Walk-through and commentary.
Disclaimer: This transmitter is not approved for any type use in the US, and the FCC will be making a path to your location should you use more than 500 milliwatts. A lot less if you are interfering with a weak signal that happens to be your neighbor's favorite Modern Country station.
I have been eyeballing this device on eBay for use for movie night in a field afar, and as possibly the medium to transmit audio for Christmas-time synchronized light shows. In addition, the CZE 15B had a little port on the front marked "DAC" that caught my eye.
I contacted the seller in Hong Kong and asked him if the DAC port on the front operated as I envisioned it should, which is to say hooking the unit up to a PC and it would appear as another output/sound card. I was impressed with how fast he got back to me, and more impressed that his answer, while in broken english, was comprehensive and understandable.
This gave me the confidence to risk $200 USD on essentially an "FM Station In a Box" in which the only advertising was a picture like this:
I ordered up the "kit", and the seller shipped it the next day from Hong Kong and provided a DHL Express tracking number. Shipping was FAST. Ordered it on Monday, August 1st and the item was on my doorstep today, August 5th when I got home from work. Tracking was provided the entire way, and DHL texted my cell phone this morning with a "package needs signature" warning... text back with OK and tracking number to drop package without signature... which I did.
Here's what came in the box:
L-R, generally:
CZE-15B 0-15 Watt Stereo FM Broadcast Band Transmitter.
USB A to USB Mini 1 Meter cable (for "DAC")
USB A to A 1 Meter cable (for "PC Control")
1/8" stereo phone plug to 2X RCA Male Plugs (for "Line In")
15 VDC power supply capable of 4A continuous.
25' (ish) Co-Ax, TNC one end for transmitter, PL-259 other end for antenna.
Front 3 bags: 3 meter ground plane antenna
First up, I assembled the 3 meter ground plane antenna. The antenna is 'tuned' by screwing on the proper end on the transmitting element. I am going to be using the very bottom of the FM band, so I screwed on the longest tuning 'stub' marked "89 MHz". Here's what the different lengths of tuning ends look like:
I hi-jacked a camera tripod I picked up at goodwill for 4 bucks, assembled the ground plane, mounted it to the tripod, and HERE YOU GO:
The top section slides right off and everything else unscrews, so I can make a "go kit" for innafield movie nights.
I attached the transmitter to the TNC end of the cable, hooked up the power supply, applied power and stood back! Just to give you an idea of how tiny the transmitter is, here's a pic of it atop my SB-200:
Transmitter is powered on, power supply to the right. When it fires up, it goes through a self-check and then reads "System Standby" if the pic is unclear.
Next step is hooking the cables to the PC. Both control and DAC are USB, so find two spare USB ports and hook them up. The DAC port on the transmitter becomes another sound card on your computer named "C-Media USB Device" . Direct the signal you want transmitted to that sound output. Note: I used a Windows based PC because I was rather sure loading of drivers would not be necessary. I was correct. The second (white) USB cable is for "PC control"... much like a virtual com port to control your ham radio.
Now for the fun part... you have to find "PC Control" software. I have taken the work out of that for you and here is the link to the software and driver that works "the best".... that is to say it actually works:
CZE-15B USER MANUAL
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B USER MANUAL.pdf
CZE-15B PC Control Software -x86
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B PC Control Software -x86.rar
PC Control Software USER MANUAL
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B PC Control Software USER MANUAL.pdf
Once you install the PC Control Software, things get relatively easy from there. The software has a simple, effective interface that looks like this:
The "C Media USB" output to the DAC port on the transmitter is now tweaked with the "LINE" slider.
Mic slider at zero. Power throttled back to a much-too-powerful 400 milliwatts. SWR lookin' good at 1.0 and transmitter temp at 39C. The cooling fan isn't even on! Cool! I like the basic diagnostics.
That's really about all the basics to assembling and getting "on the air" in an emergency. This was an exercise and I do not condone breaking the law. I emphasize, AGAIN, just how bad an attitude the FCC has with broadcast band interference.
Here's one last shot of the transmitter operating nominally before I shut it down and put it in a box.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask via any means necessary.
Thanks for having a look.
