I'm Building a Part 15 AM Transmitter Antenna

[bob4analog]

It's a 1/2 inch copper pipe about 10 feet long, and I'm running it at 1610 kHz.

I need to tune it for better effectiveness, but I'm a bit unsure as to how to do that.

I built a loading coil, but I have no idea what its inductance is (I ordered an LCR meter, so hopefully I can find out), but I'm wondering if maybe I can get by with a fixed 120 uH RF inductor and 7-150 pF variable capacitor instead. I'm not planning on varying the frequency much, pretty much just within 1600-1700 kHz.

Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions on this are appreciated!

c

What kind of transmitter are you using?

 

[cc333]

What kind of transmitter are you using?

ASMAX2

c

 

[N8ves]

I'm using a Chinese kit transmitter. The instructions are sparse. I bought a second one and wrote step by step instructions. The output transistors are d882 Chinese power ones. Overkill by miles. It's not sold as a Part 15 transmitter. You can adjust to 100 mW and tune it into the 160m band.
I have a ten foot section of 1 1/4 inch copper pipe. Using a 100 turn coil wound on a 3.inch pvc pipe, tapped every 5 turns. Havent tried it yet. Too cold.outside. Wanna try it top and base.loaded.
For now I have it connected.to a.50 ohm dummy load via a ten foot length of Rg58 coax. I have the braid connected to the antenna and the inner conductor to ground. Covers the whole house and part of.the yard from the basement. About 50 radial feet. Suits me just fine. Great for.my.vintage radios. Not lookong.tp.broadcast to the whole town.
The antenna I will experiment on 160m at full power. No music, of.course...