very small low power simple transmitter (ideally single chip)?

I'd like to build a very small, low power RF transmitter circuit that is small and light enough (and cheap enough not to worry about) to be attached to a cats collar. I just want it to transmit either a constant or pulsed carrier (pulsed prob best for battery life) of a known frequency, that I can monitor with a receiver and DF antenna.

There must be single chip transmitters about these days?

Anyone suggest suitable circuit?

Reply to
megoodsen
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something like this?

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martin

Reply to
martin griffith

Yes exactly thanks!

Reply to
megoodsen

One more Q..

Where might I source in a suitable small crystal for operation at somewhere between 144 and 146MHz?

ta

Reply to
megoodsen

The best commercial tags still seem to use 2 or 3 transistors, with the smallest available SMD parts.

If you want a lot of choice, and various circuits to experiment with, I'd recommend you ask your local library to see if they can get the following:

"Scientific American" (Amateur Scientist columm, pgs 128-134) of March

1968 . You can get all the Amateur Scientist articles on 2 x CDs for about $30 now.

"Mammal Review" pgs 118-141 Dec 1978. (This one is very good, and very practical)

"Biomedical Telemetry", MacKay 1968 (Wiley and Sons)

"Wildlife Radio Tagging, Equipment, Techniques and Analysis", Kenward, 1987

"A Manual for Wildlife Radio Tagging", Kenward, 2001.

The last two are pretty comprehensive, but include a lot on collecting and analysing data, probably not what you need.

Barry Lennox.

Reply to
Barry Lennox

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see
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for using overtones

martin

Reply to
martin griffith
** Groper alert !

** Lotsa luck - that schem is fake.

Cat collar transmitters and receivers are commercially available.

But only absolute fuckwits buy them.

Go ahead - make my day.

........ Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

...and I'm sure you have the ham radio license required for transmission in this band? And if you do, why are you asking the question in the first place?

Jim

Reply to
RST Engineering (jw)

I'd buy one of those $5, 418 Mhz transmitters. Then you need a PIC12F200 running in low power mode to send bursts of signal and extend the battery life.

Luhan

Reply to
Luhan

Ooops, that would be PIC10F200. 53 cents from Mouser.

Luhan

Reply to
Luhan

=============================== Why not bootleg something low power on the bottom end of the AM band and sniff it with a regular radio?

Reply to
BobG

An antenna that would be at all effective on the AM band wouldn't fit on a cat. :-)

Radio Shack has key fob transmitters, but you'd have to hack a little micropower pulser, maybe a CMOS 555, or a 556 to do bursts.

A PIC, maybe, if he already has the development kit and knows how to program it.

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Hey, I believe I've been 'misquoted'!!!

Luhan

Reply to
Luhan

If it's under 100mW, is that not legal?

Mark

Reply to
Mark

Is there an accepted band for use with animal tracking, rather than ther usual unlicenced bands?

martin

Reply to
martin griffith

No. it has to be on specified band segments. Wade through CFR 47 for all the regulations for the US. Most other countries have similar regulations and laws.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

No. For Part 15 rules (unlicensed operation), see

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which says, in part....

Subpart C_Intentional Radiators

Sec. 15.209 Radiated emission limits; general requirements.

(a) Except as provided elsewhere in this subpart, the emissions from

an intentional radiator shall not exceed the field strength levels

specified in the following table:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Measurement

Frequency (MHz) Field strength distance

(microvolts/meter) (meters)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

0.009-0.490...................... 2400/F(kHz) 300

0.490-1.705...................... 24000/F(kHz) 30

1.705-30.0....................... 30 30

30-88............................ 100 ** 3

88-216........................... 150 ** 3

216-960.......................... 200 ** 3

Above 960........................ 500 3

------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the above, you are allowed 200 uV/m at 3 meters.

This is equivalent to 13 nanowatts of isotropically radiated power.

Cheers, John

Reply to
John - KD5YI

I guess that makes my 500 milliwatt, 560,000 Gigahertz transmitter illegal!!!

(LED flashlight)

Luhan

Reply to
Luhan

It might be called out on this:

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Or you could look at Radio Control eauipnent - they seem to be allowed a decent range, and AFAIK they don't need licenses. Have you ever been to a place where a bunch of folks are flying RC planes? They each have a streamer attached to their antenna, and the color of the streamer corresponds to which freq. they're on in the channel - it's sort of a gentleman's agreement that they won't step on each other's signals.

I have no idea what the common frequencies are[1] - a cat would look a little funny with a 6' whip antenna sticking out of its collar. ;-)

Good Luck! Rich [1] ISTR somewhere around 27 MHz and somewhere around 49 MHz, but quote me at your own risk! :-)

Reply to
Rich Grise

And even less, if your antenna has gain, right? Because it still has to be < 200 uV/m at 3 meters, looking right up the throat of the antenna, right?

So, what's the deal with those RF modems with thousands of meters' range? Are they, like, pre-licensed or something?

And will a signal that weak reach an RC airplane that's, say, 300m away?

Anyway, here's some frequencies:

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Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

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