Hey all,

I've been browsing around looking at AM / FM transmitters and I keep
bumping into exciters. I'm curious. What is the difference between
exciters and transmitters?

I'm new to broadcasting, so I'm still getting used to the lingo.

Thanks!

An exciter is a transmitter that normally drives an amplifier.

"CD" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey all,

I've been browsing around looking at AM / FM transmitters and I keep
bumping into exciters. I'm curious. What is the difference between
exciters and transmitters?

I'm new to broadcasting, so I'm still getting used to the lingo.

Thanks!

On 30 Aug 2005 13:05:56 -0700, "CD" wrote:

Hey all,

I've been browsing around looking at AM / FM transmitters and I keep
bumping into exciters. I'm curious. What is the difference between
exciters and transmitters?

I'm new to broadcasting, so I'm still getting used to the lingo.

Well, this is a ham radio group and we don't "broadcast", we transmit
to at most a few individuals at a time.

"Exciters" are transmitters that are usually used to "excite" a
following amplifier. Because many (most) amateur power amplifiers of
the day require tens to maybe 100 Watts input to deliver rated output,
an exciter might well be a 100 W transmitter.

Thank you, John and Wes! I also thought that they were the same, but I
wasn't too sure.

"CD" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you, John and Wes! I also thought that they were the same, but I
wasn't too sure.


In a way they are the same. Exciters are usually thought of as a low power
stage that drives a larger amplifier. The exciter plus the amplifier stages
are what I would call a tansmitter. Many of the vhf/uhf comercial
transceivers had a low power (around 100 to 300 milliwatts) exciter to
drive the amplifier section that would take it to 25 to 150 watts out.

Broadcast stations are licensed at various power levels, and indeed, AM stations typically (except clear channel) change
power at sunrise and sunset. FM stations are also licensed at various powers, where the antenna height above average
terrain and antenna gain also enter into the radiated power equation. So manufacturers design an exciter which provides
a set of features desired by some large segment of their target customers, and with that a series of amplifies of
different power levels to meet the license parameters.

--
Crazy George
The attglobal.net address is a SPAM trap. Please change that part to: attdotbiz properly formatted.
"CD" wrote in message oups.com...
Hey all,

I've been browsing around looking at AM / FM transmitters and I keep
bumping into exciters. I'm curious. What is the difference between
exciters and transmitters?

I'm new to broadcasting, so I'm still getting used to the lingo.

Thanks!

If its output is to an antenna, then its a transmitter
If the output is to an amplifier, then its an exciter.
Usually.

Thanks for the reply, all!

I was calling some companies just to ask around. It seems like when it
comes to AM exciters I would still need to hook it up to an AM
transmitter. However, for FM exciters, I can directly hook them up to a
power amp.