Earth dilemma

[DJMellow]

Hi, im in need of some advice. Firstly the transmitter I have below is the 25w MW transmitter from Vintronics. Sadly Vintronics are no longer selling within the United Kingdom.

Firstly, is the transmitter decent? Ive got experience with FM, not Medium Wave. Secondly im 5th floor in a block of flats. Earth is not viable, I have tried to use copper water pipes in the property. No luck, tried to ground it through an inverter, no luck. The buzz the further away from the transmitter outdoes the music, its a shame as id like to occasionally flick this piece of kit on and kick some tuneage into it without being outdone by an earth problem.

[radionortheast]

Looks good I almost went for one of those myself, I had buzzing too with the 4w, it was near to were it was it went away further away, I wasn't keen on that and the audio quality sounded dull compared with fm so gave up with it

The only thing I think of is maybe loading the n line neutral, that will become part of the aerial, then having a long wire draped round the flat, whatever aerial you've got now and that would become the earth, suppose you've at least got two wires, or having two long wires draped around. Maybe it might be possible to drape a thin wire down the outside of the flats? maybe put down a drain pipe if its plastic with a little weight at the bottom, which would take it down to the bottom.

[reverend]

<offtopic>
Here's a question... What would 'Earth' be called if you were doing some electrical work on Mars or the Moon? Would it just be referred to as 'Ground' or would it take on the name of the planet/moon where the work was being conducted?

"Ey, Jim, you haven't Mooned that circuit properly."
</offtopic>

[Nige from Brum]

Unfortunately without some kind of earth, you aren't going to go far at all.
The only other thing I can suggest really if you cant get a wire to a lightning conductor, would be radials snaked around the skirting board of the flat.

The only issue I've had with buzzing with my 1 watt SJV rig has been when I've had the phone supplying the music connected to the same 12v battery. Some buzzing can be eliminated by using an isolation transformer that are commonly used in car audio between the rig and the audio source.

[radionortheast]

Yeah mine wouldn’t work without a ground or earth, would be loud screeching noises and drop in signal if you forgot to connect the earth, would be lucky not to go into feedback loop. I connected to the earth in plug socket, you're meant to be-able to connect to a copper on a radiator too, they're likely connected to the same earthing system and should do the same thing but who knows.

Your meant to really go outside and hammer an earth spike into the ground for it, (some gothic thing) a 12 meter wire running the lengh of the garden, instructions were in the manual, not obtaintable for this situation. I though about running a 12m wire along the loft, decided it wasn’t worth it.

[radionortheast]

<offtopic>
Here's a question... What would 'Earth' be called if you were doing some electrical work on Mars or the Moon? Would it just be referred to as 'Ground' or would it take on the name of the planet/moon where the work was being conducted?

"Ey, Jim, you haven't Mooned that circuit properly."
</offtopic>

Made me think of this, maybe heart fm would be there, at so many times earths gravity it would be grounded for sure, bury as many dustbins as you like, would be like a version of the martian

[yellowbeard]

A ground tuner or artificial earth might help, it's the same idea as an antenna tuner but for the other end of the dipole. You can use ten feet of wire for the ground. As with every other cheat to make non resonant aerials work, it is not as efficient as a proper length of wire and you won't get out as good. You will have to dick with this design to get it to tune medium wave, the coil will need to be bigger.
http://archive.retro.co.za/archive/Yaho ... ign%29.pdf