terri wrote:
What do you recommend for my antenna set up.. both on the transmitter and the receiver (the main living room receiver is about 20 feet away). What kind of antenna (on each)? Recommendations on antenna placement?
If your receiver is 20 feet away, the simple wire that comes with the PCI-Max should do just fine for home broadcasting. You may, however, need to improve upon the antenna you have on your receiver. If it is a home stereo receiver, they usually come with a simple wire dipole antenna. If this is the case with your system, make sure the antenna isn't buried on the floor crumpled up. Pin it up to the wall so that it is fully stretched out either horizontally or vertically.
If you are still getting static, increase the power using the PCI-Max driver. If that doesn't work, you may be overmodulating and the static is, in fact, distortion. Try lowering the volume level of your audio input until you get a clean sound.
If you wish to improve upon the wire antenna that comes with the PCI-Max, making a dipole is the simplest solution, especially for home use. The PCI-Max uses an F connector, so the easiest thing to do is go to Radio Shack or your local Audio/Visual electronics store and pick up a 20-25 foot spool of RG-6 TV coax with the F connectors already installed. (RG-6 is 75ohm coax. The dipole feedpoint impedance is also near 75ohms so they are a good match and don’t present too much of a mismatch for the 50ohm antenna connector on the card) Since this is for indoor use, don't scrimp on the cheap cable. Buy the coax with the most shielding you can get. At a hardware store, purchase a 6 foot length of the thickest copper wire you can find and a square wooden dowel 5 to 5 1/2 feet long.
A dipole is just two pieces of wire that, when connected to the feedline, form a half-wave radiator for the frequency you are broadcasting on.
Step 1. Go to
http://www.kwarc.org/ant-calc.html Use the calculator to find out the length the dipole will need to be on your chosen frequency (or divide 468 by your frequency for the total length in feet).
Step 2. Cut your copper wire into two pieces of equal length based on the length determined by the equation above. Each section should be 1/2 of the total length of the antenna (1/4 wave length per side).
Step 3. Tape each wire to the dowel with electrical tape, leaving approximately 2 inches between the wires in the middle. If the wire is insulated, expose about 1 1/2 inches of bare wire on each leg where they meet in the middle.
Step 4. Take your coax and cut off one F connector. With a razor, carefully cut off about 3 inches of the rubber insulation from the end of the coax exposing the woven copper shielding. Be careful when cutting that you don't nick the shielding. Using a knife tip, carefully nudge the woven shielding apart to form a small hole. Bend the coax over and wiggle the dielectric underneath out through the hole.
Step 5. Carefully cut away about 1 1/2 inches of the dielectric, leaving the center conductor (copper wire) exposed. Be careful not to nick the center conductor when doing this.
Step 6. Take the woven shielding and twist it into a firm snake - kind of like a stranded wire. Using a soldering iron, tin the braid (i.e., heat up the braided wire and allow some solder to melt into it).
Step 7. Connect the coax center conductor to one leg of the dipole by twisting the wires together firmly. Do the same with the tinned shield to the other leg.
Step 8. Solder the coax center conductor and shield to each leg of the dipole.
Step 9. Cover the entire antenna with electrical tape, paying special attention to where the coax and dipole meet in the center. If the wires stick off the end of the dowel a little, it's okay, just tape the wire up so no bare wire is exposed.
Step 10. Make a choke balun. Make several loops of coax about 4-6 inches in diameter close to the feedpoint of the dipole. You want the coax loops to be touching each other in parallel. You don't want them to be crossing over one another. You want to end up with a coil that you can tape together. Use about 4-6 loops. This will help keep the outer braid of the coax from radiating RF energy.
Step 11. Place the antenna in a convenient spot as far away from your PC as possible. Hang it in a corner vertically or near the ceiling horizontally.
Step 12. Connect the other end of the coax to your PCI-Max and you should have a dandy little antenna for broadcasting around your house/yard/neighborhood.
Without an SWR meter, it will be impossible to tell if your dipole is, or is not, truly resonant on your frequency but it should be close enough for your purposes (and far better than the wire you are currently using). If you purchase an SWR meter that covers the FM broadcast band, you will be able to adjust the length of the dipole to be near perfect on your frequency.
CI Max simply for home and yard use... so please go easy on me with the radio tech lingo 
