Whole House FM Transmitter 2.0 review & test
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- An FCC Part 15 certified FM transmitter with excellent audio quality and good signal range... but the AGC feature doesn't do anything, and throw out the counterfeit "Apple" USB AC adapter it comes with!
I came for the transmitter test and then found myself liking the music played. lol
This transmitter has a "secret" high power switch under a sticker in the battery compartment, but the manufacturer doesn't say how much it increases the power. This is another unadvertised feature, but they will e-mail you instructions on how to get to the power switch if you ask them.
Do you know if this switch is on the gold version
Yeah I saw that in another video add another person that was reviewing the same Transformer that you reviewed and he showed how to access the hidden Hi Power mode. The FCC rule in section 15 allows I think 150 ft or 200 ft low band license free Broadcasting. I wonder how much output that is in milliwatts I'm assuming the 200 feet is not one full watt of power. I am looking into a similar set up like what you have with the FM transmitter and just loading up a laptop with music that plays continuously. However I live in your average neighborhood where are my neighbors homes aren't very close to me but they're not very far either each house next to me I want to say is at least about a hundred to two hundred feet away. So I'm not sure if I could get away with secretly pushing out more power than what's allowed for a unlicensed Broadcasting. There's this one home in my town where I live they put on a Christmas light show every year and they broadcast the music over the FM band and I assume they're pushing out a lot more than what they should be because we can drive two blocks away from the Christmas display and still have a strong signal that definitely has to be more than 200 feet.
To me being in England you sound like Clint Eastwood
@@bluetech7753 , oh yeah, they are DEFINITELY pushing-out more than the "legal" limit! Good for them🔥
I've been enjoying your new videos for just a year or two, but just today youtube has started recommending a number of your videos from 7-10 years ago. ( like this one...) I am enjoying them too!
I was waiting for you to try it with the antenna extender. Seems like a great little unit and worth the price. Minus the cheapo power adapters.
VWestlife's Mom" What are you doing walking all over the house holding up that walkman like that?
VWestlife: Oh Mom! I'm testing out my new radio station for zombie apocalypse!
The Denon uses the "F"-type coaxial connector, the same as on TVs. This became common on stereo receivers in the '90s. In the '80s and earlier, most receivers used screw terminals for the FM antenna.
Some people were asking me where they could get a good quality FM transmitter and I wanted to see if this one was worth the price. The FM band in the USA is officially 87.9 to 107.9 MHz, but many radios go down to 87.7 so you can pick up the audio of channel 6 TV stations (which is actually on 87.75 MHz), some of which are acting as FM radio stations.
I have the CCrane FM transmitter V2. It has very clean audio thanks to lo-pass filter and a decent AGC. the LED also indicates proper mod level and indicates clipping. From the factory the RF out seemed low, would barely reach 20 feet away to a table radio w/out noise. by turning a single pot inside (well documented) RF out is better, now it covers an entire split level woodframe house like yours including basement and backyard and 3 houses up/down with the standard telescoping whip antenna.
I want to find one of these at a garage sale or thrift store. It would be fun to play with and set up a radio station on an old PC.
You could use the Y adapter for connecting the transmitter to your computer to have both the transmitter and PC speakers plugged in at once. I used that method to send audio from my computer to my livingroom using cheap RF transmitter/receiver boxes before I got my media center :)
Thanks for your review. I have the original "Gold Edition" Whole House" which I have had for about 8 years and has served me well. I recommend their products. Be sure to use batteries to power this unit. AC power does and will cause hum. Battery power does last a long time.
I really like your varied taste in music.
With such a low output power, neither of those things really matter. Any such harmonics wouldn't be strong enough to affect anyone outside of your own home.
Sounds good, much better than the little FM transmitter I have, mine sounds quite hissy and over-modulates easily, I just use it so I can record onto a boombox that has no external inputs.
