AM Radios
 

I love Transistor Radios, I'm starting to collect transistor AM Radios

I'm bought General Electric P2790

What's the best AM Transistor Radios for DXing

Communications receivers, such as the Kenwood R-100 etc.

AM Only

I made a accout there

The thread I linked has posts describing the best "AM only" radios.

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I'm thinking that, for the MOST part, AM only transistor sets were designed strictly to be as small & light as possible, & easy on batteries. They were designed to be only sensitive enuf to pick up the local one, two or three stations. Any REAL "DXing" ability was likely accidental, as was sound quality.

There were some larger (arm stretcher heavy) AM only analog radios that were quite decent DX machines... The GE P780, IMHO was one of the best:
http://radiojayallen.com/ge-p780/

Perhaps a better link here: http://www.radiointel.com/nrge.htm

jr

Very interesting article... But Lexington Law, or whoever those bilious bastards are who HAD to put their money-grubbing feckin' shyster ads in EVERY photo, simply RUINED it for me...Stick w/Ambulance Chasing, you gotdam Lowlifes...

Sorry! hopefully this is a better link:
http://www.radiointel.com/nrge.htm
jr
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Danke Schoen ! ONE ad is two too many, but one on EVERY picture ?!? REALLY ?!? And PLEASE understand I WASN'T grousing about YOU, just the stoopit ads..

I didn't see any ads on any of the links. Don't you have any adblockers installed on your computer? If not, you certainly should.

.

Yeah, I have adblockers, but for whatever reason, it DIDN'T get them. And I still despise Chortle-They run their ads on TV EVERY time the shows break for ads-And its always either that smarmy metrosexual, or the gal in that dopey blue dress-PLUS the annoying "Too School for Cool "electronic" piano background music.. At least it ain't a gotdam ukulele, some idiot whistling, or that smarmy "Synth-Clapping" crapola the Mad Men currently think denotes "homey, cheery" to the Great Unwashed masses they're trying to shill to..

AM DXing is almost pointless, except for the thrill of hearing stations hundreds of miles away from one's home. Who wants to hear the same syndicated talk shows they can get on a local station from a station 500+ miles distant? That's what AM radio has become--the same old talk programs on almost every station on the dial. There are some very rare exceptions, such as low-power oldies music stations in small towns and religious broadcasters, to say nothing of the big all-news stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. For the most part, IMHO, the AM broadcast band isn't worth listening to anymore. Most music stations are now on FM.

I see a day coming in the not-too-distant future when the AM broadcast band will be reassigned to other services, not unlike the reassignment of analog TV channels. The programs now on AM stations will likely move to FM or to the Internet, if they haven't done so already. I understand there are many places in Canada where there are no more AM stations; most AM programming has been moved to FM, although there are still a few AM talk stations, such as CKLW in Windsor. But even that one may eventually abandon its 800 kHz AM dial position and move to FM as well. Sounds like something that should have been done in the U. S. a long time ago.

So you want AM to be a wasteland? Nothing just static

No. I do not want AM radio in this country to be any kind of wasteland. I do feel, however, that since most music programming has migrated to FM, the AM broadcast band is all but useless for anything other than syndicated talk shows, repeated across the dial at different times of the day, religion, and sports. The few music stations left on AM are, as I mentioned in my last post, mostly low-power oldies and/or nostalgia stations located in small towns or suburbs of large cities.

Many of these AM stations are going silent for financial reasons, or because their owners feel there is more money to be made with the stations' programming on FM. There was a small, daytime-only station in a semi-rural town about ten miles south of me that went silent several years ago, the reason being that the company to which it was licensed also operated an FM station and the AM station didn't draw the listener base the licensee had hoped it would. The AM station was also literally falling apart (poorly anchored and tilting towers, etc.), using outdated studio gear, and so on. It went on the air in 1969 and tried no fewer than four formats, none of which generated the revenue the station needed to remain on the air. The last format the station tried, in 2004 or 2005 if memory serves, was a satellite-delivered sports format (no local live air personalities) from the Sporting News Radio network, but that one failed miserably; that was when the owners finally decided to pull the plug on it and send the license back to the FCC for cancellation. The station, WATJ on 1560 kHz in Chardon, Ohio was never heard from again.

