the newbie asks...

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jonnymac
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the newbie asks...

Post by jonnymac »

OK, you guys will easily notice that I am a newbie to radio, but i was wondering if someone could answer a few simple questions for me. First of all I would like to order the max pro I and I need a power supply to run it. I am paying for my own college right now so funds are a little tight. Basically my question is, Can i find a power supply for cheap or build one for even cheaper? Also, SWR meters I have one for a CB. Can I use that? I would guess not. Where can I get one for cheap? really cheap.

Also, What do you think my risk of running into the fcc. I am in a rural area with a city population of like 3,000. The radio stations are few and far between. I would make sure not to run into one of them. I want to use the tx at 7w. I will be using a poorly constructed dipole antenna at a height of 4 stories.

any help provided would be very appreciated

thanx

-jon
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
znight
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Post by znight »

Hi there!

Well, you could construct your own power supply.. but with being new to all of this I would recommend against it. You can buy a wide variety of power supplies at radio shack. You may be able to use your CB SWR meter.. but i'd recommend buying the one on this site. Also, an SWR meter isn't *CRITICAL*. However, it is helpful in optimizing the performance of your setup.

Risks of running in to FCC, hehe. I found myself asking this same question a few months ago. Well, I too live in a small town.. about the size of yours. Chances are, you won't get caught unless someone reports you. What *nearly* got me caught is the profanity on my station. Also, at 7 watts.. I wouldn't worry much. Like I tell everyone, keep it clean and have fun. I would recommend reading the thread titled "Busted" under the "Users share experience" forum. That's got allll the details of my story.

Happy broadcasting!
-Z-
jonnymac
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Hey thanks....

Post by jonnymac »

Hey, thank you for your reply. I am fairly experienced in basic electronics, and soldering... However I am very new to the radio field. Also, how could I tune a dipole antenna with out an swr? Basically I am trying to save some money some where.

Thanks again.

-jon
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
9YCH-FM
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Realatively Cheap Power Supply

Post by 9YCH-FM »

Coleman makes a 5.25 Amp supply. I found one in the camping section of a local department store.
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marek
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Post by marek »

What you might want to do is to take a look around if there are any bigger radio sites in your area. If there are any FCC licensed stations where you live it's likely that FCC makes a visit to those to see whether they follow rules and regulations and then there is the slight risk they find you.
Where I live, in a smaller town of approx. 10000 there wouldn't be any problems unless we had this bigger city just a few kms from here. The problem is that in this city you have a radio tower containing RRC Syd (Rundradiocentralen for south Sweden which is Swedens equivalent to FCC). Knowing from beeing there for a visit when I was caught once those guys have equipment to automatically track changes in the air + some other nice expensive equipment you would love to get your hands on.
However I want to be able to listen to my little station at work so what I've done is first to chose a frequency that isn't used by Swedish or Danish radio. In this case I chose a frequency where a quite boring Polish station can be heard from, but very weakly (I know this station is's boring, because I'm Polish). The reason for this is that the Polish station isn't supposed to be heard here and also because the Polish station is the one that RRC most likely will receive if I'm reported. Next was to align the antenna so that the signal doesn't go in the direction of RRC and to set the output so that the signal doesn't reach them and finally during the night I went out controlling so that the signal doesn't go that way. To add a little extra spice on this I turned on the RDS and gave the station a fictive name and text in Danish.
The result is the following; the station doesn't reach RRC (instead they more likely hear the Polish one), but is loud and clear at work and I've hadn't had a visit from the guys at RRC... yet. Let's hope it stays that way.
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