I wonder what the range would be if you connected that wire. I've modded most of my transmitters b/c the range was terrible. One of them which goes on an iPod had a dead Lipo battery when I bought it so a new battery got it up and running. I added about a foot of wire to it and that improved the signal quality. I have another transmitter which runs on 12 volts and it's powerful and unmodified.
Aah, William Royce "Boz" Scaggs - Lowdown from his 1977 Silk Degrees album. I used to do community radio here in Australia, I presented '60s, '70s & '80s vintage stuff under my programme title, "Hits & Rarities".
I've tried a few small FM transmitters for broadcasting my IPod or PC audio around the house and they just dont put a lot of power. I think the FCC power limit is 100 milliwatts. BTW where did you find the stereo version of "She Loves You"?
The 100 mW limit is for AM. For FM the limit is determined by field strength, not power level. There are numerous different stereo remixes of "She Loves You" on UA-cam, some better than others.
On my transmitter the power supply that came with it blew up after a couple of hours and damaged the transmitter. They did replace it, although it took a while as it came from USA.
Also I had to pay import tax over £30. It has been working well for over 2 years and it is on 24/7, but I use a different power supply.
I don't have much interest in Part 15 FM, but the demonstration showed actually it did better than the one C. Crane sells and this little box does better and still Legal. As long as the little box is FCC Certified, you have nothing to worry about. I notice your house might have an attic. If you can, put it up there if you have a power outlet and it just might do a bit better. Give it a bit more height.
So your range with the WholeHouse set to horizontal polarization/standard antenna, seems to be about the same as my CCcrane FM2 (with its power turned up). In the case of the CCrane I alligator-clipped a short wire onto the too-short rod to better tune to the frequency for what it's worth; it at least covers my house, my yard and a couple of my neighbors.
I had an earlier version of the WholeHouse -- 60cps hum and overmodulation were horrible, I had to orient cables "just so" to null out the hum and experiment over and over to determine how much signal I could top off at. Mine didn't have hard-wired antenna but a screw-in receptacle with reverse threads (so that no one on earth could ever figure *that* out) -- but I just alligator clipped a 33" solid wire to get around that and put a reasonable antenna on. Once I engaged the super-secret Hi-Power mode I could hear it for about two miles. (* I read an Amazon review from an engineer who claimed to have measured hi-power output at about 800 mW if memory serves) Mine also came with that ridiculously long wire antenna -- when I first tried that it gave me ghost images around I think it was 93.7 or so, so I cut a good deal of wire off so it would stop resonating there. That worked, but I didn't use it again, preferring the alligator-clipped solid wire I could control.
I'd have to say the CCrane -- version 2 only, version 1 was noisy -- gave a better quality audio than the WholeHouse. No limiter but just keep it below the red "clipping" light.
I have the gold edition of the wholehouse transmitter and it works very well
The manufacturer provides this "Y" adapter, as well as the assortment of other adapters. That's so all customers buying these have all the necessary adapters. Your friend, Jeff.
Hey, that's a nice little transmitter! It would really come in handy if you didn't already have your radio station. It would be cool if you could switch it between AM and FM though, AM transmitters are basically impossible to find. I have a smaller, much cheaper transmitter that's advertised as having a range of 30 feet, but like yours, it actually covers a much larger area than that.
Your house is very nice :-)
From what I understand, the Whole House 3 left out the non-functional AGC, probably because of all the complaints of it not working on the model 2.0! Still, it would be nice if some sort of basic limiter were included, if for nothing more than to prevent overmodulating its line input.
You should do a review of the C.Crane FM2 C.Crane Digital FM Transmitter-2. I've been using it for years I wanna hear your thoughts and opinions on it.
Is it possible to reduce the power of the FM transmitter? (IE, does merely removing the antenna reduce the range from 150 feet to, say, 13-20 feet?)
Removing the antenna will reduce the range, but I don't know by how much.
HANRONGDA HRD-831 transmitts Russian OIRT and Japanese FM frequnecies. 100 kHz steps from 60.0 - 108.0 MHz.
