I might’ve been a bit optimistic on the range… I think it’s more like 10 to 15 feet. Definitely designed to be as close to the radio as possible, which shouldn’t be a problem in most cases.
My first car, which I got in 1982, was a 1972 AMC that only had AM radio. I used an AM transmitter in the car, attached to the headphone output (very low) of a cassette player. Later in life, I figured out what you are doing now- giving new life to old tube radios. Excellent video!
I built an AM transmitter as a Radio Shack educational Mod-U-Kit back around late 1960's. Really cool and these kits were a big part of getting me interested in electronics. The kits were pretty basic and not high audio quality but it worked. And at that time it cost (I think) around $8-10. Pity Radio Shack isn't around any more to foster young imaginations.
THis is REALLY cool! I've been looking for something like this. We have a couple of old tube radios from the 1940s/1950s that still work, and we've always wanted to play old radio shows through them (like The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, etc).
Recalling a video about playing 78's with as modern of needle-in-groove equipment possible, one wonders how rich in sound... and with warmth... playback of these songs would be using such a method in conjunction with a hybrid reproduction system, and speakers of contemporary design & materials.
Hey I have one of these (a slightly older generation of same product found on Ebay), and it works great! It's nice to play what I want on my old radios without having to modify the radio!
We surely need a blast back to the past. All AM has on it nowadays, is talk 👄 shows. Radio 📻 was so much better 😌, back in the 1970's. It was such a pleasure to turn on the radio, and sit down to an evening ball game 🏑. It would be so cool to broadcast as if it's the 1940's. Your friend, Jeff.
I do basically the same thing. I have an old Microsoft Zune loaded with period music and old radio shows plugged in to a "Talking House" AM transmitter. I'm not sure how many watts it is, but it will broadcast well enough to receive the signal out in my garage or in my driveway, or back yard, not to mention all over the house. I like to use it on my antique radios for that nostalgic feel. They have them on ebay starting at around $65.00 and up. I do also have a small "pocket size" transmitter, but it almost has to be sitting atop of the radio to get good reception with it. I find that on my console sets that there is usually room on the shelf that the chassis sits on in the back of the radio to set the small unit on and I can just put it's little antenna wire on the fahnestock clip on the radio. Both of my units are equipped with wall warts for their power supply, though the small one can be run on 1 9v battery.
My first thought was "I wonder if there is an FM equivalent?" The transmitter certainly looks nice and appears to work well. I wrote this before the video had finished and you answered my question. An FM transmitter demo would be interesting too.
Sometime back, I bought a cheap-o "no name" record player, FM radio, and USB player that will play content from a USB thumb drive. I could load a USB drive up with songs, plug the line out jacks on the record player into an AM transmitter, and the record player will play, at random, the tracks from the USB drive through the transmitter. Like many other areas, AM is nothing to write home about anymore, and something like this transmitter is a good way to feed desirable content to an old radio without having to modify the radio. About the only good I get out of AM is WSM and a station at 530 out of Cuba that plays "beautiful music." Of course, both of these can only be heard at night.
That AM transmitter is really cool, Record-ology. I bought a portable battery-powered FM transmitter for $12 about 25 or more years ago from a dollar store, but obviously, an FM transmitter would be useless for vintage radios from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s which is why that AM transmitter you demonstrated is such a great gadget. :)
those transmitters are cool the range isn't the best but the sound quality is good i like to use my talking house am transmitter with my cheap tube amp and cd changer hooked up to it to listen to my vintage radio shows on my restored 1939 zenith console radio and my other sets
another use case is those waterproof shower radios. Listen to audiobooks/podcasts streamed from the phone and broadcast to the shower radio. The catch is, what if your phone has no 1/8” output jack? These AM broadcast units could (should?) have a bluetooth receiver built-in to facilitate getting audio out of BT-enabled devices, all-in-one. Is there a way to attach an antenna to extend broadcast range (within FCC regulations, of course)?
Thanks for another great video Just curious but have you reviewed the Victrola Montauk Bluetooth record player looked through your past videos and couldn't find it if you made one
Just a quick question: Does the input to the transmitter combine the left and right channels of the output from the source? Or are you just listening to one channel? I suppose the audio you’re listening to was all mono anyway but what happens if you have a stereo output?
Hello. Do you know where i can hookup my pico 2204A scope leads to get the am signal off the circuit? I built one of these on a breadboard about 8 years ago with my 8 year old son. It worked great. Just a modulator, audio transformer and 9V DC at a fixed frequency and audio input. Thanks.
I was on a whatnot auction last year. This lady showed a box full of old radio and tv glass tubes. I bought them from her because she said she’d throw them out if no one bought them. I couldn’t bear for her to throw them out. Do you know anyone who needs old radio glass tubes?
If you really wanted to be immersive, have a few of these transmitters going at different frequencies, then you could scan through the dial like you would have decades ago.
I might’ve been a bit optimistic on the range… I think it’s more like 10 to 15 feet. Definitely designed to be as close to the radio as possible, which shouldn’t be a problem in most cases.
My first car, which I got in 1982, was a 1972 AMC that only had AM radio. I used an AM transmitter in the car, attached to the headphone output (very low) of a cassette player. Later in life, I figured out what you are doing now- giving new life to old tube radios.
Excellent video!
