The Reality Of Urban AM Radio

"Fran! Are you a HAM?" I will show why the answer is no.
#ElectronicsCreators #franlab #radio
- Music by Fran Blanche -

[goofyrulez]

I used to listen to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater every night (about 40 years ago). I loved laying in the dark and imaging all the stories they told. I found them online for downloading. I can't wait to fill up my MP3 player with them.

[jimdavis]

Being a licenced radio amateur I still hear long distance stations on HF SSB. I have recently made contact with radio amateurs in New Zealand using just 100 Watts PEP SSB on the 7Mhz amateur band. I am located in the UK.

[garygough]

Early 70s, in the Canadian prairies, driving at night, a powerful signal came in from a unlicensed AM station floating in international waters off Florida. Content was a rant about the "commonists" in the FCC kicking a fundie station off the air ( apparently for mangling English beyond limits )
Fun stuff.

[ZedAlfa.]

53 years old lifelong resident of Delaware County PA & I can remember Famous 56 WFIL. Yes I remember the days of AM radio.

[Elandycamino]

I love my old Am radios, winter nights trying to pickup the farthest away stations and writing them down

[Thunderclouification]

In the 70's I had a Zenith AM/FM tuner/amp. The AM section was great. In the daytime I would routinely listen to 1Kw WDZ in Decatur IL 92 miles away. The Illinois/Iowa state line was 112 miles away. I heard stations with "K" call letters. Loved listening to shortwave back then as well. I had one of those electronics lab sets and would make the crystal radio and feed it to my Heathkit tube pre-amp and Heathkit tube amp. At night I could hear WLS with no bandwidth limits. It almost sounded like FM.

[London-Lad]

I remember this channel from years ago and I'm so so glad fran is now at a quarter of a mil subs, wow. And electronics is such a niche subject. This is amazing, kudos to the host.

[vwestlife]

To be fair, that Retekess radio has a digital signal processor (DSP)-based tuner, which aren't known for having the best reception or rejection of interference. A GE Superadio (preferably the original or II, not the III) would be your best bet for getting good AM reception indoors.

[banjoplayingbison]

Another problem with AM radio nowadays is its infested with Garbage content (syndicated Conservative talkshow trash)

WSM is a obvious exception, but I live in NM and it’s not easy to pick up (frankly the only AM station I enjoy listening to is a Navajo station)

Basically radio is shooting itself in the foot, I seriously dream that a big pirate radio movement starts

[spiderpickle]

I feel like I can understand Fran's dispair on a level because when she talks about AM being pretty much gone it reminds me of of how I feel anytime I remember the piercing white LEDs they replaced all the beautiful sodium streetlamps with around here. I used to love going on walks at night because the monochrome yellow light was so pleasant and relaxing to me. Now it's just blinding white light that stabs you in the retina as you pass by.

[scottthomas]

AM DXing is still possible here...really not that much noise....( central Kentucky).
Years ago, I lived in a rural area, and there was a steady popping noise from below the AM band to around 7 Mhz. Turns out it was a battery powered fence charger at a nearby farm. A spark gap transmitter with a four mile long antenna...

[JerryEricsson]

I have been retired now for over 25 years. When I reached retirement, we were living in a larger city, my wife and I are both from small towns, and my wife's first question was 'where are we moving to your hometown or mine?" Well we ended up in mine and have been here ever since. Thankfully, other then my own digital crap, the flood of digital signals is missing. I love to listen to long distance radio broadcasts at night. My favorite set right now is a tiny pocket radio with AM/FM and 7 shortwave as well as weather band with emergency warning on all bands. I just got it from Amazon it is a ZHIWHIS brand, of course made in China like nearly everything electronic now days. This little set is built for DXing! I get tons of AM at night, a couple FM's and more shortwave stations then I do from all my other shortwave sets. My second favorite, and favorite as far as looks are concerned is a personal Radio from the old Soviet Union. The set was built in the 80's in Ukraine at a site that had the primary mission of building military radios and satellites for the soviets. I bought it as not working, but all it needed was one electrolytic cap replaced and it too brings in tons of stations at night. It is MW SW and has great sound quality and separation. The best set I have is one I found on Ebay searching for another set like the one I had when I was serving in Vietnam. It is a Hitachi AM/FM/Cassette set built in 1969. It has the best quality sound from a much larger speaker then the little 2 that I use at night. I have one of those cassette to SD card devices that I loaded up with MP3's that I found on the web of old radio broadcasts from AFVN in the early 70's playing some great rock and roll as well as the DJ's talking about the battles going on back then and of course Army announcements since it was an Armed Forces Network and all the men were GI's including a young fellow just begenning his career, a Army Specialist 5th Class Pat Sajak. Now on his last few years as the wheel guy.

[pauljs]

A lot of modern electronics just aren't shielded like they were decades ago. Somebody turns on that flat screen TV in and adjacent room, and now you got a screaming siren noise over the radio station you're listening to in your room. If interference doesn't go more than 100ft, the current FCC doesn't give a crap.

[summerkagan]

My parents had a Magnavox upright tube radio in a wooden cabinet with a fold out phonograph. We would all gather round in the dark listening to Gunsmoke, The Shadow, Make Believe Ballroom, The Jack Benny Show and so many others.

[allanwood]

To my great and enduring joy I get to listen to ABC Radio National and ABC 774 Melbourne daily here in Australia. Government funded and absolutely zero commercials with awesome programming and personalities. Long may they live on.

[flapjack]

As others have pointed out, magnetic loop antennas make all the difference. I'm a shortwave listener and occasional AM broadcast listener and, while the noise level is very high inside the house, I stuck a magnetic loop antenna out on my shed (yes, I know - not something one does in Philadelphia generally, but loops work well indoors, too). At night I can see and hear signals on every channel on the AM band, including 530 kHz (there's one station in Toronto) and 1710 kHz (two travelers information stations - Hudson County NJ and Springfield MA). My AM DX record, without even trying, was hearing a 1 kW station in Iowa City, IA from western MA. Listening below 30 MHz is still a lot of fun, it's just more work than it used to be.

[shango]

That radio is narrow band 3 khz IF horrible sensitivity and selectivity and overall performance is horrible. Get yourself a 60s or 70s am transistor radio and restore it and you will find the DX world is still alive and well.

[isleifoterogarcia]

I was fortunate to being raised by the radio. A friend of mine gave me a tube set from the time I born and starting that a motivation to collect vintage radios on eBay. I have British, German and even Russian from the Soviet Union. As my collection grew, I discovered that radio is the base of all our technology and advancement. It gave info, motivation, entertainment and harmony. No human invention impacted me better than the humble radio receiver.

[michaelcarey]

Yeah... AM broadcast reception and HF operation in urban areas is getting harder and harder. Cruddy switch-mode power supplies and wall warts, poorly designed LED drivers, Ethernet computer networks, ADSL/VDSL internet services, electronics equipped with clocks (sharply rising/falling square waves & harmonics)... it all adds together to make so much RF interference. It does go the other way... I transmit on 7MHz (40m) and it kills my neighbors VDSL internet connections (mine is filtered to notch out the amateur bands). I've seen VHF Marine receivers killed on board fishing boats when the good old tungsten filament bulbs are swapped out for LED replacements. My amateur radio club has established a remote HF receiver site in the middle of nowhere and the noise floor is non-existent! It is amazing what it can hear!

[littleshopofelectrons]

When I was a kid in the 1960s I loved listening to AM radio for the rock and roll hits. Now its just a sewer mostly populated by right-wing talk radio.