Also Retekess FT11 also has Japanese FM frequencies (76.0 - 108.0 MHz)
I’m glad they upgraded the antenna design for the 3.0
I immediately see the use for something like this if you for example drive a bunch of different cars, if the only common trait between them is FM radio, you can just tune the radio to the station, and you can get ones small enough to stay in your pocket. just imagine, you have a pocket radio in your pocket with a station tuned in and using the transmitter, and then when you get into the car you tune it so you have seamless switching between wearing headphones and using the car stereo without a single pause.
That's a great question. I know there are such devices as "frequency agile modulators" that take several inputs and output them on the VHF/UHF band, but the one I have outputs over coax, so you'd still have to cable each TV.
Nowadays I find there's not much decent to watch on TV, if you stream you own content to a FAM and out to TVs it likely would be more entertaining than regular programming.
Let's see what vwestlife has to say to this.
Was going to buy one of these a long time ago but there was some debate as to if they are technically legal or not. Seems they were never officially licensed here. Also, those USB adapters are much like the ones I bought from Walgreens, they are fine for charging cell phones but never tried anything else with them.
Nice Audio Quality. I can use this to monitor my Classic Rock Internet Radio station that I run myself through the house and receive Full quieting so I can tell when the station has a problem and need to fix it. Plus this would work in the car when I connect it to my Android and listen through the car stereo as you did. I'll have to look around to find this for $80 or less but it does sound like its better than those Chinese 500MW transmitters that from what I hear have a horrible sound and don't even have any accessories that I'll need to hook it up. Even the AUX cables look nice and thick Still wonder how far it would go with the extended wire.
i have a version of one of those, I modded it with external ladder line antenna, 40 feet long and I run a local community radio station with it
range is decent
Lord Kill what is your range
@@hdmiandroidtvstick3332 notice how he didnt respond ;3
The main reason there is a mono selection is mainly because a mono signal travels farther than stereo.
Interesting and I would defo use it with the longer wire to.
I would think that the AGC circuit would turn up quieter signals more than turn down the louder ones, I don't think we're talking a serious compressor/limiter here!
Some radio will pick signals better than others. I had one radio that uses earphones that thing pick up my homemade transmitter off and on maybe a mile away with low power. Although the house was on a hill. But remember radio travel in waves. May go out then pick up again 100 feet away.
can this be used to "jamm" or block sound from an existing frequency. lets say that as my next door neighbors radio music !?
Freddy Claudio Yes, but only within a short distance, depending on how strong the signal you're trying to block is.
muwhahaha.com/
pretty cool that they use AGC instead of overmodulating the entire FM signal.
ermeh gawd a kitty! must snatch da kitty
Does the stereo\mono switch kill the stereo generator in the transmitter or does it just combine the two channels together when switched in mono mode.
It does shut off the pilot tone and stereo subcarrier in mono mode.
I wonder what the range would be if you connected that extension wire. I have an FM Modulator that connects to a car but I just have it connected to a bench power supply along with a car stereo and I get lots of range with it. I can take a cheap transistor radio outside and still pick up the signal.
Outstanding review
lol were you just in need of a few transmitters..? btw ever notice some stereos go down to like 87.7 whild others just go to 88.1? is there a reason?
I got an idea! Maybe I can use the audio mixer and the audio processor to boost the audio loudness for the FM transmitter!
I was looking at the version 3.0 of this transmitter. I rejected it since it didn't appear to support CE certification in EU. They claim it, but I did doubt it. The version 3.0 has a different antenna, it's removable now.
Does CE cert. really matter that much?
pretty impressive. Do you know if there was anything that would allow you to broadcast UHF/VHF for older tvs around the house? I would assume most likely it would have to be a kit (if at all because of legal reasons), but I was thinking that would be a fun lil thing to have for around the house.
Sadly no unlicensed analog tv broadcast is legal, no matter the power (although theres alot of skepticism about that since some people say different things.), but that doesnt seem to stop people from doing it anyway, Just dont let it get out of your house.
