Anyone listen to "distant" AM stations at night?

[kb2vxa]

Now wait a minute Bill, I wasn't the first to cook a hot dog that way and besides, my gadgeteer uncle Ray invented the Pocket Fisherman when a rather large fish snapped off 2/3 of his fishing pole. (;->) Not too much of a stretch actually, one of my cousins invented the aerosol nozzle to spray powder and another invented the process to condense milk. You never heard of Babs Sheperack but I'm sure Leslie Borden rings a bell. I invented insanity so watch it feller!

Speaking of blazing hot dogs and Blazing Saddles, Gordon West WB6NOA invented the blazing pickle. If you don't know about Gordo's famous antics just invite him to your local radio club and watch him in action, just be prepared for bedlam when he asks his assistant from the audience to send SOS on it.

To "borrow" a phrase from the movie, "The instructor is a N N N N N N NUT!" (;->)

 

[n2mdk]

Don't remember one from Ronco but do remember the one from Presto. Electrocute your hot dogs what fun.
We had one when I was a kid someone gave it to us, we never used it, didn't want to be cruel to the dogs after all.

 

[Shortwavewave]

Hey DanTSX, I guess I can call you Dan? Im asuming thats your name?

I almost bought that Radio Shack Clone too, I didnt becuase it was 49.99, I wasnt sure if it was worth it, and I went back and they told me its been discontinued

I wonder how any of these preform?
http://www.crosleyradio.com/prods/radios.html

Im having a blast with my "new"/old RDA127 see this thread
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102618

 

[reedeb]

As a child living in Maine I would listen to many stations a long ways off. In 2003/2004 in South Carolina I was working out of my vehicle and would listen to WBZ 1030 in Boston and it brought back memories as I would work nights in ME and NH and listen to them at night just to stay awake

 

[ridgescan]

Good stuff Reedeb-you reminded me of something too- how many of you guys dx in the car like Reedeb did? I have a really strong AM in my truck's stereo. What's the phenomenon of vehicle radios that, at least in my experiences, they have outstanding AM reception? E.G., staions in Sacramento stream in almost as strongly as local ones. We're talking over 90 miles.

 

[Shortwavewave]

I have noticed that too, maybe it because of the ground plane of the body of the car?? or that instead of the AM Bars it uses a whip?

 

[Patch42]

What's the phenomenon of vehicle radios that, at least in my experiences, they have outstanding AM reception?

It has to do with actually paying attention to the design of the radio and the antenna. The car is a very challenging listening environment. In order to provide a listening experience anyone would want to repeat, the manufacturers have had to put a lot of effort into getting everything just right. Modern car radios are a bit more hit and miss in this regard because they know the few people listening to AM are mostly listening to talk on a local station. Many of the car radios from older cars were very good performers.

 

[Zaratsu]

Hey DanTSX, I guess I can call you Dan? Im asuming thats your name?

I almost bought that Radio Shack Clone too, I didnt becuase it was 49.99, I wasnt sure if it was worth it, and I went back and they told me its been discontinued

I wonder how any of these preform?
http://www.crosleyradio.com/prods/radios.html

Im having a blast with my "new"/old RDA127 see this thread
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102618

Its a nice sounding radio. I got it for $25(clearance in box w/ everything + tuning light doesnt work) I have a big Adcom component stereo system, and I rarely turn it on these days. The only problem with with the tuning is that it is too "narrow" The dial is nice and slow and very heavy, but it is too easy to pass over the strongest part of a signal and the strong part of the signal seems awful small, so you tend to get off-center static easy on even strong stations. Maybe the tuning is tough because the weight on the dial and I could fix the LED. A few of the local radioshacks still have the demo for sale on the shelf. If you see one for $20-25 pick it up. Makes a great Ipod or scanner speaker for a small -med sized room or office. If they had a less picky tuner and a better high-range sound, they could easily sell this thing for $70 and kick the Tivoli Model 1 square in the nuts. As it is, not worth $50, maybe $40, but at $25 it is a steal!


