Vintage drive-in-cinema AM transmitter

Description

Vintage back-to-roots AM transmitter package for authentic drive-in cinema experience!

Back to drive-in-cinema the way they used to be back in the day. Sure, FM radio is used nowadays to give better fidelity, but if you want to truly immerse yourself into the era of old B/W movies and play some classics for your audience than AM transmitter may be on your shopping list. Imagine watching Cassablanca with sound on this AM transmitter.

Some history:
Though there were drive-ins as early as the 1910s, the first patented drive-in was opened on June 6, 1933 by Richard Hollingshead in New Jersey. He created it as a solution for people unable to comfortably fit into smaller movie theater seats after creating a mini drive-in for his mother. Appealing to families, Hollingshead advertised his drive-in as a place where “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.” The success of Hollingshead’s drive-in caused more and more drive-ins to appear in every state in the country, and spread internationally as well. Drive-ins gained immense popularity 20 years later during the 1950s and ‘60s with the Baby Boomer generation. There were over 4,000 drive-ins throughout the U.S. and most were located in rural areas. They maintained popularity as both a space for families to spend time with each other as well as an affordable date night option. Originally, the movie’s sound was provided by speakers on the screen and later by individual speakers hung from the window of each car, which were attached by wire. These systems were superseded by the more economical and easier to maintain method of broadcasting the soundtrack at a low output power on AM radio and later FM radio to be picked up by a car radio.

This package is based on our AMMAX+ AM transmitter
and operates in the MW band. A wire antenna, cable and power supply are included. Wire antenna is quite long and must be hung over the parking lot as MW band requires long antennas to be efficient..

Here is a guide to setting up FM transmitter for drive-in cinema. The process for AM is similar. Mainly antenna installation is different.

ADVANTAGES
– Parameters can be set via LCD display
– High quality ESD protected RF hardened balanced audio inputs
– Both RCA and XLR audio inputs
– Enough power for up to 5km of range with good antenna and location

DISADVANTAGES
– AM sound is mono and lacks in highs. Dynamic range is about 30dB max.

WHAT’S INCLUDED?
– AMMAX 100W AM transmitter in 1H rack
– Ttransmitters ship with long wire antenna which must be hung over the parking lot.
– Mains power supply (universal 110-240V, order mains cable separately!)
– 5m of H-155 coaxial cable with matching connectors installed

How do I wire up the transmitter, antenna and audio sources?
Look at the image below (click to enlarge) for an example of a nice radio station with some studio items. At the bottom of this page look for the links to other items that you can use to setup your radio station (WHAT ELSE WILL I NEED AND IT WASN’T INCLUDED? and WHAT CAN I USE AS AUDIO SOURCE?).

WHAT ARE MAINS POWER SUPPLY OPTIONS?
– Transmitter runs off 48V @ 2-3A.

WHAT CAN I USE AS AUDIO SOURCE?
– Your PC. Just plug audio cable into your sound card.
– CD player, MP3 player or any other music reproduction system
– Mixing board with microphone and other audio gear

WHAT ELSE WILL I NEED AND IT WASN’T INCLUDED?
– Power supply (if you get ours) requires mains cable which can be purchased in your country (each country has a different mains plug and we don’t carry all). This is standard cable used in your PC for example and its price is typically around 1 US$ or less. You can get it in any electronics store, such as radio shack, circuit city, any computer store etc.