09:42 Oh hell yeah!
excellent review
another question, is it possible to wire up an amplifier to it to increase the range
Not legally.
sushi dream you can also buy a huge antenna and mount it on your roof but the fcc might come knocking
That car adapter could really be a cheap chinese one, I have one of those in pink that I was thinking of cannibalising for my project. Yes that AC adaptor is probably a cheap one, sometimes it's not easy to find good quality AC adapters yourself. In fact that AC adapter DOES look like a COUNTERFEIT "Apple USB Power Adapter", where the fakes are produced in all sorts of colours while the real one comes in a box, only in white, and comes with either an apple lightning or 30pin cable.
I had the cactus same Sony Walkman and I remembered that it’s reception capabilities were far from all that great.
*its
Of course, something like this device would be completely illegal in Australia, even if it did only radiate out 200 feet.
You need to run the output into a mixer so you can control the audio better.
Considering that was seven years ago, not a bad little transmitter.
Really lovely yard, vwestlife.
Hey VWestlife.
Where can I find me one of those Whole House FM Transmitters at? :)
Did you try Googling it?
How far can you legally transmit on FM with out a license from the fcc?
+Arkansas Journal There is no specific range limit. It's just a matter of how efficient the transmitter and antenna are and how sensitive your receiver is. In the real world, this works out to about 200 to 300 feet on FM and up to several miles on AM.
3 miles
+Arkansas Journal There is no limit. Mainly on hand held radios you can get 300ft but in a car you can get close to .5 miles. It depends on your car radio also. What also counts for range is how high your transmitter is. The more higher it is the more range you will get. I got a Talking House AM transmitter on the 2nd floor and I get 1 mile of range in the day. I am thinking of getting the Whole House FM 3.0.
7:23 What is this song? Thanks!
"Lowdown"
@@vwestlife I owe you a drink, thanks!
Wow, no copyright flags from playing the music! :)
Not anymore. I disputed them and was successful.
@@vwestlife Nice! I've had to go though that process in the past and it sucked. lol
Not to rain on the parade, but a car FM transmitter ( from the days of not having CD players) plugged in to the 3.5 m cell phone, or I pod jack, is way better from a cost factor.
Some will charge via USB, conventional batteries.
I get two to three blocks out of a cheap ebay FM transmitter..
But that's not FCC certified, even if it claims to be. The Whole House transmitter is legitimately FCC Part 15 tested and approved.
CRTC here in Canada has it's own rules which probably piggy back of FCC standards, For 15.00 bucks + shipping as opposed to Crane or Whole house, I dont care if I'm breaking the rules, from 87 to 88, is the only choices I have anyway..
But.... If your on a farm, or acerage, I do see Whole house FM as a better choice, I'm constantly recharging my little transmitter..
If i don't have an ipad can i use my loptop for it like to play the music
Yes.
I have an FM-Transmitter in my car, so I can listen to Internet Radio while driving, try using frequencies like 88.4. It seem like, for me at least, the more I go up with the frequency, the worse the reception gets, so I use the lowest possible frequency.
The hum is most likely fm rf feedback thrush the line cord.
Cody Simpson - "On My Mind"
The FCC Should at least allow you to output one watt. I have tried using FM transmitters as whole house audio rather then wiring speakers throughout the house all you need is a couple portable FM. radios in each room bluetooth is great it will only transmit to a single paired device unless if you have a sonos system which can be very expensive . However I have yet to find a good FM transmitter that meet the FCC part 15 standards which I think are pretty lame cause the output is so low.
The Whole House FM transmitters have a secret high power mode for increased coverage area.
Could a device like this be used with an audio processor like Stereo Tool or an Amigo FM?
Stereotool yes, not sure about amigo FM
how about frequency drift ?
id be a bit leary on the claims . also id use radio shack ground loop eliminators to eliminate hum.
how long is the range of the transmiter
Wrong answer! The range is roughly 200 feet away from the transmitter, You gave the frequency range.
+Squeakers Not band width, actual receiving range.
