RickRyan.com wrote:
I'm working some clubs in Nashville that have multiple bands, rotating
every 4 hours. They run from 10am-3am, 7 days per week. I work regular
shift, almost like a day job.

I want to use in-ear style monitoring but don't want to hassle with the
cost or constant setup/tear down of a standard in-ear system with
dedicated transmitter and receiver. I've been toying with using a
low-power FM transmitter (like for an ipod) and standard FM radios with
in-ear phones. It's working okay except the transmitter isn't strong
enough and I get some interference.

Yes, this is the side effect of using the broadcast band, which you are
sharing with lots of other users with much higher power. And if you want
to stay legal, you can't put out much power yourself at all. You'll
actually do much better on AM, in part because you can get the power
levels up much higher and remain legal.

Can anyone recommend a good FM transmitter that might work in the
50-150 ft range without the interference? The idea being the
transmitter stays put and the rest of the bands are free to then start
bringing their own radio and ear buds. Everything's compatible
(hopefully).

You can buy IFB systems from guys like Vega which use the licensed
wireless mike channels. You can't use cheap Walkmen with them, but
they will do the job, the setup is very quick, and if you do the frequency
allocation right you won't have such interference issues.

You can also consider using assisted listening devices.

Whatever you do, make sure it employs proper limiters so you don't
damage anyone's hearing. Both the IFB receivers and the assisted
listening devices should do that.

If you absolutely HAVE to use the FM band, stick a safety limiter
in front of the transmitter. Put the transmitter into a lunchbox
so you can drop it on the stage, plug it into a return on the snake
and go. Keeping the transmitter on the stage radically reduces the
amount of power needed since you aren't fighting the inverse square
law so hard.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."