7" Watt AM Transmitter Prototype

Initial design by Kyle Drake

This is the first rough prototype for the transmitter I have been working on over the last
few months. My goal has been to create an easy to assemble variable frequency
transmitter, using readily available parts that can be purchased easily from stores like
radio shack. It's been something of a struggle, due to my lack of experience and proper
testing equipment, but I've come up with a pretty good design that I think, with a few
more tweaks, can be a very good transmitter for Low Power AM broadcasting.

But, like I said, my level of experience with electronics is very limited. There are some
parts of this design, particularly in the output impedance and the feedback loop
department, that I lack the proper education to identify and tweak (I'm only a freshman
in college, and haven't started IT classes yet).

So, if you have any ideas or suggestions, even stupid, picky, and pointless ones, please,
PLEASE send it to my e-mail address, vmalloc@usinternet.com! Any sort of feedback
is welcome. The more information I get regarding this design, the better it will be when
I release the final schematic.

Parts:

R1: 200k
R2: 1k
R4: 1k (see comments)
R3: 10k
R5, R6: 100

L1: 100uH coil (Radio Shack stocks one)

(There is no L2, it was removed)
L3: RF Choke, rated at 2-4A (Radio Shack's "Automotive Noise Filter", 270-030A)

C1, C6, C7, C8: .1uF

C2: 0-65pF variable (tunes to roughly 1650-1730kHz). These are getting tricky to find,
any good information on places or equipment to gut these out of would be helpful.
C3: 12pF (-might- need to be increased, my breadboard provides some extra
capacitance to the circuit)
C4: 330pF
C5: 680pF
C9: .47uF, ceramic, 400V

Q1, Q2: 2n3904

Q3: IRF-510. Heatsink is REQUIRED! Radio shack sells small screw-on heatsinks, I
highly reccommend using heatsink grease and a small fan as well.

T1: 8 to 1000 Ohm Transformer, 15 watt rating. See comments

Comments:

First of all, I apologize for the handwritten schematic. If anyone knows a good
computerized schematic writing program, please let me know.

This transmitter, at least to some extent, works. When I set the final current to 600mA*
and attach it to a 50 ohm dummy load, which consists of 5 250-ohm 5 watt power
resistors in parallel, it gets quite hot. I'm not sure really sure what the actual impedance
output is, but I'm going to guess it's somewhere in the ballpark of 50 ohms.

* I change the power level by varying resistor R4 at the moment. A 1K resistor gives
about a 670mA final collector current. 2.2k gets about 70mA. A 680 resistor has gotten
it all the way up to 1.3A. I think I could get the final well up into the 20W range, with
proper cooling.

I'm having a serious problem with humming in the transmitter when I use a 12VDC
non-regulated power adapter. I plugged in a 2200uF filter capacitor, but it didn't help
much. The problem goes away when I use my 13.8V regulator, but for reasons of price,
I want to add a simple circuit or some sort of a choke to the transmitter to eliminate the
hum. Any ideas?

I think I should make something of a warning here: DON'T PLUG THIS

TRANSMITTER INTO AN ANTENNA! USE A DUMMY LOAD! First off, It doesn't
have a harmonics filter (I'll have one by the next design. Feel free to send me some
good filter designs, if you have some). Secondly, It's illegal to broadcast at high power
levels. Before I get the pirate accusation, I am making this a (compared to part 15) high
power transmitter so that, when perfected, it can be used by camps, college campuses,
and other organizations that are eligible for travelers information licenses, but cannot
afford the expensive professional systems. If you are interested in part 15 broadcasting,
though, the final stage could probably by lopped off, and the audio could be inserted
into another 2n3904, along with a RESISTOR TO CONTROL THE POWER LEVEL.
I've had great success using the 2n3904 and a LM386, just make sure you don't put
more power into the LM386 than it can handle, or you'll liquidate it.

The VFO (Variable Frequency Oscillator) on this transmitter is a somewhat radical

design, using a bipolar transistor instead of the more common FET. I have done this
because the bipolar provides an impedance that works well with the rest of the
transmitter. Using a bipolar instead of a FET supposedly increases frequency drift, due
to the capacitance in the bipolar, but for the 40 minute test runs I've been giving it, it
hasn't been an issue. I will have to run longer tests to check for stability issues. I run a
cooling fan on the entire transmitter while it is in operation, which should help to reduce
drift (I hope). Any ideas on ways to stabilize the VFO further would be greatly
appreciated. The VFO is slightly noisy, which I think might be related to C4 and C5.

One thing I really need help with is capacitors C4 and C5. I found these values,
literally, by accident, and I don't know what would be ideal values for these
capacitors. If any skilled engineers out there could give me better capacitor values
for C4 and C5, I would greatly appreciate it. I still don't really understand their
role in the oscillator. Do they simply provide gain for the transistor? Do they have
something to do with phase? Bandwith? Stability? All the books I read regarding
VFOs never bothered to mention the perpose of the capacitors.

I've had no problems with the buffer amplifier. It's clean and it works well. It's a little
strange in the sense that I'm not using a voltage divider on the bias, but I haven't had any
noticeable problems with the current design, except that I should probably install a filter
capacitor on it.

The final is, in my opinion, the most impressive part of this design. It is based on Kirk
Trummel (FRN.net) and Radio Anarchy's 10 Watt transmitter, and it is simply brilliant.
First off, the IRF-510 is a great FET for the final. It can handle a lot of power, but is still
cheap and easy to aquire. Secondly, by using a home stereo receiver or any sort of audio
amplifier, you can modulate the audio signal directly into the final. Because modulation
is provided at the final, linearity is less important (modulation doesnt require linearity).
This substantially increases the efficiency of the final, and reduces heat output as well. I
will really miss Kirk Trummel; if it wasn't for his skilled designs, I would probably still
be working on this transmitter. I'll bet he would have had some great suggestions for it,
too!

The audio is fed through an 8 to 1000 ohm transformer, which is then fed into the final.
I had trouble finding the transformer, the one at radio shack was muddy sounding and
low power, and the electronic parts store where I eventually found it ripped me off. On
Steve Quest's Transmitter description, he noted that he found a SPECO line matching
transformer for $1.95 at a "local audio shop". What exactly is an audio shop, per se? I
wasn't really sure what he meant about that.
The transformer must be rated to handle the power going through it. Full modulation
occurs when the audio is approximately 60% of the final, so if the output is 7 watts, you
at least need 4 watts to bring it to full modulation. Of course, seeing that most audio
amplifiers can go signifigantly higher than that, this is hardly a problem; just make sure
your transformer can handle it.

As for the audio quality, it's pretty good, but it needs a little work. The bass is much
higher than the treble, and I have to almost mute the bass frequencies on the equalizer to
make it sound normal. Also, it's somewhat tricky to tune the variable capacitor so that
the audio sounds clear, I'm not really sure how to improve that.. perhaps more/less
bandwith?

Looking back on how much I've wrote so far, I think I should have worked on the
transmitter a little more before I released the prototype. But for the most part these are
small issues, and this will eventually be an awesome transmitter, assuming that people
spot some of the problems in my schematic. And again, if you have any suggestions or
fixes, please, send it to vmalloc@usinternet.com, along with your name if you would
like to receive credit.

Thank You's: (My apologies if I miss anybody)

Crash Knorr, The Medium Wave Alliance. The only and best resource for AM
information out there.
Kirk Trummel, and all of the FRN.net guys
Doug DeMaw