Pantry Transmitter INFO

[clockman]

Am reading threads on members using their radios, but what is a pantry transmitter its details and do I need one?

[Cobaltblue]

A pantry transmitter is a small low powered transmitter which allows other content such as obtained from FM, DAB or a recording to picked up on a AM only vintage Radio.

Do you need one? well that depends on whether or not your satisfied with the content you can receive on your set.

Have a read though this thread

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=177559

Cheers

Mike T

[HamishBoxer]

A pantry tx uses things like a BC107 for output etc, not 807,s!

[PaulR]

A pantry transmitter transmitting from an internet radio opens up a whole world of interest.

And they don't need to be in the pantry.

[agardiner]

Get one! I am very happy with MW in my area, I am lucky to have several stations including Radio Caroline.

However, I recently bought a Spitfire pantry transmitter, and have connected it up to a CD player. It just adds extra fun for me when I want to listen to my CDs instead, I can still enjoy them on my various radios. And of course as others have already said, you can choose what to connect to the transmitter.

[paulsherwin]

Just a reminder to take care when using a pantry transmitter. Some of the designs are capable of putting out a strong signal with the right aerial, and it may leak far beyond your property and attract official attention. It's also antisocial to cause interference to your neighbours.

This applies to both AM and FM transmitters.

[cathoderay57]

Build a Minimod - there are pages of info about this on this website and countless satisfied users. It's basic so very simple to construct, and does everything you need, albeit it usually needs to be within a metre or two of the radio to get a strong enough signal. Jerry

[clockman]

Have read all the posts so have gone mad and ordered a ready made Spitfire Pantry Transmitter hope I do not regret it ?

[toshiba tony]

Well I'm tempted to get one, I have DAB and Freeview piped all around the house, and internet radio too. But one of these sounds appealing. Are they simple to build, was a TV engineer for over 50 years and built different things in my time.

[PaulR]

I built an SS Tran one (now sadly discontinued) from a kit and it was very easy. It is left switched on along with its internet radio (Logitech squeezebox) 24/7. I wouldn't want to be without either.

[Gabe001]

Originally Posted by toshiba tony

Well I'm tempted to get one, I have DAB and freeview piped all around the house, and internet radio too. But one of these sounds appealing. Are they simple to build, was a tv engineer for over 50 years and built different things in my time.

The minimod is fairly easy to build with the printed circuit board that was made available here a couple of months back.

[plaka78]

Here is one that I designed built. I can switched it between FM and medium wave. It gives very good sound
What look like a big power transistor is a 12v voltage regulator

[Hybrid tellies]

Originally Posted by plaka78

Here is one that I designed built. I can switched it between FM and medium wave. It gives very good sound
What look like a big power transistor is a 12v voltage regulator

That looks interesting is that using a ferrite rod aerial as a transmitting aerial?
Would be interested to see a circuit diagram of this.

[PsychMan]

This circuit really is brilliant, I highly recommended it, and will keep doing so

I'm surprised more folks here aren't using it, a nearly identical one was available as a kit from a shop in the Netherlands, but they won't ship here now.

Anyway there is a PCB layout with the doc, and this one is slightly better than the kit:

https://www.nfor.nl/radioforumservic...PLL_AM_Osc.pdf

There's a write up here, if Google translate is working (the site is Dutch). Clearly a lot of work has gone into it by a fellow vintage radio enthusiast:

https://translate.google.com/transla...kel-am-pll-2-1

Great sound quality, PLL stability, and enough range for your house with electrically short antennas. It performs very well at the lower end of the AM band as well, which typically doesn't happen so much with Pantry TXs.

It compares very favourably with the SSTran AMT3000 for the kind of use we want it for, in both range and sound quality.

The only thing its missing over the SSTran is audio processing, but the Spitfire doesn't have that either, and you can accomplish that through other means if you really want that.

Adam

[Scotorvm]

Looks like there's an updated model to the Spitfire, have ordered the Hurricane Intelligent AM Medium Wave Transmitter MW.

Complete with bluetooth and remotely controllable. Should be good if it works as described.

[G6Tanuki]

If you're after a FM 'pantry transmitter' it's worth looking at the things sold a few years back to let you play your phone through your car-radio/use the phone handsfree [before car-radios had Bluetooth].

I've got one here, cost me less than a tenner - coupled with a 4Gb micro-SD-card in an ancient Nokia phone (no longer used as a phone) works rather well. You just plug the transmitter's input into the phone's 3.5mm headphone-jack.....

You can get a _lot_ of music into 4Gb!

I do like Adams link to a (nearly) all digital solution, I have in my mind a mini rack with four of these and four DAB receivers for my favourites. Radios 3, 4, 4 Extra, and The World Service. It would need only one low pass filter (slot nine on the rack) may be best to have only one master oscillator (slot ten), only a dream.

My FM "pantry" is a car DAB adaptor that does FM natively (for the Hacker Hunter) and its audio is fed to an SSTRAN for AM pantrying.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

If you're after a FM 'pantry transmitter' it's worth looking at the things sold a few years back to let you play your phone through your car-radio/use the phone handsfree [before car-radios had Bluetooth].

I've got one here, cost me less than a tenner - coupled with a 4Gb micro-SD-card in an ancient Nokia phone (no longer used as a phone) works rather well. You just plug the transmitter's input into the phone's 3.5mm headphone-jack.....

I also use one of these, repurposed when I decided to stop running a car. It only cost a couple of quid, and covers the whole of the house in clear mono or hissy stereo without an external aerial. I mainly use it to relay DAB - only talk stations like LBC or Times Radio from a tatty old Roberts RD60. Sound quality and frequency stability are excellent. I power it from a scavenged 12V wall wart, but it would work on 5V if I could be bothered to bypass the built in 7805.

It has a built in MP3 player and will take USB pendrives or micro SD cards.

[Restoration73]

It's worth noting that most of the radio channels on Freeview offer a superior audio quality to the DAB versions.

The FM microtransmitters are now inexpensive ;
https://cpc.farnell.com/hama/0001416...%20transmitter