie-talkie transceivers as a kid; never got in trouble using them, either.) If I had been convicted of operating an illegal high-power AM broadcast transmitter, I would not have been able to get an amateur radio license or to have my present license renewed; the FCC does not permit anyone who has had previous run-ins with them (or convictions of certain other crimes) to obtain any kind of amateur license. This has been in effect as long as the FCC has been around, so it's nothing new.

Jeff's right in what he says. I've never had the pleasure of a visit from Unca Charlie's enforcers; but they really kick ass & take names. They are judge, jury & executioner all in one-and you are guilty until you prove yrself otherwise, & then you're still guilty anyway. Back in the CB days a few folks found out the hard way what running afoul of the FCC is like-it ain't pretty. Personally I think they're a bit TOO draconian in their fines & enforcement techniques, but on the other hand, if you never decide to "play radio" they won't bother you.-Sandy G.

Jeff, I was just grinding on ya.....I thought you were somehow involved in the story about that illegal station.

Kinda like when a mobster might say: "It would be a shame if "someone" were to break yer legs" Capeesh? :banana:

Anthony

Not sure this qualifies but.....I've been using the Recoton rf tv transmitter for years. It is impractical to run cable to my kitchen TV. I purchased the Recoton, plugged the output of a vcr's tuner located in the living room into it, and transmit the signal to the Recoton receiver which is connected to the kitchen tv. The picture and stereo sound are rock solid. Just Google search: Recoton V900SX.

I have been one of these radio shack units for nearly a year now, and I've been pretty impressed with it...

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=15%2D2572&hp=search

It transmits from one room to the other pretty good. I've also taken the receiver part out in the garage while working on sets. Works well on b&w and color. Your remote control can be used with it as well. My parents have one also... transmitting from upstairs to downstairs.

So far, the only thing I've found that interferes with it is the microwave, and if I recall, the owners manual said that would happen.