[Jeffhs]

Crooner,

It;s a good thing you brought the output frequency down. The frequency your "Radio DJ" unit transmits on "out of the box" sounds as if it is far too high for many modern or vintage AM radios as well. Although all new ones (including a replica 1934 cathedral set I bought at a discount store for $20 and the AM tuner in my Aiwa bookshelf stereo) tune AM from 530-1710 KHz, most 1950s-'60s-vintage AM sets tune only to perhaps 1605 or so; of course, as you discovered, very old sets such as your Philco tune only to 1600, and some of them don't even go that high (I've seen pictures and read info on some BC sets from the 1930s that stop at 1500). I once had a Hallicrafters S19R shortwave receiver (1939) which tuned to 1700 KHz; in fact, many AC/DC table radios of late-30s vintage did also, but that extension to 1700 was for the old AM police band. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the broadcast band. The regular AM BC band was expanded to 1710 only a few short years ago and the police, of course, went first to VHF, then UHF.

BTW: I realize you have already changed the output of your Radio DJ transmitter to a lower frequency, but what follows is an FYI in case you want to receive the expanded portion of the AM BC band on your Philco. Have you tried fiddling a bit with the small padders on the sides of the Philco's tuning condenser to get the set to tune to 1710? This dodge will shift the AM band up or down the dial by a certain fixed amount, but I'd think you should be able to set the high end to 1710 with no trouble. If this doesn't shift the high end of your AM band high enough, you can try small capacitors across the tuning condenser; this will raise the high end of the tuning range enough to receive the output of your small transmitter.

If you have any new stations in your area in the expanded part of the AM BC band, you'll be able to receive those as well. I've already received several stations from Florida, including, believe it or not, one of those flea-power road and traffic information stations on the new band at night on my 1934 replica cathedral, using only the set's built-in antenna. The sensitivity and selectivity of that set isn't the best in the world; I live within two miles of a 1 kW station on 1460 that takes over most frequencies between that frequency and about 1570 on that radio--I get a daytime-only sports station on 1560 OK when it is on the air, but once it signs off, the local station on 1460 can be heard there and everywhere else up to 1570 or so. The problem is still there, though not nearly as bad, when the local station cuts its power in half, to 0.5 kW or 500 watts, at night. Doesn't bother any other radio in my apartment except a cheap clock radio on my nightstand in my bedroom (the FM selectivity of that set is absolutely blah as well), but again that's what you get with the cheapies. (Maxim: one gets what one pays for). When the local station here is running full power (1 kW), I can hear it as well at the low end of the dial, around 590 or so, on my cathedral set, and it even comes in at these oddball frequencies on the AM tuner in my bookshelf stereo (which isn't much more than a glorified crystal set; I had a Zenith four-mode stereo, with 8-track and all, in the '80s with an AM tuner which was just as bad, although, as with my bookshelf system, the FM was great). The FM tuner in my bookshelf stereo isn't Marantz or Fisher quality by any means, but with an amplified antenna I can get every major Cleveland station in stereo every bit as well here in my small town (over 40 miles from the stations) as I did when I lived in the suburbs.

Even that (the garbage programming on most Cleveland FM stations but two, not counting the NPR affiliate) doesn't bother me--any more, anyhow (though it used to for years), as I run the audio from my cable box through the stereo; the cable system here (Comcast digital) has 30 channels of CD-quality music, one of which is easy listening (do any FM stations in this country play that kind of music anymore?). I listen to that cable station when I get tired of the rock-and-roll stuff on the regular FMs from Cleveland (my stereo has an excellent audio amplifier system--240 watts, surround sound, three-way speakers including powered subwoofers--the sound is awesome, but I don't dare turn this thing up full-blast, for obvious reasons).