From what I know y105.3 (KYBA) from I think either Rochester, MN or Stewartville, MN comes in crackly on all my home radio devices, but all other local radio stations come in perfect. I live a few blocks north of St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, MN. Any input why this station has problems?
Any reason why a local FM station has a crackly signal?
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Y103 is licensed to Stewartville but their tower is down by Elkton (closer to Austin than Rochester). Its close to the fringe of what "local" is considered. But since you have a good antenna it shouldnt be that bad
They do have a fill in translator at 104.9 which covers Rochester proper. Maybe try that station?
They do have a fill in translator at 104.9 which covers Rochester proper. Maybe try that station?
I also have it connected to my A/V receiver and same problem. 104.9 is worse. I also try my boom box (which is not connected to the outdoor antenna) and it also does the same thing. It seems to work in all the cars I've been in though. But it is MOSTLY better on 105.35 on the tuner, but still a little crackly. My tuner can go up and down half-intervals. But there are bad times even on that.
It also doesnt help that the translator station is only .4MHZ away from the "mothership". On slide tuners it would be hard to lock onto the right frequency. Its like in Minneapolis where the "105's" are (they play that old rap music). 105.1 is in Lakeville and 105.7 is on top of the IDS (105.3 is way up in Cambridge....to protect Y105)
On a slide tuner its real touchy to hit the "right one" in the SW burbs. Otherwise its staticy because its trying to get BOTH stations
On a slide tuner its real touchy to hit the "right one" in the SW burbs. Otherwise its staticy because its trying to get BOTH stations
Start unplugging any battery tender type battery chargers you might have at your house. If none of those, start unplugging any devices power bricks one by one, and see if the crackling stops.
I had a Harbor Freight battery charger, and a Dell laptop power supply that caused issues with my VHF tv reception (which is FM). Once I unplugged them, the interference cleared up immediately.
Just to pin this down a bit, was the interference you were experiencing on one station or was it across the radio band(s)?
Electric fences are known for causing similar issues and you never know where those may be used. Where I live, half of the people that have gardens have electric fences to keep the deer out as opposed to the livestock in.
I reason that interference that attacks only one station would be something less brute force than an electric arc. Iceberg's adjacent channel interference theory seems more plausible.
people still listen to commerical radio
. i got over that years ago with all of the ad's and the same 10 songs over and over with so many online streaming options and being able to burn cd's and make a thumb drive full of my favorite songs. i thought commerical radio went down the crapper years ago once everyone started carrying ipods smart phones and mp3 players
. i got over that years ago with all of the ad's and the same 10 songs over and over with so many online streaming options and being able to burn cd's and make a thumb drive full of my favorite songs. i thought commerical radio went down the crapper years ago once everyone started carrying ipods smart phones and mp3 players
Grim, your giving up on terrestrial radio is like saying, "I won't EAT because I went to one bad restaurant." Go looking! There's some great stations out there that understand what radio should be, and do it well. Obviously you have web access....Streaming didn't kill terrestrial radio, it augments what we do! Better yet, get an internet radio and look by region or genre for "terrestrial" broadcasters. Bet you find something you like still broadcasting the terrestrial bands, but one that understands the web is part of today's successful radio broadcasting industry.
It usually takes a lot of searching and the result is not always good. Of course it doesn't help that few radio stations play music that people might be buying. Quality of programming intersecting with quality delivery is a awfully small subset of what's out there and the radios and antennas required to receive them are relatively rare and expensive.
In my area, Entercom owns most of the stations and they play mostly oldies (70s-80s) and have libraries numbering in the dozens (even though two of the claim to play "everything"). The once-popular stations have been converted to news or sports stations and most of them present an alternate reality. Several small-town stations in the shadow of the big markets have transitioned to latino music. My own town has two FM stations: One latino and one public access. The latino station has absolutely miserable sound quality.
There are four AM stations: On plays music from the 50s through the 80s, one is some manner of religious music, one plays country oldies and one is sports talk. The popular oldies station seems to require LOS. Perhaps the best station in the area is KMHD that is owned by Oregon Public Broadcasting and plays all manner of jazz from their studios on the campus of Mt. Hood Community College through a 7,900 watt, 89.1MHz carrier. It is perhaps the only station that still plays records.
Perhaps not surprisingly, oldies is where a lot of the stations concentrate and the uninitiated don't get music that was popular 30-50 years ago (or older) as they're too busy keeping up with "Reality TV" to know what's going on in the world now, much less then. I leave a radio playing at home when I'm out and probably four days a week I come home to a song that I could happily go several years without hearing again and it seems to be in relatively hot rotation. They should call it B-side radio.
I was referring to 'net mainly. I get sick of hearing "there's nothing out there" when I know better! The idea of an internet radio opens up many possibilities and GEMS in local radio stations from all over the place. Sure, the corporate idiots have ruined some stations, but let's not turn the radio industry entirely into "it's all bad"...because it's not. It's time for the good stations to do some marketing and re-gain the ears of the disbelievers. If WE can do it, any station can do it. We don't have a big budget, don't run thousands of dollars in processing and have a staff of 1.7, yet we DO it. There are others with the same passion. The listener's assignment now that 'net radio is out there is to FIND some station they like and become loyal. Yes, online listening matters....even if listening from a distance...because stations have to track online listenership for royalties, and that means there are REAL numbers of listeners for advertisers, many of those listeners may be on the fringe of terrestrial, but in driving distance to the town for it's advertisers. Online DOES help. Now....go searching!
As the forum is Local Radio and the topic is FM, calling upon the Internet to solve the problem is perhaps out of bounds.
One could argue that the Internet is quickly replacing radio and I'm betting you don't want to go there.
Happy to go there! Bring it on! My station's alive and well in both worlds, and making money in both, with listeners locally and far away, and without the help of I-crud or any other major corporation! One can be in both, and serve those who aren't fortunate enough to have local ownership that cares about their terrestrial audience.
people still listen to commerical radio
i still do in the vehicle. but at home i mainly listen to the audio streams on directv or the internet.
my market is very minimal at best for commercial radio
5 stations total
2 religious (1 on am 1 on fm)
1 Yellowstone public radio low powered translator
2 commercial stations (owned by same people). 1 on am and 1 on fm
so yeah pretty limited. i can get some am stations that are really further out there on am but they are pretty scratchy
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