FM Radio Station Broadcast Script Part 8

For FM radio broadcast testing, the green solid strand wire loop antenna was formed into a 1.75-inch diameter circle and soldered to the printed circuit board. The close proximity of the radio is for illustration only. The antenna and the transmitter are directional.

FM RADIO STATION BROADCAST SCRIPT PART 8
This is a list of broadcast script from the FM radio station on day 1 through 3 of part time operations. The determined test frequency is currently 102 MHz on the FM band.

Monday December 23
Two days before Christmas, at 10:00 pm, the radio station was turned on for the first time. A nearby FM radio was scanned across several transmitter harmonics, then settled onto the strongest signal. It's a success! "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..." came in loud and clear on the small portable radio tuned to the FM band. This was repeated several times.

Tuesday December 24
On Christmas Eve around 11 pm, this special transmission went out for holiday wishes and additional tests were completed. "Have a happy holiday and Merry Christmas." The script was repeated prior to running tests. 

Wednesday December 25th Christmas
At 1:00 am to 1:30 am, for tests, "Roger Rabbit" was repeated which verified the frequency orientation shift. For each Roger Rabbit, a new orientation and frequency shift was tested. Microphone positioning was established along with the notation of characteristics from human positioning. In particular, the coil is sensitive to human positioning and will need to be in a retracted position during future operations.

Signal Propagation
Again, with a 1.75-inch green loop antenna, which is very cute by the way, we're not exactly sure who heard the signal other than ourselves in the Lab due to the given "in house" range.

QSL Cards
If and when we are able to extend the range to another room, we'll think about making up a batch of QSL Reception Verification Cards for "send out" to our... er...  colleagues.

Radio Station Name
Prior to the design of QSL cards, the radio station will need a name, something like Whisper 102 Radio...

Broadcast Schedule
Later we will present the Whisper Radio 102 broadcast schedule for the New Year!

FM Radio Station Part 5 Index
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/12/fm-radio-station-part-5-index.html

FM Radio Station Part 4 Broadcasting

THE VOICE OF SCIENCE NOW BROADCASTING... Connected to a 9-volt battery, this is the first power on of the radio station. We're on the air, with an antenna so tiny, it's merely broadcasting to the other side of the table. This is the first successful test of the FM radio station with "across room range." There's always excitement when a "just built" project is switched on for the first time. It's always hoped that it works perfect the first time. Building projects is like a crap shoot - there's any number of things that can go wrong as Murphy's law dictates. In the case of projects, components often have a 10% failure rate and can cause some frustration in troubleshooting newly assembled projects. One can take a gamble and assemble the parts untested, or test each part for greater workability insurance. With this project, the radio station worked perfect the first time!

FM RADIO STATION transmitter broadcasting part 4
We're broadcasting into space! Who is listening?

This is the fourth installment about building your own radio station. On Monday December 23, two days before Christmas, at 10:00 pm, the radio station was turned on for the first time. A nearby FM radio was scanned across several transmitter harmonics, then settled onto the strongest signal. It's a success! "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..." came in loud and clear on the small portable radio tuned to the FM band.

The transmitter's coil was slightly adjusted to push the signal farther up the FM band to avoid several very strong radio stations around 98 to 100 MHz. The perfect test place was quiet at 101 and 102 MHz.

For initial testing, a tiny loop antenna is used which extends only about 3-inches high in the long direction when elliptical and is about 1.5-inches diameter when circular, perfect for across-room broadcasting.

The sensitivity is capable of overloading acoustical feedback and distance of the audible source to the mic is also sensitive. The orientation of the transmitter greatly effects reception and keeping it in one place is required. Hands near certain areas of the transmitter effect frequency and harmonics, although the portable FM receiver is ultra sensitive - a 10 band FM/MW/SW World Receiver model 6110 by Panda made in China. Its FM band ranges from 76 to 108 MHz with manual tuning and running from 3-volts. This radio was used for reception of objects in space such as the planet Jupiter and the Earth's Sun during the Lab's SETI program searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Radio Telescope Receiver
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/radio-telescope-receiver.html

Don't Eat Us Safety Program Radio Telescope
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/dont-eat-us-safety-program-radio.html

Radio Telescope Adds Spaceweather Radio
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/radio-telescope-adds-spaceweather-radio.html

Radio Telescope Observatory Lab 58
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/radio-telescope-observatory-lab-57.html

The FM band in this region of the country, serving up to 24 million people, contains strong stations in almost every position on the band from 76 to 108 MHz. Smaller stations serve a six million locality. Therefore the density of stations is unprecedented. Many of these stations may be underground as the government is working to license and annex these broadcast stations.

A weak station, or even one that has associated harmonics, will be lost in the signal hash, thus limiting the range.

The unexpected high quality of the FM transmitter is very good when trimmed and tuned. Voice is very audible close to the microphone. Backgrounds sound muted as desired although this requires more sensitive testing.

The high quality of such a simple circuit is attributed to the high quality of the parts used, i.e. the special am/fm, rf, amp, mix, conv, osc and IF ability of the 2SC1675 transistor, and the 1-watt output amplifier of radios in class B push-pull operations ability of the 2SC9013 transistor.

FM Radio Station Part 5 Index
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/12/fm-radio-station-part-5-index.html

Robot Explorer Log 9 Interplanetary TV Monitor

INTERPLANETARY TV MONITOR FOR
ROBOT EXPLORER - LOG 9

Robot Explorer is designed to transmit images and telemetry to a base station with a monitor. The monitor receives data on TV channel 3 by analog and also requires AV input to display images from a receiver. The system gathers images from the robot on a remote solar system planet or moon.

The TV is not an easy find in Taiwan, since the country has moved from analog to digital cable and wireless stations no longer exist. Analog TVs are becoming more scarce as they are no longer made in Taiwan. So this "analog and digital" TV with multiple capability was a real find!

The Taiwan-made Poptron 5.6-inch TFT-LCD TV/Monitor, model PRVC-010, runs either in a car from the cigarette lighter adapter or a wall power supply. It receives UHF/VHF bands and American channels. It includes a whip antenna, remote, and a good array of plug in capability for AV video in and out, power, external antenna, earphone, band selector, etc. The AV is in standard NTSC composite 1v pp format. It includes a swivel mounting base stand. Controls include brightness, color, volume, on/off, and channel up down.

Uses include direct wireless reception from a Parallax Propeller chip on TV USA channel 3 for programming and a remote operations channel for telemetry. It can also direct connect by NTSC AV from a Propeller board, for programming the chip. Used with a receiver, it can display images from a miniature wireless camera and serve as a scientific monitor in a laboratory or a base station for interplanetary operations.

LINKS
http://poptron.en.ec21.com/LCD_TV--409079_409080.html

Radio Telescope Radar Tracking

 PART 4 - Tracking Radar Objects in Space
RADIO TELESCOPE RADAR TRACKING
This blog describes more add on capability for the radio telescope which we recently put into operation. This uses the same equipment to track objects in space which reflect radar waves.

The radar transmitter puts out waves that originate from Earth as man-made transmitters owned by the Air Force and NASA, used to track the positions of space objects. The FM radio band will work as a receiver, more specifically try the VHF-UHF tuning bands. The radio's monopole antenna is acceptable and try repositioning it for best reception. The antenna with receiver works well on an alt-azimuth mount with a flex wire to feed the audio to the computer processors sound card for signal processing.

This link offers more information.
http://www.neatinformation.com/science/space%20radar.html