Some years ago I once took a portable AM radio with me on an airliner coming home from Southern California -- I set it near the window, headphones on. It was afternoon. I heard AM station after AM station as we flew over all these little towns on the Hwy. 99 corridor. I think I had it set to a GY channel. Was pretty cool.
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AM frequency of the week - 1070
- Thread starter cyberdad
- Start date
I should have done this when I flew to Houston this past November for a wedding, except that I am pretty sure the last walkman I had vanished/died some years ago. Flew both my Dayton-O'Hare and O'Hare-Houston legs after sunset, so I am sure I'd have had some good catches.
Every daytime flight where I've ever tried to listen to AM has provided mixed results at best.
Every daytime flight where I've ever tried to listen to AM has provided mixed results at best.
I've DXed on airplanes on a semi-regular basis since I began flying on a fairly frequent basis in 1980. Safey concerns? I live in an area where a number of airline pilots live, and I'm friends with a few of them. They all say pretty much the same thing. A walkman or similar type receiver shouldn't present an iednterferance problem for aircraft avionics...although it should be powered off during takeoff and landing (which I do). I also power it off when asked to at cruising altitude (that's only happened once or twice). As crainbebo says, for am in the daytime, altitude negatively affects reception. Skywave at night, however is a different matter. That's why I had a rock-solid KNX with minimal fading from San-Francisco to Omaha....and another time was able to listen to a Super Bowl nonstop on WWL from Pensacola to Chicago.
FM at 35,000 feet different yet again. In the western U.S. where there are fewer stations, some stations can go on for hundreds of miles in a plane. KJUL in Las Vegas comes to mind as one of these. Also on FM, you don't need to be seated near a window in order to DX. That's usually good news for me, since I almost always go for an aisle seat.
Okay....sorry for the veer (hijacking my own thread?). We now return you to your regularly scheduled "frequency of the week - 1070" (maybe).
FM at 35,000 feet different yet again. In the western U.S. where there are fewer stations, some stations can go on for hundreds of miles in a plane. KJUL in Las Vegas comes to mind as one of these. Also on FM, you don't need to be seated near a window in order to DX. That's usually good news for me, since I almost always go for an aisle seat.
Okay....sorry for the veer (hijacking my own thread?). We now return you to your regularly scheduled "frequency of the week - 1070" (maybe).
Almost 40 years ago, I attempted to listen to AM on a plane. It was a small portable radio with a mono speaker.
All I could hear on every frequency was the loud noise of interference from the aircraft.
Sounded like what you'd hear if you held a radio right in front of the screen on one of those old TVs with a CRT.
Then more recently more than once, I've attempted to listen to AM on a plane when it was boarding and the engines were not running, just for something to listen to.
Even the local stations were very weak.
AM reception inside airports isn't a lot better unless you happen to be in the right spot but even in the best spots, the reception is nothing like being outside.
All I could hear on every frequency was the loud noise of interference from the aircraft.
Sounded like what you'd hear if you held a radio right in front of the screen on one of those old TVs with a CRT.
Then more recently more than once, I've attempted to listen to AM on a plane when it was boarding and the engines were not running, just for something to listen to.
Even the local stations were very weak.
AM reception inside airports isn't a lot better unless you happen to be in the right spot but even in the best spots, the reception is nothing like being outside.
The one time I did it on AM I was flying near Denver & heard all the locals well as long as I was near the window. I once DXed on FM and as Cyberdad pointed out the window didn't matter as much.
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):
Daytime: zippo(maybe a small trace of WKMB in Stirling NJ)
Night: either CHOK or WNDE(used to hear CBA in Moncton NB regularly, but that station is gone now)
Daytime: zippo(maybe a small trace of WKMB in Stirling NJ)
Night: either CHOK or WNDE(used to hear CBA in Moncton NB regularly, but that station is gone now)
I'm guessing you meant WFNI, or the old WIBC. I think WNDE was not on 1070. In any event, if it was an Indianapolis station I find that interesting since their DA is southeast and I wouldn't expect them to get into Philly that easily.
WNDE is on 1260 (where once upon a time it was WFBM). WNDE gets out fairly well at night, but uses a figure eight pattern with nulls to the NNE and SSW. Hearing it in Philly would be difficult, but probably not quite impossible. In the mid-70s, I was living in Rock Island, Illinois, on the Mississippi River. Despite being basically in the null, I still used to hear WNDE all the time...when the station on 1270 where I worked signed off at midnight.
