Very severe interference on the AM band.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

I want to travel way out west in the boonies to evade QRM. I'm getting tired of AM and HF buzz! My loop rejects most interference but trying for GOOD DX is a real pain! What ever happened to Uncle Charlie?

Who's Uncle Charlie? And I have no problems DX'ing on the AM Band on any of my radios and I live just outside of town where I live, and All I'm using are early 1930s and and early 1940s vintage wooden tabletop radios that required a 30'+ length of wire and a good ground to receive stations!

You just need to move to Northern Indiana and you'll have great DX'ing because you're right in the middle of the country where you can pick up stations from about a 750+ mile radius from here.
I can pick up stations as far east as New York City and as far west as St. Louis and as far South as Nashville, and as far North as Toronto, Canada, all on the AM band between 7PM and 6AM, and these were just stations I was picking up on my Westinghouse WR-10 Tombstone radio.

I can't imagine what my 1942 FADA Model 176 could do with its more advanced AVC and Better IF and RF stages!

[Sandy G]

Uncle Charlie was shorthand for the Federal Communications Commission. Back in the 70s, during the CB craze, ALL of us had a "Weather Eye" out for him, 'cause so many were running illegal "Linears" to boost the power, had extra crystals, illegal antennas, all that stuff.

[Titan1a]

I use middle 30's, early 40's and late 50's radios. I use loops for antennas: hard to install a straight wire outside.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Who's Uncle Charlie? And I have no problems DX'ing on the AM Band on any of my radios and I live just outside of town where I live, and All I'm using are early 1930s and and early 1940s vintage wooden tabletop radios that required a 30'+ length of wire and a good ground to receive stations!

You just need to move to Northern Indiana and you'll have great DX'ing because you're right in the middle of the country where you can pick up stations from about a 750+ mile radius from here.
I can pick up stations as far east as New York City and as far west as St. Louis and as far South as Nashville, and as far North as Toronto, Canada, all on the AM band between 7PM and 6AM, and these were just stations I was picking up on my Westinghouse WR-10 Tombstone radio.

I can't imagine what my 1942 FADA Model 176 could do with its more advanced AVC and Better IF and RF stages!

I live in northeastern Ohio, near Cleveland (30 miles from town, within a half mile of the south shore of Lake Erie), and at night can hear many stations on most of my AM radios from within the 750-mile radius you mention. The FCC has done away with "clear channels" on the AM broadcast band; these were frequencies on which, after local sunset, there was only one 50kW station in operation all night long; during the day, other local stations were on these frequencies as well, but they were required to sign off at local sunset time. After the local stations left the air for the day, the "clear channel" stations could be heard almost nationwide after sundown.

The abolition of the clear channels ended that, but the FCC has a new system in place now where these former clear channel stations can be heard within a 750-mile radius after dark. The clear channels were done away with so that former daytime-only AM stations could operate 24 hours, with directional nighttime antenna patterns and lower nighttime power. There are a few "daytime-only" stations left; one of them is a 1kW ESPN sports radio operation in Cleveland on 1540 kHz. Many "daytimers", however, have taken advantage of the new regulations and are now operating 24 hours a day, again with directional antenna patterns and lower power after sunset.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

I use middle 30's, early 40's and late 50's radios. I use loops for antennas: hard to install a straight wire outside.

I just run my straight wire inside the house and no problems.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I live in northeastern Ohio, near Cleveland (30 miles from town, within a half mile of the south shore of Lake Erie), and at night can hear many stations on most of my AM radios from within the 750-mile radius you mention. The FCC has done away with "clear channels" on the AM broadcast band; these were frequencies on which, after local sunset, there was only one 50kW station in operation all night long; during the day, other local stations were on these frequencies as well, but they were required to sign off at local sunset time. After the local stations left the air for the day, the "clear channel" stations could be heard almost nationwide after sundown.

The abolition of the clear channels ended that, but the FCC has a new system in place now where these former clear channel stations can be heard within a 750-mile radius after dark. The clear channels were done away with so that former daytime-only AM stations could operate 24 hours, with directional nighttime antenna patterns and lower nighttime power. There are a few "daytime-only" stations left; one of them is a 1kW ESPN sports radio operation in Cleveland on 1540 kHz. Many "daytimers", however, have taken advantage of the new regulations and are now operating 24 hours a day, again with directional antenna patterns and lower power after sunset.

I've picked up your Cleveland ESPN Station on my old Westinghouse Tombstone radio at night, I've also picked up WGN From Chicago on my radio as well and I think I can pick up WOWO AM 1190 out of Fort Wayne on my radio as well (WOWO was one of those Clear Channel stations you spoke of and they still do operate at 50kW both day and night).