"Whole house transmitter"
Bruh
"Whole World transmitter"
Shut up and take my money
Whole house, but transmits up to 6 houses or 500 meter radius
Just sayin...
The components for a switched-mode power supply are neither hefty nor expensive. Some of them are ultra-cheap and not so good, but still, the days of needing heft for something relatively high current are long into the past.
I’m new to this so laugh if you will! But the transmitter doesn’t play music right. I can use the transmitter with a microphone and hear my voice on a stereo downstairs or next door in mine or my friends radio.
Hola amigo.lindo video en donde puedo conseguir ese trasmisor me pasarias el Link dónde lo compraste se escucha genial saludos me llamo Sergio soy de rosario Argentina
It has been replaced with the new Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0 model. I don't know if it's available in your country. You'll probably need to import it from the USA.
Why don't you connect a microphone to the transmitter, so you can broadcast your own voice?
Because that was not my intended purpose for it.
VWestlife But that transmitter is microphone enabled.
These transmitters are all well and good, but what I don't understand is why don't you just get a more powerful transmitter for less money on Amazon? I got a 7 watt unit for a little over $60 and then you can just dumb the power down. Granted, if you run the thing at full power people can pick you up over 8 miles away, but you get what I'm saying.
Because those are illegal.
VWestlife ha. That's rich coming from you because aren't you the guy who at least at one time had a 1-watt station transmitting 24/7, in their basement? Not trying to unnecessarily bust your balls, just trying to understand your logic as to what makes my 7-watt signal any more illegal than your 1-watt?
honestly, unless they are advertising it as Apple product on the listing, I doubt ebay would end up doing anything about it.
Can i do rado syation in my appatment?
Sure.
Look for a Blonder Tongue frequency agile TV modulator. UA-cam user hakemon did a video about one: watch?v=KQ_83G8UEgs
I think you have a little more better resolution at a lower frequency ...
It is a interesting package but I think I can build one.
The Wholehouse transmitter was a little disappointment, it did not have the performance that my CCrane transmitter has. The ac converter produced a lot of rfi distortion, which should not happen on FM. Guess I'll stick with my CCrane transmitter.
To me being in England you sound like Clint Eastwood
what happened to the Jetta? D:
You mean my Passat? I still have it.
VWestlife NICE
9:44 sister Christan by Night Ranger
Any idea how to fix, the antenna broke of from transmitter
that attachment they give you is a scotchlock
16;32 on the video made me laugh
nice cat
extend the antenna on the transmitter and the antenna on the receiver as well.
I had a Walkman like that years ago. I got mad and I threw. I was 9.
hola amigo , podes desarmarlo? para ver los componentes de ese equipo y hacer un plano de los circuitos como van unidos. y la lista de todo los componentes...... ha si uno lo fabrica casero, lo hace uno en casa manual mente. muy bueno tu equipo
***** Yo hablo un poco de Español.
Oooooh James Taylor
Like your ipod nano right on dude. Keep your Nano and upgrade it to a higher SD card hard drive.
That's an iPod Shuffle, not a Nano. It only has built-in flash memory, not a hard drive.
@@vwestlifecan you upgrade it to higher gb to tb?
@@tony714keene It is probably a flash chip, so unless you were to be able to find a compatible chip, and be able to solder chips, probably not. Unless this has an sd card slot, which ipods dont.
What's the song at 8:34? It's beautiful. Please someone help
And again at 8:44
I tested the ccrane model. Not even 10 feet throw, and substandard audio. Not sure where all those alleged stars came from.
If you pull the sticker off the back it'll expose a hole with a screw in it. That is the gain control. Use a screwdriver to gently turn it all the way to the right and the reception will be crystal clear over a long range.
Too bad they are expensive
CZH 5C 5 Watt FM Tranmitter
bootleg switch mode power supplies. Glorious.
10:14 Sounds stereoish. Tell me about your secret Beatles recording VWestlife!!1
I'm still waiting :(
He already answered another person who asked about the song. He found it on UA-cam, one of MANY Stereo mixes on here.