Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted to set up "whole home" audio around my house and yard. I didn't want some "toy" transmitter that goes 30 feet - I need a good signal out to a couple hundred feet. I ordered the Fail-Safe recently as it was on sale for $99.95. Though it was supposedly back-ordered a month away, I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in about a week. I opened the package and was on-air within 5 minutes. It does everything it claims to do, and I am quite pleased. The unit is quite compact - not much bigger than a bar of bath soap. The Xmtr looks a lot like the HLLY units you can find online, and like the HLLY, this one is Chinese-made, despite Fail-Safe's claims of "American made." In truth, they are "American sold." These are generic transmitters mass-produced overseas sold by numerous companies around the globe. That being said, I still chose the Fail-Safe over the lower-cost HLLY and others due to the good reviews about Fail-Safe's tech support. Nice to know I can call somebody in Indiana if I have a question or concern. Better to pay $100 and have domestic support than to pay $60 and give your credit card info to some guy in Guangzhou. I set up the Xmtr in my home, at ground floor level, perhaps 6' height above average terrain (HAAT). I connected the antenna, plugged in the power supply, turned it on, set freq to an empty channel and connected my mp3 player. I set the power to low (100mW) and turned on radios around the house. The signal was rock-solid with very good fidelity. There is a small amount of noise in the signal, likely due to the switch-mode power supply. The noise is only apparent between songs, or when the music is very soft. Most of my music is very dynamic, so it won't be an issue. I got in the car and drove around the neighborhood. I received a solid signal out to about 1/4 mile as the crow flies. I live in a suburban residential area with flat terrain. Beyond 1/4 mile the signal started to drop out, though I could still hear music fading in and out at a distance of 0.6 miles (according to my GPS). I also tested it with a portable pocket radio, but that lost the signal beyond 0.1 miles. Pretty good signal given that all I want is coverage for around the house and yard. I don't want to entertain the whole neighborhood. I moved the unit upstairs, about 15' HAAT, and the signal range was about the same. I switched to high power (500mW) and there was a dramatic increase in range. I drove around and the signal stayed rock-solid to just over a mile with weaker coverage to about 1.5 miles. I switched the Tx back to 100mW, as that is more than enough power. Keep in mind that this transmitter is NOT FCC Part 15 compliant. There is no Part 15 label on it, nor is there any transmitter certification. You're on your own here, and Fail-Safe makes that clear in their instruction sheet. In the U.S., the maximum for legal, unlicensed FM transmissions is 250uV/m, measured at 3 meters. Contrary to popular belief, the FCC does not state this limit in terms of power. Transmitter power is misleading - due to efficiencies, transmission line losses. antenna gain, antenna height, terrain, obstacles, etc., your mileage may vary. It's signal strength that matters to the FCC. I haven't measured the signal strength of the Fail-Safe unit, but I would not be surprised if it was several times that legal limit - even at the low power setting. So unless you live way out in the boonies, you might want to keep it at the 100mW setting if you want to avoid getting a NOUO letter from the FCC. Whatever you do, don't ever transmit on an occupied channel. Radio stations take a dim view of people interfering with their signals. All it takes is one complaint and some FCC agent will be cruising your neighborhood in a van to triangulate your signal. And if you live close to an airport, you may want to think twice about operating one of these. The unit puts out some spurious harmonics and it may interfere with aircraft communications just above the FM band. One minor gripe: the swivel function of the rubber duck antenna is a bit loose, and the antenna tends to droop over. A piece of electrical tape wound around the swivel fitting keeps the antenna upright. In all, I am happy with the Fail-Safe and would recommend it to others - with some caveats. UPDATE: I decided that running even 100mW is too risky, given the onerous FCC penalties that can result from using this transmitter, and the ease at which they can find you. I bought a 50-ohm RF attenuator that connects between the transmitter's BNC jack and the ducky antenna. The attenuation is 10dB, which reduces the output power by a factor of 10. [...] My coverage at the low-power setting with the attenuator is about 1 - 2 blocks on a good car radio, and a couple hundred feet with a walkman-type portable radio. Just the power I need (10mW) and still a better signal than what you get from the toy transmitters.