{"id":12361,"date":"2015-03-14T08:32:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T12:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=12361"},"modified":"2015-03-14T08:32:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T12:32:46","slug":"review-of-the-sstran-amt3000-am-transmitter-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/review-of-the-sstran-amt3000-am-transmitter-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of the SSTRAN AMT3000 AM transmitter kit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SStram-AMT3000-Board2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Regular SWLing Post<\/em> readers know that I’m a sucker for vintage radios\u2013\u2013especially those of the WWII era. Indeed,\u00a0I’m pretty much a fan of anything from the 1930s and 40s. I love the technology of that era and have an affinity for the culture and history, especially film and music.<\/p>\n

Last year, I acquired a beautiful Scott Marine Radio Model SLR-M\u2013<\/a>\u2013a receiver that quickly became the\u00a0centerpiece of my modest vintage radio collection.<\/p>\n

\"Scott-Marine-SLR-M\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scottie (yep, I call her Scottie) produces beautiful, rich audio from her internal speaker. It’s truly an amazing piece of over-engineered technology that still sounds this good after 70 years.<\/p>\n

\"Edythe<\/a>

Edythe Wright<\/p><\/div>\n

Only a week or so after plugging Scottie into an antenna, my wife and I picked up a $1 CD at a church\u00a0yard sale. The CD featured\u00a0big band music from the late 30s\/early 40s. Though we already had much of the music on the CD, we bought it anyway to keep\u00a0in our car. One beautiful fall day, I was driving down a rural road and had the CD playing\u00a0when\u00a0a Tommy Dorsey recording of “The Music Goes Round And Round” with\u00a0Edythe Wright<\/a> on vocals, began playing. It had been ages since I heard this song…I then wondered how many GIs might have heard this song during WWII via GI Jive or the Armed Forces Radio Network. Perhaps they heard it on the Navy version of my Scott Marine radio, the Navy REH?<\/p>\n

It was then I decided to finally pull the trigger and order a proper low-power AM transmitter for our\u00a0home\u2013\u2013something with which I could broadcast period music via my vintage gear.<\/p>\n

There are a number of AM transmitters on the market, but the one that always stands out from the crowd is the SSTRAN AMT3000<\/a>. My buddy, The Professor<\/a>, has one and uses it to consume much\u00a0of his digital audio content including podcasts and Internet radio stations. He sang the AMT3000’s praises, and I trust the Prof; he’s something of a medium wave guru.<\/p>\n

Thing is, the AMT3000 only ships as a kit<\/em>. In the past, this had stopped me from ordering the transmitter as I figured it was more than my beginner kit-building skills could manage. But after building David Cripe’s Ozark Patrol regenerative receiver<\/a>,\u00a0and loving the experience,\u00a0I felt confident enough to make the order.<\/p>\n

And, boy, am I glad I did!<\/p>\n

The SSTRAN AMT3000 kit<\/h2>\n

The kit arrived within a few days of ordering it. Upon unboxing it, I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth, as it was packaged carefully in a quality box: components were clearly labelled in their own poly bags, the board was clearly marked with component numbers and the assembly\/instruction manual was in a plastic binder, all clear and straightforward.<\/p>\n

SSTRAN suggests taking your time building the kit, as there are a lot of components to solder, and you risk making mistakes that aren’t necessarily easy to remedy\u00a0if you rush through the process. I tried to follow this advice\u2013\u2013well, I intended<\/em> to follow this advice. Thing is, I find it\u00a0very difficult to put down a kit once I’m in the zone, so I zipped along a bit more quickly than I intended.<\/p>\n

But it helped that SSTRAN took out a lot of the head-scratching and guesswork;\u00a0the process couldn’t have been more smooth. I carefully checked and double-checked each component and marked it off the assembly list. First, you install all of the resistors, then capacitors, and on to other components. Other than having to hunt for some of the component locations on the board, it really was quite<\/em> simple.<\/p>\n

\"SStram-AMT3000-Board\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started building the kit on a Friday afternoon and actually finished it the following Saturday morning. Much to my delight, after performing the tuning procedure, the transmitter worked on the first go. Whew!<\/p>\n

Powerful (low power) broadcasting<\/h2>\n

\"SSTRAN-AMT3000-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The AMT3000 can be configured to work with the supplied simple wire antenna, which will essentially broadcast AM to radios throughout your home, or it can be configured for a Part 15 compliant outdoor base-loaded vertical antenna which will extend your range up to 3\/4 of a mile, should your shack be down the road or in an outbuilding.<\/p>\n

For the moment, I have my transmitter set up for in-house broadcasting\u00a0only. \u00a0If I ever want to build the base-loaded vertical, I only need to make a simple modification to the board to do so.<\/p>\n

\"SSTRAN-AMT3000-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The supplied manual does a great job of explaining the best ways to maximize your signal, reduce any electrical hum and tweak your audio fidelity.<\/p>\n

I’ve been using the AMT3000 nearly every day since I finished building it in mid-November. It seems to have a 100% duty cycle, does not overheat, and has no drift.<\/p>\n

It produces high fidelity audio with a flat frequency response\u2013\u2013and\u00a0of course, with modulation and compression controls, you can tailor the audio to your particular taste.<\/p>\n

Result? \u00a0It sounds amazing<\/em>\u00a0piping WWII-era tunes through my Scott Marine SLR-M, Hallicrafters SX-24, and SX-99 and my Hammarlund SP-600.<\/p>\n

As a bonus, I can hook my shortwave receivers up to the AMT3000 and listen to received audio via other radios throughout my house. Many times, I’ve listened to live broadcasts of ERT Open on 9,420 kHz via my kitchen AM radio…Very cool!<\/p>\n

I also hook the AMT3000 up to my shack PC and stream my favorite internet radio station:\u00a0the UK 1940s Radio Station via TuneIn radio<\/a>. Absolutely brilliant!<\/p>\n

I set my transmitter to 1410 kHz, and have left it there. \u00a0You’ll need to do a medium wave (AM) survey to find the clearest spot on your AM dial. I’m sure results will vary, depending on the level of medium wave broadcast activity in your area.<\/p>\n

Here’s what my Scott Marine SLR-M sounds like playing\u00a0“March of the Toys” by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra<\/a>\u00a0via the SSTRAN AMT3000 (note that this was recorded with just an iPhone, so audio fidelity is somewhat lacking):<\/p>\n