Listening to my dish

[TRG]

Ever since I was a young boy I was always a bit of a radio junkie. I was one of those kids that found old radios and TV's in the trash and brought them home to repair. There were some successes and some failures but I learned a lot and eventually pursued a career in electronics which is what I do today.

I remember my first radio was a 1950's vintage Zenith "All American Five" which was a tube radio that consisted of five tubes. These radios were very common right up to around the 1970's when transistorized radios took over. I still have three AM radios, two AM/FM and three short-wave sets that run on vacuum tubes. Thanks to companies that specialize in radio restoration parts and eBay I'm sure I can keep these old timers going for a good long time. If you want to read more about the history of the AA5 follow this link.AA5 History

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When I first started looking into FTA satellite about a year ago I did so because of a two part article in the June and July 2007 editions of Monitoring Times magazine. The article was called "Do-It-Yourself Satellite Radio." The article went on to talk about International radio stations being broadcast digitally on FTA. That's all I needed to hear, I started assembling the parts I needed and the rest is history. My main interests are with Radio Netherlands and the World Radio Network on 101W and 97W respectively. I also like to listen to Classical WCPE on 101W and that funky college radio station in Seattle, KEXP on 123W. My C-Band dish is not up yet but I'm reading that the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle and a few other interesting stations will be available for my listening pleasure. I used to listen to these international stations on short-wave. But my location in the southwestern united states is not an ideal location for reliable reception. My FTA satellite system takes care of that nicely.

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I run the analog audio jacks from my receiver into an FM transmitter I bought from CCRANE a while back. This allows me to enjoy satellite radio in any room of my house. Yes, I even use my old tube radios to listen to satellite signals.

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Sometimes the journey is as exciting as the destination.

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Anybody else like "listening" to their satellite dish? I'd love to hear your story and what stations you like best.​

 

[satcom1]

WCPE is my favorite FTA radio channel. I'll give KEXP a listen.

I have a 1931 Philco Jr. that I rebroadcast old radio shows through from CD. With the back of the radio having no cover the tubes create a glow reflecting off of the wall. Can't get that from silicon.

 

[TRG]

WCPE is my favorite FTA radio channel. I'll give KEXP a listen.

I have a 1931 Philco Jr. that I rebroadcast old radio shows through from CD. With the back of the radio having no cover the tubes create a glow reflecting off of the wall. Can't get that from silicon.

That's a great little depression era radio you have there. I have some radios of that vintage that need restoring and are in pretty bad shape. I'll give them some attention one of these days.

Do you only use CD's for OTR or have you used your FTA receiver tuned to Yesterday USA? They have two locations on the Ku sats but I haven't had much luck tuning the AMC-3 audio. Everything else on AMC-3 comes in fine for me.

How To Listen To YUSA

 

[satcom1]

TRG,
Thanks for that headsup about Yeseterdays radio, I've tried them but could never receive a signal on any of the transponders they are listed on.

I made most of my cd's from the early days of the internet when copyright was not such an issue. All of those old shows were out of copyright or never copyright.

We had a radio station in Chicago that would transmit over AM the original shows until recently. I was only two at the time but I still remember "The Shadow" and "Little Orphine Annie"

If you do find a working transponder and schedule for them please PM me.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[guapoharry]

With the back of the radio having no cover,,, the tubes create a glow reflecting off of the wall. Can't get that from silicon.

Sure you can. Now-a-days, gamers install lights inside their computer cases. If you wanted your solid state radio to glow, you could make it do that also. They are called LEDs. And, they use a lot less power than tubes....

 

[BarneyBean]

I have an old Hallicrafters shortwave radio and a Sangean shortwave radio. I find myself using the Hallicrafters more because it has the band spread knob on it and I think its just more fun to use. I like listening to different news services especially the BBC, its interesting to hear the news from a different perspective.

 

[TRG]

I have an old Hallicrafters shortwave radio and a Sangean shortwave radio. I find myself using the Hallicrafters more because it has the band spread knob on it and I think its just more fun to use. I like listening to different news services especially the BBC, its interesting to hear the news from a different perspective.

It's my understanding that the BBC discontinued its North America service. You are probably picking up a different beam. Are you near the east coast by chance?

I have two Hallicrafters shortwave radios and enjoy using them more than my transistorized units. The portables are much more practical when traveling though.

 

[BarneyBean]

Ohio, I hooked up an antenna in the back yard that goes half way around it and cable from there to the basement into the radio.

 

[BarneyBean]

Mines an S38C I believe around WW2 era. I actually found and downloaded an owners manual for it. The only thing bad about those radios is they arent grounded and you have to be carefull with them otherwise I think its just as good as the Sangean

 

[satcom1]

What's old is new. Big movement back to LP's.
Nothing like the pure sound of analog, kids today blasted their hearing to the point that digital sounds good to them.