Those crosley radios look nice. The Comet or Solo look so good that I could care less how they perform. Kind of Art-Deco with some Geroge Jetson mixed in.

I've also heard good things about the Sangean WR-1, which the head engineer for radiolabs designed (this guy also designed the modifications for the "SUPER" ATS-909 shortwave portable, which I assume to mean that it tunes at or above the competition.)

http://www.radiointel.com/review-sangeanwr1.htm

 

[monitorman]

Had some good dx last night from Pittsburgh, Atlanta, San Antonio, Arizona, New York to here in Kansas on my superadio 3.

 

[LS1_TA]

Many yars ago when the AM band had exciting Disc Jockeys and good music i would dx 640am clear channel KFI Los Angeles,1580 KDAY and i once dx'd a Hawaii station. This all occured here in sunny las Vegas. I dx'd the hawaii station with a horizontal piece of wire across my roof.

 

[jeffy]

radio DX

I'm 52 years old but every night when I go to bed I take a small radio to bed and scan across the dial a few times eventually settling on a talk show of some sort. When I was a boy growing up in foster homes this was my escape from my reality. Just for a little while I was somewhere else.

jeff

 

[ridgescan]

Hey Jeff- very sorry that you grew up like that bro..I grew up in the hard hits academy myself. But radios got us through-or the love of them. Good read Pal. 73s

 

[wabc770]

Nice thread!

I remember the DX Bug biting one night in '72 when I heard WGN 'all the way
from Chicago' at my OH QTH. I was stunned! It only got more intense when I
tuned around that part of the dial and found CBL, WSB, WJR, WABC, WBBM, and
all the rest of the 50kw flamethrowers. Amazing!

I jotted down those few stations I'd heard for some reason - and found myself
soon actively at it night after night to see just how many I could hear...
not quite 1000 before jobs and girls entered the picture a few years later.

A Ross RE-8000 multibander my dad had was my main rx for a couple of years,
and it was tough knowing what I was hearing because my only list of stations
was a page from the back of a Rand McNally road atlas that listed major
stations across the country.

I knew nothing of the NRC Log or anything like that. I didn't even know it
WAS a hobby - I thought I was the only nut in America who did this.

Eventually I found a radio to love (my trusty Realistic TRF which RS sold
for about $29) - and a fabulous station listing (White's Radio Log in the
back of Communications World magazine). We all shared many a long and happy
night together exploring the ether.

It was interesting hearing the local flavor of small-town radio: school
lunch menus, lost dog reports, obits sponsored by a local funeral home.
And I always knew I was listening to a little station in the SE US when I
heard black gospel playing - it never got played anywhere else that I heard.
I love the music and still can't help but think of those days when I hear it.

Always enjoyed the top-40 stations of the day, but hated when Paul McCartney's
'Let Em In' played cuz it was over 5 mins long and I KNEW my rare DX would
fade before that endless song ended.

The band was never quite the same when I tuned past WABC or WLS or .... and
music wasn't playing anymore.

Lots of memories -- those are just a few.

 

[57Bill]

Nice post, Michael. I still have a few yellowed copies of Communications World mag that I purchased for White's Log in the back.

 

[Patch42]

I remember the DX Bug biting one night in '72 when I heard WGN 'all the way from Chicago' at my OH QTH. I was stunned! It only got more intense when I
tuned around that part of the dial and found CBL, WSB, WJR, WABC, WBBM, and
all the rest of the 50kw flamethrowers. Amazing!

I picked up a new old radio this week and was tuning around with it last night. WBBM is often in here at a listenable level, but last night it was like a local. WGN is usually a bit spotty, but it too was significantly stronger than normal. WABC wasn't quite as strong as usual. These all from my location in Orlando.

