Do you listen to AM Radio???

[Mr Tony]

I forgot to mention 650 WSM Nashville this morning

KOA is hard sometimes to get as we have a 50KW thunderstick here in Minneapolis (WCCO 830) so I can get bleedover of both sometimes

 

[Pepper]

A little bit...

WWL "The voice of the Gulf South" if I'm out and about in the car while the Saints are playing ...

Most of my car radio listening is via FM radio though.

Now that brings back memories. Back when "Clear Channel" was something other than the name of a megacorporation. When I was a kid my parents liked to travel in the RV. At night we could listen to WWL from one end of this country to the other.

I don't even know if it's still that way. Are there still any "clear channels" where all but one of the stations on a given frequency sign off at sundown?

 

[TimLones111]

Speaking of KOA..I could hear them maybe once in a great while when WJW/WRMR-850 Cleveland powered down at night..While I could get most of the 50KW stations from the East and Midwest at night, One time after WHLO-640 Akron, Ohio signed off, I heard a very faint Top of The Hour ID-"KFI Los Angeles"-From East Canton, Ohiver 2000 miles away..

 

[bhelms]

...? Is KYW the Philly station???...

Yeah, 1060 AM. I can receive that one a fair amount in my current location...

...Wow, I had a radio similar to that back in the early 50s. THe radio was about the size of a half cement block, and about as heavy. THat one is LONG GONE though. Around 1960 though, I bought this tiny Toshiba radio that did AM/FM/SW. It was GREAT. This was back when Japanese stuff was considered as JUNK, but this portable was about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and outperformed any other radio I had at the time. It really told me that those Japanese were something to worry about, technology wise.

The portable tube radio I mentioned is an RCA, IIRC. I know exactly where it is. I'll try to get a couple of photos of it. On second thought it was a 67.5 volt version that one took as its "B" battery.

My little Sony is like what you described, from the "Japanese Junk" days. But this one was far from junk! It had a speaker but I mostly used an earphone at night to listen to the late games so my folks wouldn't hear it and make me turn it off. Used to be my summer storm forecaster...I could hear the crackle of distant lightning long before we'd start hearing the rumbles...!

That little Sony radio was a first for me and many. Probably turned me into the Sony "fan-boy" I am now - have probably $10K of Sony equipment connected, current and older stuff...!

It looked a lot like the one that appears here:

Sony TR-63 Transistor Radio Teardown - iFixit

Right down to that little thumb screw that held the tuning dial in place. Mine used to come loose a lot. First thing any of us had that took that funny little rectangular battery...!

 

[bhelms]

There is nothing finer than to tune in to your local sports play-by-play station (mines AM) and watch the game on TV. I used to do this when both were OTA. When cable came along, the radio became a spoiler because it would announce the event slightly before it happened on TV. Well when satellite was my only choice, the situation was impossible, the TV delay or "latency" was so great I had no idea where I was in the game. So I was resigned to listen to the TV announcers who were very well versed in "both coast" teams, sometimes I wasn't sure my team had even showed up. I lived with this for a while, then it was time to act. I have an E.E. friend and went to him with this problem. He started R&D and I went looking for $, about this time another friend showed me article about a co. that had already breached the market with this very similar product. I was very discouraged at first but then I figured these guys had built what I wanted and saved me big $ in development. I also took console in the fact that I actually came up with an marketable idea but alas no timing. I couldn't wait to get my hands on one and since I did I've been very happy. The only problem now is I have to catch the game live, no "dvring", is that a word yet? anyway I think I have found the solution to the last problem. http://www.delayplay.com/ C. Crane Company - CC Witness - Toll Free (800) 522-8863 P.S. I have no vested intrest but to inform

I have had a similar "problem". With my local station compared to DBS the delay is about 10 seconds! I was considering "inventing" a similar device, but I'm actually glad to see that someone else beat me to it! I probably won't buy one however. I actually use the delay to good advantage. I'll just listen to the game while I work on other things, then when I hear a play that means something I have plenty of time to get to the TV in time to see it as well...!

 

[Bill_KY]

Speaking of KOA..I could hear them maybe once in a great while when WJW/WRMR-850 Cleveland powered down at night..While I could get most of the 50KW stations from the East and Midwest at night, One time after WHLO-640 Akron, Ohio signed off, I heard a very faint Top of The Hour ID-"KFI Los Angeles"-From East Canton, Ohiver 2000 miles away..

I never heard the West Coast here, farthest West I ever got was KSL Salt Lake Utah before our local 1160 signed on the air. Seems KFI is elusive here ..640 is a mix of stations including one from Mexico.

Probably the farthest might have been 800 PJB from the Caribbean (Netherland Antilles) during auroral conditions. Sometimes during those events I get Spanish overriding 670 in Chicago.

 

[KyDave]

I have had a similar "problem". With my local station compared to DBS the delay is about 10 seconds! I was considering "inventing" a similar device, but I'm actually glad to see that someone else beat me to it! I probably won't buy one however. I actually use the delay to good advantage. I'll just listen to the game while I work on other things, then when I hear a play that means something I have plenty of time to get to the TV in time to see it as well...!

