Homemade AM radio station?

[fubr]

NOT internet radio but anybody ever built a home AM radio set up.
I have a friend and his son is getting into it. I would like to give him some good links to tweak his set up.
Most kids these days are out getting drunk, learning about drugs and playing video games, This little fucker is building his own radio. He has a 1watt transmitter and all the software he needs he just wants to reach out there a little further.

[MarvinGardens]

A 1 watt transmitter will quickly get him a visit from the FCC.

The legal limit is 100mw.

At 100mw and with a properly tuned antenna (has to be less than 3 meters in length to be legal) and a good ground system expect approximately 1 mile radius (depending on terrain).

When I was a teenager, myself and a few friends broadcasted with 100 watts on AM. That is until the FCC got wind of it.

Here is a link to faq's:

hxxp://www.geocities.com/raiu_harrison/mwa/part15faq.html

(BTW, if you think that Dave and Charlie have no sense of humor, then you really do not want to mess with an FCC field agent serving a search warrant on your person/property looking for illegal broadcasting equipment!)

[Bandit5906]

Contact C.Crane.com for info!

[MarvinGardens]

Here is a link to a very good 100mw transmitter that has a built-in audio processor:

hxxp://www.sstran.com/index.html

This transmitter in conjuction with a good base loaded antenna is used by many neighborhood broadcasters.

[fubr]

thanks guys, I told him I bet I knew a place I could ask.
Every time I go to my friends house I put car radio on am 1610 and listen to ole George Jones on the way up his long driveway. He has some kind of deal already but little jimmy neutron wants to reach out and touch the rest of the neighborhood.
As far as the f c c goes, No worries way out here but he is aware of the laws and is being careful, just has a hobby itch he cant seem to scratch, We know that feeling huh

BTW Bandit WTF is that link supposed to be? closest I could get was a stationary site LOL. as in envelopes and letterheads...

[alsouthster]

hxxp://www.ccrane.com/

sell cool radios/equipment and other stuff, including the imprtant emergency windup radio
used to advertise on Art Bell show ;)

[BirdieMod]

100 MW with a combined antenna and antenna lead to transmitter is legal, Now I never followed that. A few years back I built a fm stereo transmitter then beefed it up. Look up the specs on the final rf transistor, Most can handle much more than they are run at, In my case the bias was at 3.6 volts and it could go to 18 volts increasing it from 100mw to 1.5 watts then I added a test bench rf linear amp to it boosting it to 14 watts ( Linear was a 30 watt, But the 1.5 drive wasn't enough for full output).
Ramsey electronics makes some cool toys for this stuff. ANtenna we used a 3/4 wave ham radio antenna on a 75 foot tower with a swr matching box. Covered about a 5-8 mile range reliably. Ran rush greatest hits 2 weeks straight on repeat then shut it off was alot of fun playing with.