Satellite Nation -- February 25, 2015 Archive -- The Spectrum Monitor

[KE4EST]

Season 2, Episode 24

On this episode of Satellite Nation we were joined by Ken Reitz, KS4ZR. Ken is the Editor and Publisher of The Spectrum Monitor. We discussed several topics that is covered by TSM; as usual we ran out of time before we covered everything. Stay tuned Ken will be back on at a later date.
Sit back and have a listen to this great episode!

 

[spongella]

That was an excellent show with Ken Reitz tonight, great info about shortwave, FTA satellite, AM radio, satellite radio. Ken is a fountain of information with his finger on the pulse of the radio world past and present. Thanks for a great show Brian and Mike!

PS - TSM is an excellent monthly magazine for the radio/TV/satellite/electronics hobbyist.

 

[T134]

I only caught the 2nd half live. The part on AM dx'ing brought me back. When I was out in the boonies I had probably 2000' longwire on my HF and spend a bunch of time just listening to AM broadcast band. Every single frequency had a station and on Sundays it was like having NFL Sunday Ticket for radio.

Good show, I'll listen to the first half soon I hope.

 

[spongella]

The part about AM DX'ing brought back memories too,of the days of my first AM crystal radio, it was in the shape of a small rocket, and out of the nosecone was a small metal rod that you pushed in and pulled out to tune in stations. I only got about one station inside the house - using the metal alligator clip and wire that you attached to a cold water pipe as an antenna.

After running around testing for the best "antenna" such as downspouts, metal mattress springs, brass water meters, dial telephone finger stops, metal window frames, etc., found a bare wire running across the neighbor's garden - it was pretty long but it was only accessible by climbing onto our garage roof and dangerously hanging over the edge to get at it. But once connected was able to hear my first rock 'n roll song, sung by Gary (US) Bonds from a NYC AM rock station.

Great memories, great Satellite Nation episode. Thanks Michael and Brian for inviting such an interesting guest.