The new old radio I mentioned is a Sony ICF-S5W I picked up off ebay this week. Toward the end of the heyday of music on AM Sony set out to create the best portable AM radio for DX the world had seen. They accomplished their goal, but with AM on the slide, there was little interest in a super DX AM radio. The ICF-S5W was only on the market for a couple years before Sony stopped production. These things are about as rare as hen's teeth. Any DXer who has one will let it go when you pry it from his cold, dead fingers.

I already have what I thought was the best portable MW radio in the Panasonic RF-2200. In shootouts among portables, the RF-2200 consistently comes out on top. I was actually quite surprised to find the S5W recover better audio from weak stations. I wouldn't say it blows away the RF-2200, but in my brief comparisons, the S5W has been consistently better.

It's even more shocking to see such performance come from a rather nondescript box with a simple slide rule pointer. The RF-2200 looks like a fancy radio with all kinds of knobs and switches on the front, plus the multi-column scrolling tuning display and calibratable fine tuning dial. The S5W has a minimum of controls. The only fancy things are the tuning LEDs that let you know when you're centered on the carrier, and even those are rather subtle. The S5W looks like some inexpensive carry-along radio. The performance it provides is anything but. Even though I paid several times what it cost new in 1980, I think I still got a pretty good deal.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi again,

Just a bit of catching up to do;
"I have noticed that too, maybe it because of the ground plane of the body of the car?? or that instead of the AM Bars it uses a whip?"

No Shorty, when it comes to MW and HF the car body can't act as a ground plane, it's much to small to be a useful fraction of a wavelength. Rather it's capacitively coupled to earth which is the actual and literal ground plane.

Just a thought, tube type and very early hybrid AM car radios were highly sensitive and selective receivers because otherwise once you drive out of town the station would disappear. Car radios wouldn't be of much use if you can't hear anything past the city limits. Along come FM stereo radios and 8 track players for the long haul, AM becomes an afterthought. Radios of this interim period concentrated on "hi fi" stereo sound and AM performance went into the bucket. For whatever reason and I suspect imports today's car radios are far better performers on the AM band, some even have DSP noise limiting and synchronous detectors to eliminate selective fading. I was amazed when I found such a great receiver in the unlikeliest of cars, a Dodge Neon. Yup, I was trying to track down some fierce power line noise and for a moment wondered why I couldn't hear it at all so off to the VXA mobile, Toyota must have the crappiest radio in history. (;->)

"Many yars ago when the AM band had exciting Disc Jockeys and good music i would dx 640am clear channel KFI Los Angeles..." (Yars? Now there's a regional accent in print!)

I never got to hear that Hall of Famer with WNBC (now WFAN) NY on the frequency. There never really was such a thing as a clear channel actually, somewhere in NA there were 2 or more sharing and now even more since the FCC changed the band plan.

"I'm 52 years old but every night when I go to bed I take a small radio to bed and scan across the dial a few times eventually settling on a talk show of some sort. When I was a boy growing up in foster homes this was my escape from my reality."

Well Jeff I'm just a few years older only I did that in my younger days but no longer. (Subliminal messages from the Mother Ship on C2C AM you know.) Gene Shepherd on WOR 710 NY was my flying carpet, his stories filled my head with evil, madness and nefarious plots that were acted out later one way or another. Worried about someone listening to your baby monitor or portable phone? Don't look now but the kid next door has a T-1 carbon mic from an old telephone taped under the sill of your bedroom window.

"Always enjoyed the top-40 stations of the day, but hated when Paul McCartney's
'Let Em In' played cuz it was over 5 mins long and I KNEW my rare DX would
fade before that endless song ended."

Heh, that's how you could tell when the DJ was going to the bathroom! If he really had it bad you'd hear Inagadadavida with the full drum solo.

"The band was never quite the same when I tuned past WABC or WLS or .... and
music wasn't playing anymore. "

The day, the music died. We were singin' bye bye Miss American Pie...
WABC was fairly unique with those PAMS spots having that weird and annoying tone burst at the end but one I surely don't miss was the ID, when I heard "Pam" sing the call letters I dove for the volume control knowing I had about one second to save my ears from that nerve shattering chime! I was never much of a listener to Top 40 repeated endlessly all day long, there were far better rock stations to listen to, even in daytime. One final thought on ABC, although they were the flagship station they only aired one network show, Don McNeil and The Breakfast Club from Chicago at 9:00am weekdays. "Good morning Breakfast Clubbers good morning to ya..." CLICK.. YYYUCH!

