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  #46  
Old 04-10-2007, 03:10 AM
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What older tube radios are considered exceptionally good for AM dx'ing? I've been listening to more AM lately, and been considering looking around for a few more radios.

For the past week or so I've been listening to a 1935 Truetone wooden table radio here at my desk, been using it for several hours a night and it's still going strong with all original tubes and caps.
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  #47  
Old 04-10-2007, 10:39 AM
Rob Mills
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I can hook my McKay Dymek DA-5 ferrite bar antenna to my GE Super one (or two) and haul in a station every 10 khz on the mw band just about any evening.
Keep thinking that I'll try it (the DA-5) on my 2000X (now that I think about it, don't think I've ever had it on am) but never got around to it. I have tried it on several boat anchors but it seems right at home on the GE's
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  #48  
Old 04-10-2007, 11:56 AM
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I hooked up my KIWA MW Loop to a friend's 1930s tombstone, & it was like the radio came alive-it was Sunday afternoon, & we were picking up one-lunger daytimers out of Kentucky from our NE Tenn. location.
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  #49  
Old 04-10-2007, 03:30 PM
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Furthest ever for me was on FM , with a 1972-3ish Marantz 2270 at a buddie's home. He had a large rooftop antenna he used for vhf tv and fm, no splitters until further down the line near the receiver. He also used a rotator. We were listening to some rock on ~ 89 MHZ and I was playing around with the rotator.

All of a sudden, I got Strong skip on that station-- and we were astonished to hear Saskatchewan, CANADA - an alternative station , appearantly low-power FM, too! From the extreme south of New york, that was an impressive distance without even trying. Very strong and clear reception also.
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  #50  
Old 06-15-2007, 09:50 PM
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Being located in extreme southern Alabama, I can hear WSB-750 Atlanta very clear at night. I like listening to Krok Talk with Chris Krok starting at 9PM central time. I can also hear WSM-650 Nashville, WBBM-Chicago and sometimes WWL in New Orleans on my Zenith C835. This radio has opened up the AM band to me again...and I am enjoying it! Amazing how this radio picks up so much better than the junk being made today.

On the FM side, the station I work for (103.7) comes in okay...but at 103.5 there is a station I cannot normally pickup that comes blowin' in during the morning hours and right around 104.1 is another I don't normally hear. They carry Braves baseball and, I think, preaching. I can hear a preacher screaming and some heavy gospel on there at different times.

Just amazing what this radio can hear...all with the built-in antenna.
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  #51  
Old 06-15-2007, 10:04 PM
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That reminds me-I REALLY need to get my "good" antenna back up- a limb fell out of a tree I had one end of it hooked to, & took out about 50' or so. I'm "makin' do" w/only 20' or so of outside antenna-Basically the lead in from the section that got K.O.-ed. May hold off, this IS the thunderstorm season, we've been pretty good in having about one every other night or so.
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  #52  
Old 12-29-2008, 06:14 PM
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The farthest I've ever been able to receive an AM radio signal is from Colorado on my 1956 Crosley AM Radio.
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  #53  
Old 12-29-2008, 08:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drh4683 View Post
How many of you are able to pull in AM 780 WBBM from chicago? I went on a trip to florida back in 2000 I brought my TO royal 3000 with me (before 911, they aloud me to bring my TO onto the plane as a carry on) I picked up the station excellent in Naples. Ive heard its an "easy to dx" station. Just curious. WBBM is a 50KW station broadcast from the Sears Tower.
I can receive it here! WLS easily too.
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  #54  
Old 12-29-2008, 09:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by markallen View Post
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.
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  #55  
Old 12-30-2008, 12:45 PM
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about 20 years ago as a kid i picked up some antarctic scientific station on short wave while knob twiddling. i was using a blaupunkt barcelona chassis mounted inside a telefunken cabinet i found at my dads auto wrecking yard. antenna was a peice of wire about 6 feet long hanging out of the radio. im in miami fl so that was a good haul!
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  #56  
Old 12-30-2008, 01:39 PM
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I heard my old hometown AM Station WGIR (Manchester NH) while sitting in my Dad'd pickup in Mcveytown PA It's only about 450 miles, but I thought it was just the coolest thing ever
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  #57  
Old 12-30-2008, 03:15 PM
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I picked up a Warner-Robbins, Georgia FM station once, sitting outside of a burger place in Surgoinsville, Tennessee, on a 1980 Olds Cutlass factory AM/FM set. It was on a Saturday in the fall, it was cool, & I think they were getting ready for a football game...
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  #58  
Old 12-30-2008, 03:38 PM
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Calgeri Canada from Roseville,Ca. just east of Sacramento on AM.
Suangean ATS 818 with a long wire ant.
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  #59  
Old 12-30-2008, 04:14 PM
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1968, 1969 etc., in my '66 Mustang, I used to get Fort Wayne, In. (don't know the call sign) down in Myrtle Beach, S.C. It was a good rock station then. We thought it was "cool" to hear something from so far away. To top it off, we were from Charlotte, so it was "outa site"!

(It may have been WOWO)
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  #60  
Old 12-30-2008, 07:37 PM
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From 1997 to 1999 I lived in Fargo, No. Dak. & Moorhead, Minn. Inside of my apartment, 10 feet from a window with no external antenna, I would occasionally pick up WWL back home in New Orleans faintly before dawn, usually in & out for 30-45 minutes. This was on a mid-60's GE AM-FM portable.

I sent off for a QSL card in 1998 - two years later I received it, it had been forwarded twice (from Moorhead, Minn. to Fargo and then to New Orleans.) I'll have to find that card one day.

I did drive from Fargo to New Orleans one weekend listening to KMOX St. Louis the entire way down.
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