I have also picked up a Station from Toronto Canada that is an Oldies station that plays music from the 1940s-1980s.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

....You put the radio next to the electric meter and it emits all kinds all kinds of strange noises.

Probably coming from people who have SMART METERS .... They are aweful........ I love AM radio and whenever I drive by certain houses,I get nothing but noise all over the dial!!

These meters put out dirty electric and they are not good healthwise either.....

http://safeliving.tamers.biz/index.p...ty-electricity

http://web.archive.org/web/201309211...rm-your-health

http://emfsafetynetwork.org/maine-ut...e-interference

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Uncle Charlie was shorthand for the Federal Communications Commission. Back in the 70s, during the CB craze, ALL of us had a "Weather Eye" out for him, 'cause so many were running illegal "Linears" to boost the power, had extra crystals, illegal antennas, all that stuff.

Thanks for a 45 -year flashback Sandy! These days "Charlie" is raking in the dough from the spectrum repacks. I don't think Charlie follows up on obscenity violations anymore, like in the 80's

We of a certain age played with our walkie talkies during the CB craze. Radio Shack made a kids base station that received all 23 CB channels but transmitted only 200 mW and just channel 14.

I noticed the label on these "rigs" said it complied with FCC part 15. My brother and I were determined to find that nanny-state-mandated part 15, modify or remove it and transmit some real power.

I found a 20-foot well pipe and stood it on end at our fort up in the woods, with a big ground clamp to connect a wire the "talkie's" antenna. At least I knew a 3-foot whip antenna was lame at 27Mhz, but ignored the importance of a ground plane.

AM interference is best located with a portable. My personal experiences are: poorly grounded fluorescents, LED bulbs but only when physically close, failing photocells on old mercury vapor outdoor lights.

I always put an X2 safety cap across line in AC/DC radios and a Y2 from line to ground in transformer supply sets but I'm not sure that helps much.

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

If your buildings are metal siding it's almost like being inside a Faraday cage with all the interference being emitted from internal wiring along with the radio signals. What you really need is a long outdoor antenna(as far from building wiring as possible) with a shielded lead in.

I have/had a working solution for buildings like that, however I never did try to figure out how it worked. Being in buildings that were dead zones for AM/FM (or even cell service) I had used strong magnets to connect radio antennas to metal parts of the building, or next to the steel support beams in the walls. The type of magnets used were just ones from old/busted speakers.

Prior to the digital switchover for OTA television, I had used hard drive magnets on analog TV tuner antennas. This does not work for digital OTA that I can tell.

[vortalexfan]

OK So here's an interesting thing I found out the other day when I was at my parents place, apparently surge protestors can also act as AC Line Noise Supression Devices.

Here's why I think this, as I had mentioned before when I would plug any sort of radio straight into a power outlet in my parents house and the overhead florescent lights in my parent's basement are on, I get a loud buzzing noise on the FM Band and absolutely no reception on the FM Band (except for one super strong 50kW FM Station that is just a couple of miles up the road from my parent's house and even that station is kind of noisy.)

But then when my dad took this old boombox I had left at their place for me to listen to when I spend the night at their place on early Sunday Mornings when I get off of work at 2:30 AM, and brought it to the basement and plugged it into the surge protector that their TV in the basement was also plugged into, the radio made absolutely no noise whatsoever when the lights in the basement were on. Go figure...

So it seems that maybe the answer to our noisy radios in our homes is to use a surge protector.

[old_tv_nut]

You established that the interference was conducted interference. In general, interference can be either conducted or transmitted or both.

[Electronic M]

You could probably put a line filter in series with the fluorescent fixtures and kill all the conducted noise in the house.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

You could probably put a line filter in series with the fluorescent fixtures and kill all the conducted noise in the house.

So something like the picture below?

[Electronic M]

Yup. Make sure it is rated to handle the current draw of the lights and anything else that might be connected to it.

[Sandy G]

It was always claimed back in the "CB" daze that "Unca Charlie" had special cars w/fiberglass tops to go out & search for those bastard CB Scofflaw types who were runnin' "Leenyars", extra channels & all that. I kinda thought that was likely hogwash, until I remembered this WAS the Fedederal Gummint we were talkin' about, the same bunch who spent $300 for Hammers, & $900 for Crapper seats... The FCC claimed CBers were interferin' w/ Aircraft Communications, SOMEBODY could get Seriously Killed..That was their song on EVERYTHING..