"It was interesting hearing the local flavor of small-town radio..."

It wasn't just small town, it was Motown (Gordy Berry) and even more famous was Phil Specter (Phillies label, Ronettes and more) and the Philly Sound, the Philly Dog (a dance) and speaking of flavor, if you've ever eaten a Philly cheese steak sandwich you know what Heaven is like! Then there was the geetor with the heater, the boss with the hot sauce, a DJ like no other, Jerry Blavat.

He's still around, alive and well in Margate NJ but as this song ends and we run into the end groove; turn me on dead man <click> turn me on dead man <click> turn me on dead man... the day, the music, died.

 

[Zaratsu]

I picked up a new old radio this week and was tuning around with it last night. WBBM is often in here at a listenable level, but last night it was like a local. WGN is usually a bit spotty, but it too was significantly stronger than normal. WABC wasn't quite as strong as usual. These all from my location in Orlando.

The new old radio I mentioned is a Sony ICF-S5W I picked up off ebay this week. Toward the end of the heyday of music on AM Sony set out to create the best portable AM radio for DX the world had seen. They accomplished their goal, but with AM on the slide, there was little interest in a super DX AM radio. The ICF-S5W was only on the market for a couple years before Sony stopped production. These things are about as rare as hen's teeth. Any DXer who has one will let it go when you pry it from his cold, dead fingers.

I already have what I thought was the best portable MW radio in the Panasonic RF-2200. In shootouts among portables, the RF-2200 consistently comes out on top. I was actually quite surprised to find the S5W recover better audio from weak stations. I wouldn't say it blows away the RF-2200, but in my brief comparisons, the S5W has been consistently better.

It's even more shocking to see such performance come from a rather nondescript box with a simple slide rule pointer. The RF-2200 looks like a fancy radio with all kinds of knobs and switches on the front, plus the multi-column scrolling tuning display and calibratable fine tuning dial. The S5W has a minimum of controls. The only fancy things are the tuning LEDs that let you know when you're centered on the carrier, and even those are rather subtle. The S5W looks like some inexpensive carry-along radio. The performance it provides is anything but. Even though I paid several times what it cost new in 1980, I think I still got a pretty good deal.

Huh. I had just read an article about that radio a few weeks back on some website. Good find! They dont build them like they used to!

 

[E-Man]

The Sony LP1 has long since been discontinued, sadly - it's become the gold standard to which a lot of active loops have been compared. Good luck finding one :.>>

73 Mike

Amazing Antenna, they can still be found on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-AN-LP1-Portable-Active-Antenna_W0QQitemZ130214541719QQihZ003QQcategoryZ15051QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[bee]

WLS, in Chicago, I think! It was AM and I lived about 600 miles from there, in Ms. Clear as a bell at night! This was in the 60's and 70's.

 

[Patch42]

WLS, in Chicago, I think! It was AM and I lived about 600 miles from there, in Ms. Clear as a bell at night! This was in the 60's and 70's.

That was back when the clear channels (not the radio company by the same name) were actually pretty clear. The 50kW WLS pushes will go a very long way when there's nothing interfering. In the time frame you mentioned, there were a lot fewer electronic devices spewing RFI, fewer stations competing for the airwaves, and no IBOC polluting the band. Even today WLS has "fringe" daytime coverage from Green Bay to St. Louis to Dayton.

I have trouble getting a decent signal on WLS most nights here in Orlando, but WBBM often comes in very strong and WGN is usually not too far behind in signal quality.

You can still hear a lot of distant stations with the right radio and some patience, but it definitely takes better conditions today than it did 40 years ago.