I built an AM transmitter as a Radio Shack educational Mod-U-Kit back around late 1960's. Really cool and these kits were a big part of getting me interested in electronics. The kits were pretty basic and not high audio quality but it worked. And at that time it cost (I think) around $8-10. Pity Radio Shack isn't around any more to foster young imaginations.
THis is REALLY cool! I've been looking for something like this. We have a couple of old tube radios from the 1940s/1950s that still work, and we've always wanted to play old radio shows through them (like The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, etc).
So long as it wouldnt bring the FCC to my door, I’m on board with this!
This is great to simulate the sound with its noise in historical movies! 💝
True!
Recalling a video about playing 78's with as modern of needle-in-groove equipment possible, one wonders how rich in sound... and with warmth... playback of these songs would be using such a method in conjunction with a hybrid reproduction system, and speakers of contemporary design & materials.
Hey I have one of these (a slightly older generation of same product found on Ebay), and it works great! It's nice to play what I want on my old radios without having to modify the radio!
We surely need a blast back to the past. All AM has on it nowadays, is talk 👄 shows. Radio 📻 was so much better 😌, back in the 1970's. It was such a pleasure to turn on the radio, and sit down to an evening ball game 🏑. It would be so cool to broadcast as if it's the 1940's. Your friend, Jeff.
I do basically the same thing. I have an old Microsoft Zune loaded with period music and old radio shows plugged in to a "Talking House" AM transmitter. I'm not sure how many watts it is, but it will broadcast well enough to receive the signal out in my garage or in my driveway, or back yard, not to mention all over the house. I like to use it on my antique radios for that nostalgic feel. They have them on ebay starting at around $65.00 and up.
I do also have a small "pocket size" transmitter, but it almost has to be sitting atop of the radio to get good reception with it. I find that on my console sets that there is usually room on the shelf that the chassis sits on in the back of the radio to set the small unit on and I can just put it's little antenna wire on the fahnestock clip on the radio.
Both of my units are equipped with wall warts for their power supply, though the small one can be run on 1 9v battery.
My first thought was "I wonder if there is an FM equivalent?" The transmitter certainly looks nice and appears to work well. I wrote this before the video had finished and you answered my question. An FM transmitter demo would be interesting too.
Sometime back, I bought a cheap-o "no name" record player, FM radio, and USB player that will play content from a USB thumb drive. I could load a USB drive up with songs, plug the line out jacks on the record player into an AM transmitter, and the record player will play, at random, the tracks from the USB drive through the transmitter. Like many other areas, AM is nothing to write home about anymore, and something like this transmitter is a good way to feed desirable content to an old radio without having to modify the radio. About the only good I get out of AM is WSM and a station at 530 out of Cuba that plays "beautiful music." Of course, both of these can only be heard at night.
That AM transmitter is really cool, Record-ology. I bought a portable battery-powered FM transmitter for $12 about 25 or more years ago from a dollar store, but obviously, an FM transmitter would be useless for vintage radios from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s which is why that AM transmitter you demonstrated is such a great gadget. :)
those transmitters are cool the range isn't the best but the sound quality is good i like to use my talking house am transmitter with my cheap tube amp and cd changer hooked up to it to listen to my vintage radio shows on my restored 1939 zenith console radio and my other sets
Looks wonderful.
Some countries would need that transmitter to be licenced.
another use case is those waterproof shower radios. Listen to audiobooks/podcasts streamed from the phone and broadcast to the shower radio. The catch is, what if your phone has no 1/8” output jack? These AM broadcast units could (should?) have a bluetooth receiver built-in to facilitate getting audio out of BT-enabled devices, all-in-one. Is there a way to attach an antenna to extend broadcast range (within FCC regulations, of course)?
Thanks for another great video Just curious but have you reviewed the Victrola Montauk Bluetooth record player looked through your past videos and couldn't find it if you made one
Just a quick question: Does the input to the transmitter combine the left and right channels of the output from the source? Or are you just listening to one channel? I suppose the audio you’re listening to was all mono anyway but what happens if you have a stereo output?
Dude! I’m going to get ten of these and fill the full am band
That would be a cool thing to do!
Another use case for this could be getting a clear signal from Internet feeds of a.m. radio stations.
Gotta admit, I haven't heard AM described as 'high fidelity' in decades, lol.
Hello. Do you know where i can hookup my pico 2204A scope leads to get the am signal off the circuit? I built one of these on a breadboard about 8 years ago with my 8 year old son. It worked great. Just a modulator, audio transformer and 9V DC at a fixed frequency and audio input. Thanks.
I was on a whatnot auction last year. This lady showed a box full of old radio and tv glass tubes. I bought them from her because she said she’d throw them out if no one bought them. I couldn’t bear for her to throw them out.
Do you know anyone who needs old radio glass tubes?
I would try it with an 8track tape player.
Who did you hire to write and sing that Record-Ology jingle?! Peace.
as long as the signal doesn't leave home premises.
If you really wanted to be immersive, have a few of these transmitters going at different frequencies, then you could scan through the dial like you would have decades ago.
Don't you mean Quarter inch Mini Jack???
1/8”.
That's wacky, a CD over AM to a 50s radio. Cool.
LIKE number 30 which is kind of "perty". ;)
Why is everybody ALWAYS saying LAD when it should be LED ? And no, my hearing is not impaired
It looks like some part to a computer
tThose modern cassette players have low quality mechanisms and heads. gGet yourself an old proper one.
The Fiio and We Are Rewind and exceptional decks.
Hm