What's the longest distance you've been able to pull in a station?

[steve328is]

I was at Andrews AFB in Maryland last year. I had just completed a long flight from central Asia and my internal clock was all messed up--I was wide awake at 0300. Using my TO 3000-1 I just caught the station ID "Radio Vision Cristiana, South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Island" or something very similar in English ~530KHz. Then it went to Spanish.

[Sandy G]

Where you are right now, Steve, would be a WILD place to do some DXing...IF you could understand what they're saying...

[steve328is]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Where you are right now, Steve, would be a WILD place to do some DXing...IF you could understand what they're saying...

In my dorm room I can barely receive anything--inside a big metal box. The only advantage living in a tent has over a dorm room is canvas doesn't block radio signals! I was very limited in my baggage so I brought a Kaito KA-1103 portable instead of my trusty 3000-1. When it warms up enough at night I'm going to try to do some DXing outside here. I am able to get Chinese AM stations on the radio in my truck....

[Dan Starnes]

On my Hallifcrafters I can pull in the world, as well as the Zenith transoceanic. On my Emerson 541 and my Crosley 124 I can easily pull in WSM on saturday nites for the Grand Ole Opry, which is a few hundred miles from my Fowler IL home. Winter cloudy nites are the best for reception. Summer time storms mess with reception. Neat thread and really enjoy how others listen to the airwaves.
Dan

[wajobu]

Yes indeed...a good thread...

It's too easy to plug-into an internet based station...there's just something about wrestling with an analog dial and a drifting station on AM or SW.

I remember, late one night in the 1960s in Massachusetts, my new little crystal radio that I made (with an outdoor copper wire antenna) for AM reception started pulling in VOA (Voice Of America--a broadcast to Africa...not sure where the transmitter was though).

[Sandy G]

I remember fooling around w/my dad's Grundig portable-I got Radio Moscow on it-WOW !! The Russians ! The Godless Commies !! An' here I was listenin' to 'em ! I was hooked.

[markallen]

I'll never forget a "radio reception" experience I had as a teen. It was 1974, and one summer night I was driving back to the farm in my dad's new Ford pickup, returning from a wedding I'd attended. There was a terrific thunderstorm going on right on top of me, thundering and lightning non-stop. As the truck only had an AM radio, I was trying to tune in some of the local stations to get weather reports, but the static was so bad, it was basically worthless.

Suddenly, at one point on the dial the static was completely gone, and a station came in clear and strong. I listened for a little while, and while I don't remember the call letters, I do remember for certain that it was out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was driving in central North Dakota.

I still live here, and often listen to AM at night. I routinely pick up Chicago stations (WGN, WBBM, WLS), Salt Lake City (KSL?), Denver (KOA) and sometimes WBAP out of TX, to name a few. Usually reception is better in winter, maybe because of snow on the ground?

[ablethevoice]

Originally Posted by markallen

I'll never forget a "radio reception" experience I had as a teen. It was 1974, and one summer night I was driving back to the farm in my dad's new Ford pickup, returning from a wedding I'd attended. There was a terrific thunderstorm going on right on top of me, thundering and lightning non-stop. As the truck only had an AM radio, I was trying to tune in some of the local stations to get weather reports, but the static was so bad, it was basically worthless.

Suddenly, at one point on the dial the static was completely gone, and a station came in clear and strong. I listened for a little while, and while I don't remember the call letters, I do remember for certain that it was out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was driving in central North Dakota.

I still live here, and often listen to AM at night. I routinely pick up Chicago stations (WGN, WBBM, WLS), Salt Lake City (KSL?), Denver (KOA) and sometimes WBAP out of TX, to name a few. Usually reception is better in winter, maybe because of snow on the ground?

That was very probably 770 KOB. Albuquerque (at least as far as I know; I've been away from NM for 11 years now) only has one 50KW station. I used to tune them in with local like strength in the early 70s on a no-name multiband SS receiver I carried with me on family vacations in Mexico - a good 800+ miles from the transmitter site. Later (1990 or so) while on graveyard duty at that very same station, I got a (satellite) telephone call from a guy who turned out to be the radio operator on a luxury yacht listening to KOB while sailing on the South China Sea!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My most distant catch on AM with no external antenna was on one of those POS AM/FM turntable/cassette all in one units I had as a kid (about 1975). I was in Albuquerque at the time. I don't recall the call letters but I DO recall the station ID saying Regina Saskatchewan Canada. It was during the Christmas break at about 2AM with the weather outside being overcast and about 10 below zero F. The signal was extremely faint but acceptably free of atmospheric noise and interference from closer stations. I looked for them the next night and I couldn't find them again. Ahh... the caprices of the ionosphere!