The foregoing is, unfortunately, what is happening to many small, low-power AM stations in the US, and is already happening (has happened, in many cities) to AM radio in Canada. (Some Canadian cities, even large suburbs, have no AM stations whatsoever now because of this.) It is no one's fault; the stations are going silent because of dwindling listener bases. Fewer listeners means less advertising revenue, which in turn means less money to keep the stations on the air. The big 50kW talk and news-talk stations are surviving (and have survived for decades) because they are owned by the CBS and ABC radio networks; small one-lunger peanut-whistle stations in medium-size or downright small towns aren't that fortunate. That is, they will stay on the air as long as the businesses for which they advertise can stay in business, but one slip can and often does mean the business(es) will fail--and the radio station may go with it, if its survival depends in large part or totally on the advertising for the business(es) that had to close for good.

I sometimes wonder about the future of a small, 1kW AM station in the next town south of me. It was a full-service (music, news) AM local station for most of its existence since it went on the air 58 years ago, but it now (since about five years or so ago) is almost 100 percent automated, except for a live morning program. I am thinking that one of these days, because it is automated and depends on local ad revenue, and since it is located in a city that is not considered suburban Cleveland, it may have no choice but to leave the air permanently; that or else revert to being a daytime-only station, as it was when it first signed on in 1956.

A similar situation exists for a 0.5-kW station in a Cleveland suburb, but the chances of that station going silent are slim to none since it is a well-established suburban broadcaster. That station's call sign is WINT; it runs 0.5 kW daytime, 0.042kW (forty-two watts) directional nighttime on 1330 kHz, and has been on the air in eastern Lake County, Ohio since 1965. It was also once a full-service radio station, but its owners recently decided to convert it to automated, satellite-delivered talk.

I thought "the thrill of hearing stations hundreds of miles away from one's home" WAS what AM DXing is. Is it supposed to possibly be something else?

I can pick up 1010 WIN in New York on my old Ford AM-FM 8-track stereos at night. The reception is horrid though. Never tried it since moving to the third floor, all of my car stereos have been in storage since, got to pull one out and hook it up.

In answer to your question, no. AM DXing only means one thing, and you said it. I don't know what I was thinking when I said what I said in my post. I was going to delete that particular statement and reword it, but by the time I realized my mistake it was too late--I had already posted the reply.

BTW: I guess that will (should, anyway) teach me to read my posts carefully before clicking the "submit reply" button, for once a post is submitted it can't be retracted, edited or deleted by the original author of that post.

One can edit their own posts after submission...There should be an edit button near the quote button.

That is not the case...there is an "edit" button at the bottom of the post that can be used. The post can't be deleted, but the content may be replaced. I normally replace with "deleted" or "oops! double post" or something like that.

jr

My worst AM DXing event: Listening for almost an hour in Chicago to a weak station that was coming in and out, after hearing unfamiliar call letters (not listed in the Communications World guide for that frequency at the time), then figuring out eventually that they announced the sister FM call sign for KOIA in Iowa, only one state away.

My best AM DXing event: After moving to the San Francisco, California area in 1984, using my new Sony multi-band radio and hearing WLS from Chicago on 890, almost 2000 miles away.

That was, if I remember right, the year before the FCC did away with AM clear channels, where there were only one or, at most, two stations on the frequency after dark. Any daytime stations on the clear channels were required to sign off at sundown. That was almost certainly why you heard WLS in San Francisco; the frequency must have been absolutely clear. This would be all but impossible today, since daytime-only stations on formerly clear channels are now allowed to operate full-time, with lower power and directional signal patterns after dark.

