Troubleshooting Fm Transmitter Circuits

Hi Everyone -

Was hoping to get some sage advice...we are building the simple fm transmitter circuit at:

FM Transmitter

and I was wondering if you think this frequency counter/bug detector device:

**broken link removed**

would be a good troubleshooting tool to have as we try to get our circuits to work..namely to help us at least determine if our circuits are transmitting at the appropriate frequency (88-108 MHz)...

Would appreciate any opinions..

Thanks!!

I can save you a few bucks. Why not just use a receiver, like a cheap AM/FM alarm clock?

I agree with KE5frf, that a simple FM radio receiver (especially one with an analog tuner so you can tune a bit beyond the band edges) is going to be a far more useful tool than that bug detector.

The transmitter bug circuit is too simple:
1) Its antenna is connected to its tuned circuit so the frequency will change if something moves toward or away from the antenna.
2) Its frequency will change as the battery runs down.
3) It will sound muffled without high audio frequencies because it does not have pre-emphasis.