I've had great luck this year using the streamed audio from my local channels website (via a laptop), combined with a DVR.

Since the streamed audio is sometimes 30 to 60 seconds behind, I would usually just pause a kickoff on the DVR and wait for the streaming audio to catch up. After maybe one slight adjustment (never quite 100% the first time) it remains pretty much right on the money for the remainder of the game (3+ hours). So good that when an official calls out the details of a flag it looks almost perfect.

 

[Cham]

I listen to AM radio quite a bit... Used to be a couple of good FM stations within listening range but they were bought out. Now they are lower power and farther away so reception is crappy. My radio in the shop (where I spend a lot of time) is permanently on AM, (almost commercial free) CBC on 990KHz.
-C.

 

[Mr Tony]

Cham
Its funny how I can get 540 CBC Regina much clearer than 990 CBC Winnipeg and I'm in Minneapolis. I guess there must be more interference on 990 here

The lower frequency must help.

At our cabin in northern MN I get both nice and strong.

 

[TimLones111]

Iceberg:
The low frequency of 540 is definitely a factor..I heard CBW Winnipeg a few times when WTIG-990 Massillon, Ohio would sign off..

Bill_Ky:
About 640..I got KFI one time in the late 1970's..WHLO no longer signs off their transmitter, and There are other stations on 640 khz now..So its much tougher on many frequencies..

 

[Mr Tony]

This morning I got 710 KCMO Kansas City at 8AM...kinda shocked as they are only 10K watts (versus 50K for the others)

 

[bhelms]

One of my first AM memories - RCA tube portable radio

I mentioned this in post #84 above. My parents had 2 of these. I remember being at the beach and listening to one or both. I was probably 3 or 4 at the time. Unfortunately both were ruined by leaked batteries and probably discarded (if memory of my Mom serves!) But my wife's family had the identical radio, pictured here! Almost mint condition. RCA model BP-10 "Superheterodyne" (see the label!). Uses 1S4, 1S5, 1T4, and 1R5 tubes. It's about the size of a brick and has a leather case with strap.

To the base question of this thread - If I can find a 67.5 volt battery (probably still available on line somewhere!) then yes, I will be listening to AM again...in a very nostalgic manner...!

EDIT: I found an Eveready #467, 67.5 volt battery on line for about $31. Not sure I want to listen to nostalgic AM radio THAT badly...!

 

[Mr Tony]

ever since I started this goofy thread I have been dxing AM and really enjoying picking up oddball stations

tonight at 5:00 I heard CFRB 1010 Toronto...they didnt give callsign but they had a bunch of CBC news articles and would end with "newsradio 1010"

The other one was KRLD 1080 Dallas. I was just flipping stations in the truck and I went to 1080 which is usually KYMN Northfield, MN (about 45 minutes from my house) and I started hearing traffic reports and they kept saying "Dallas to __________" and I was like holy crap. KYMN does drop to a whopping 11 watts at night

 

[N5XZS]

Threre's real good DXing forums website called WTFDA!! Just check it out!!

Here's the link..... WTFDA Forums - Powered by vBulletin

Have fun!

 

[azgreg]

1080 near Tucson drops to low power at night and we pick up KRLD regularly. My longest shot was a time in Central California when I picked up WWL out of New Orleans for about 15 minutes.

 

[Digital Logic]

being a Broncos fan, i was amazed to catch 850 KOA from Denver at work one night when i couldn't stand the whining of the Raider commentators. now i got my sweet spot at work on a monday night game.

plus with the major weather So Cal's been getting hit with, ive been listening to alot of KNX 1070. its sad that KFWB turned talk. they used to be the #1 spot on my presets in my car.

 

[Islandguy43]

Buffalo's only sports radio station is 550 AM WGR (Buffalo Sabres); plus I listen to the alot to the FAN 590 and 640 AM out of Toronto, so I am mostly on AM, except when I am listening to XM

Buffalo Bills games are on 97 Rock FM only.

 

[tracker1998]

When growing up I used to listen to CJSS 1220 AM as that is what my parents had on and FM wasn't that popular at that time. I don't think the old Emerson even had FM?
I remember "Scott's On Parade" every Saturday morning while my Mother did the house cleaning.
Later on, my older brother got me listening to FM.
Most of my life I listened to FM.
Just this spring and all of the summer sitting outside I re-discovered this station and enjoyed listening to the oldies.
Well,, wouldn't you know it, they close the station a few weeks ago so it's back to FM.
So with that for the poll, very rarely listen to AM.

 

[ZetaMale]

Mostly for talk radio shows.

 

[Mr Tony]

well we're 10 months into this thread and it hasnt changed for me

As for music there is a new station that started this past summer and they play great classic country. Its satellite fed (one of the feeds that is on AMC8 C-Band) so its nice to listen to that when in the truck. The tower is far enough away so nighttime reception is bad (that and they drop to like 30 watts) but during the day its on

Also one station (ikki will give me crap...its KDHL 920 which is near him) plays "old time" (polka) music every day so I listen to that too...Sunday there is a station near me that plays old time too so I listen to that

only drawback is now with the sun going down earlier the station I like (KGLB 1310) they cut the power right after dinner time.....around 6:00 at night