73 de N4REV
Rob
Disclaimer: This transmitter is not approved for any type use in the US, and the FCC will be making a path to your location should you use more than 500 milliwatts. A lot less if you are interfering with a weak signal that happens to be your neighbor's favorite Modern Country station.
I have been eyeballing this device on eBay for use for movie night in a field afar, and as possibly the medium to transmit audio for Christmas-time synchronized light shows. In addition, the CZE 15B had a little port on the front marked "DAC" that caught my eye.
I contacted the seller in Hong Kong and asked him if the DAC port on the front operated as I envisioned it should, which is to say hooking the unit up to a PC and it would appear as another output/sound card. I was impressed with how fast he got back to me, and more impressed that his answer, while in broken english, was comprehensive and understandable.
This gave me the confidence to risk $200 USD on essentially an "FM Station In a Box" in which the only advertising was a picture like this:
I ordered up the "kit", and the seller shipped it the next day from Hong Kong and provided a DHL Express tracking number. Shipping was FAST. Ordered it on Monday, August 1st and the item was on my doorstep today, August 5th when I got home from work. Tracking was provided the entire way, and DHL texted my cell phone this morning with a "package needs signature" warning... text back with OK and tracking number to drop package without signature... which I did.
Here's what came in the box:
L-R, generally:
CZE-15B 0-15 Watt Stereo FM Broadcast Band Transmitter.
USB A to USB Mini 1 Meter cable (for "DAC")
USB A to A 1 Meter cable (for "PC Control")
1/8" stereo phone plug to 2X RCA Male Plugs (for "Line In")
15 VDC power supply capable of 4A continuous.
25' (ish) Co-Ax, TNC one end for transmitter, PL-259 other end for antenna.
Front 3 bags: 3 meter ground plane antenna
First up, I assembled the 3 meter ground plane antenna. The antenna is 'tuned' by screwing on the proper end on the transmitting element. I am going to be using the very bottom of the FM band, so I screwed on the longest tuning 'stub' marked "89 MHz". Here's what the different lengths of tuning ends look like:
I hi-jacked a camera tripod I picked up at goodwill for 4 bucks, assembled the ground plane, mounted it to the tripod, and HERE YOU GO:
The top section slides right off and everything else unscrews, so I can make a "go kit" for innafield movie nights.
I attached the transmitter to the TNC end of the cable, hooked up the power supply, applied power and stood back! Just to give you an idea of how tiny the transmitter is, here's a pic of it atop my SB-200:
Transmitter is powered on, power supply to the right. When it fires up, it goes through a self-check and then reads "System Standby" if the pic is unclear.
Next step is hooking the cables to the PC. Both control and DAC are USB, so find two spare USB ports and hook them up. The DAC port on the transmitter becomes another sound card on your computer named "C-Media USB Device" . Direct the signal you want transmitted to that sound output. Note: I used a Windows based PC because I was rather sure loading of drivers would not be necessary. I was correct. The second (white) USB cable is for "PC control"... much like a virtual com port to control your ham radio.
Now for the fun part... you have to find "PC Control" software. I have taken the work out of that for you and here is the link to the software and driver that works "the best".... that is to say it actually works:
CZE-15B USER MANUAL
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B USER MANUAL.pdf
CZE-15B PC Control Software -x86
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B PC Control Software -x86.rar
PC Control Software USER MANUAL
http://www.elecsky.net/datasheet/SDA-15B PC Control Software USER MANUAL.pdf
Once you install the PC Control Software, things get relatively easy from there. The software has a simple, effective interface that looks like this:
The "C Media USB" output to the DAC port on the transmitter is now tweaked with the "LINE" slider.
Mic slider at zero. Power throttled back to a much-too-powerful 400 milliwatts. SWR lookin' good at 1.0 and transmitter temp at 39C. The cooling fan isn't even on! Cool! I like the basic diagnostics.
That's really about all the basics to assembling and getting "on the air" in an emergency. This was an exercise and I do not condone breaking the law. I emphasize, AGAIN, just how bad an attitude the FCC has with broadcast band interference.
Here's one last shot of the transmitter operating nominally before I shut it down and put it in a box.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask via any means necessary.
Thanks for having a look.
73 de N4REV
Rob