In Canada, the rules must be slightly different. Station CKLW in Windsor, Ontario has been the only full-time station on 800 kHz as long as I can remember, although there were a number of daytimers on the frequency which had to leave the air at sunset due to the Canadian station's seniority. I don't know how long CKLW has been on the air, but my best guess is at least 60-70 years. I live within one mile of the south shore of Lake Erie and can hear CKLW just fine, any hour of the day or night. When I was growing up in suburban Cleveland, the station also boomed in as well as any local station; CKLW was a music station at that time (late '60s-'70s). They did away with the music format some years ago, replacing it with talk, including at least one American talk host--I don't recall which one.

From the west coast, in the middle of winter, early in the morning sometimes JOUB 774 kHz (500 kW) from Akita Japan can be heard, or at least detected using "CW" mode on a communications receiver. I have heard program audio on occasion with nothing more than an Eton E-5, using its built-in antenna. Give it a try next winter. :music:

jr

What was 890 before 1985?

My Dad, while in the Navy stationed in San Diego in the early-mid 40's, told me he could hear WLW, 700 Cincinnati .

Was this the era when WLW's ERP was 500,000 watts?:scratch2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WLW

In January 1934 WLW began broadcasting at the 500 kilowatt level late at night under the experimental callsign W8XO. In April 1934 the station was authorized to operate at 500 kilowatts during regular hours under the WLW call letters. On May 2, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a ceremonial button that officially launched WLW's 500-kilowatt signal.[3] As the first station in the world to broadcast at this strength, WLW received repeated complaints from around the United States and Canada that it was overpowering other stations as far away as Toronto. In December 1934 WLW cut back to 50 kilowatts at night to mitigate the interference, and began construction of three 50 ft. tower antennas to be used to reduce signal strength towards Canada. With these three antennas in place, full-time broadcasting at 500 kilowatts resumed in early 1935. However, WLW was continuing to operate under special temporary authority that had to be renewed every six months, and each renewal brought complaints about interference and undue domination of the market by such a high-power station. The FCC was having second thoughts about permitting extremely wide-area broadcasting versus more locally oriented stations, and in 1938, the US Senate adopted the "Wheeler" resolution, expressing it to be the sense of that body that more stations with power in excess of 50 kilowatts are against the public interest. As a result, in 1939 the 500-kilowatt broadcast authorization was not renewed, bringing an end to the era of the AM radio superstation.[4] Because of the impending war and the possible need for national broadcasting in an emergency, the W8XO experimental license for 500 kilowatts remained in effect until December 29, 1942. In 1962 the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation again applied for a permit to operate at 750 kilowatts, but the FCC denied the application.

AM is not what it was 30 years ago, that's for sure; but it's a glass half full/half empty scenario, I suppose. In the Seattle area I can still hear (at night) big band music, rock oldies, Mexican music, Indian music, and the all-news stations from Seattle, Vancouver BC, San Francisco, and occasionally LA, which are sometimes interesting. Plenty of Fox Sports, ESPN sports, CBS Sports, and political talk.

If you want the real (read: colorful) deal on WLW then go here: http://www.ominous-valve.com/wlw.html

Sometimes I can pick up 650 WSM at night... one of the few strong stations that still play music. I do get a small thrill out of discovering where I might be getting reception from, but it does kinda suck being only talk radio in most cases. I can usually get WWL and WBAP... but those are fairly close to me... both appx 5 hour drives. Sometimes I pick up stations in North Louisiana and Missouri that still play music. There's a local station about 20 miles north of me, but it's only 1000 watts and it's not easy to tune in due to all the tall pines around me.

When I got my R-389 back from Rick Mish, I turned it on, it was tuned to 839 or thereabouts, I thought, "Well", put on a set of phones, licked my index finger, stuck it to the antenna jack, & WHAS in Louisville came BOOMING in.. Now, granted, that's only about 250 miles away, but still... It had virtually NO antenna...

http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/zr500.jpg
IIRC, this Zenith is a good DXer.

Maybe you'll find a good DX station worth listening to... :scratch2:

I have one of those... and it does indeed pick up really well at night. All original on the inside as far as I can tell.

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...3&d=1380291326

I've heard that those L'il Guys REALLY "Punch above their weight" in the DX dept..

Good you will be glad ya did...... I love it there also!!!