Back in 1987, I was working for a news-talk station (1580 KZIA; now off the air). One morning while preparing to leave (I did graveyards), the secretary handed me a package with a lot of foreign stamps on it. She said, "I don't know who else to give this to; This is from Finland." Rather puzzled, I took the package to the production room and opened the package. In it, I found a tape, a reception report, and a rather plaintive letter from a Finnish DXer who had attempted to get a verification from the station for several years(!). The cassette he sent was faint but clear and contained one of the drop-ins we used as a program rejoiner which said "The Power of Information... K Z I A Albuquerque!". I didn't have to do the time conversion between where he was and where we were to know that we only used that particular drop-in during the night time hours in Albuquerque...hours when KZIA's transmitter power was reduced from 10KW to FORTY-SEVEN watts!

I hand-made a QSL for the poor fellow and made it a point to note that his catch was on a station operating at near QRP levels (at least for MW) and he had a great deal to brag about to his buddies in his local DX club.

[Celt]

I listened to Radio China for awhile (English broadcast) on the '65 Sony portable last night.

[Dan Starnes]

I remember vividly listening with my Dad on his, now mine Zenith transoceanic to the thrilla in manilla fight back in the 70's. Dad is now gone but I have 3 of the family radios, Crosley 124, Emerson 541 and the Zenith. I keep them well used and cared for. Yes, internet radio is neat and easy, but I agree, tuning in to the airwaves still has a magic to it. Heck, I still always look up in the air when I hear an airplane. My brother says it makes me look like a hick. I dont care. lol
Dan

[Thyratron]

All of this brings up an interesting question. Is there any reason that it seems tube equipment often brings in stations from further away than transistor equipment does? I'd think that, all other things being basically equal, it should be about the same, but is there any real difference?

[Nolan Woodbury]

That's a good question, but I think a lot of the answer is found in the various set-ups of verious radios. With the Superhet formula (antenna, r.f. amp, converter, i.f amp, detector, a.f amp then loudspeaker) signals are boosted to pretty sensitive levels. I'm not quite sure how it's done with solid state.

[Sandy G]

I remember reading back about 10 yrs or so ago that on a lot of the "primo" solid state communication receivers MW was deliberately de-sensitised.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I remember reading back about 10 yrs or so ago that on a lot of the "primo" solid state communication receivers MW was deliberately de-sensitised.

The AM (MW) sections of most AM/FM receivers made in the last 30 years or so are not worth a hill of beans; that is, they may work well enough for local reception in close-in areas such as the near suburbs of major cities (or in the cities themselves), but any real distance from anything other than 50kW stations, forget it. Case in point: In the '80s, I had a Zenith four-mode integrated stereo system with an FM section which pulled in every major Cleveland station in stereo just fine, using just the line cord antenna (I lived about 15 miles closer to Cleveland at the time). The AM reception, however, left an awful lot to be desired. During daylight hours I could get most of the major Cleveland AMs, but at night all but the big 50kW stations were all but inaudible. On top of that, the AM section in my stereo was, IMHO, so poorly designed that I was hearing shortwave at certain points on the AM dial after dark. The AM tuner in my present stereo system (Aiwa 200-watt bookshelf system) isn't much better, and the FM tuner isn't much good either in this signal area some 30-40 miles southwest of the Cleveland FMs (I have a powered indoor "tower" antenna hooked up to it). I live about five miles from a 1kW (0.5kW or 500 watts nights) AM station that will appear at two points on the dial on my system's tuner, 0.9 MHz or 900 kHz apart--560 and 1460 kHz, the latter being the station's fundamental (assigned) frequency. Doesn't bother me, especially (or at all), as I don't listen to AM that much anyhow.

[radioactive]

i dont know if this has been brought up yet(too lazy to look) but if you want to dx the am broadcast band and dont have a decent am tuner or antenna i suggest using your car radio they're usally made to better specs (for cancelling out noise anyways)give it a shot especailly after sunset and report back here pronto