The Indy 1070 was WIBC for most of its existence until a few years ago when the WIBC call letters and programming moved to FM and the current sports format was launched on 1070.
The Indy 1070 was WIBC for most of its existence until a few years ago when the WIBC call letters and programming moved to FM and the current sports format was launched on 1070.
Thanks for clearing that up. I remember WFBM as well.
The times I tried DX on FM from a mountain 1968, I only got DX reception one time... I was at about 13,000 feet AMSL about 13 miles south of the Equator at Quito, Ecuador on Mt. Pichincha. Besides the one local FM and a couple of STLs in the city (I was building a new site for it at a higher location), I managed to hear FM 100 from Lima, Perú, about 800 miles. Since the closest other FM (other than 10 watt STLs on FM in Colombia) was in San José, Costa Rica, which was terrain blocked to me, I thought that was a pretty good catch.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
I tried from Pike's Peak at 14.000 feet, but was disappointed. I only got about 400 mile reception. But I think it was because although Pike's Peak is 14,000 feet, it's height above the terrain is only about 7000 feet. I need to go back with a better radio - I only had a stock Delco modified with narrow filters and the antenna was in the rear window. I need to go with a Pioneer Supertuner 3D and a real whip antenna. There were weaker signals lost in noise I couldn't make out, and they were on frequencies I would expect for Oklahoma City and Wichita.
I think you're right about the height above average terrain being the reason for your disappointment, but it sounds like you still did pretty well given the circumstances. Still, your post reminds me of my disappointment in Key West a couple of years ago. I thought it would be a fantastic location for AM DX. Instread it was awful. Noise, noise everywhere. Fortunately, I was in a place with enough distractions to console myself!
I thought one of the TV stations in Indy was still using the WFBM call letters. Maybe not. Shows how up to date I am on local OTA TV.
I have always found that places with "salt air" are horrible DX locations. The salt in the air coats power line insulaters, allowing leakage. The salt corrodes contacts on transformers and in substations and individual home and business drops, and even builds up where lengths of line are joined. I think it even effects the noise that the various electrical components of a car radiate.
Twice I lived on the beach in Puerto Rico in the Condado and Isla Verde areas of San Juan. Very poor DX. When I moved inland into the hills of Guaynabo and Río Piedras, 7 or 8 miles inland, noise was much lower and DX was quite good.
My only good beachfront DX was when I ran 6 50' extension cords right onto the beach and sat with a folding table with a loop and my Drake R8. Lots of low powered Brazilians and other good deep South American things as well as some Western Africa catches. This was at Guánica in SW Puerto Rico.
My experience at the beachfront places where we stay in St. Pete Beach and Pensacola has been somewhat similar. I can go out on the balcony (three and eight stories up, respectively) and AM reception is so-so. But if I'm 100 yards away from he building on the beach itself, things seem to magically open up. Especially at the Pensacola location....23 miles of horrible ground conductivity away from the city. There...unlike St. Pete Beach...there are also no local AM band pests to gum up the works. Mexico (what's left of the AM band), Cuba, and other points around the Caribbean come roaring in.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
I don't have nearly the luck with salt sand DX in Galveston that I did in Daytona Beach Shores. With an unmodified SR2 in my house on the Intercoastal waterway, I had year round, daytime reception of virtually all New York City clears except WOR. I also had some inland things like WLW. When we moved inland 3 or 4 miles, those were gone.
I have another trip to Galveston coming in the fall - some young folks want to do the pleasure pier thing, coasters aren't my thing so I might just camp out nearby with some DX radios and see what I can do. An all day DXpedition.
I have another trip to Galveston coming in the fall - some young folks want to do the pleasure pier thing, coasters aren't my thing so I might just camp out nearby with some DX radios and see what I can do. An all day DXpedition.
This is really good to know! I will try going a ways away from the beach next time I'm on the Gulf coast.
BTW cyberdad, WNDE still makes it in to Cedar Rapids at night on rare occasion. Usually I hear the 1260 from Belleville, IL.
I remember getting a dial full of DX at Grand Isle, Louisiana, maybe a thousand feet from the beach at most, probably much less (I don't remember exactly how far -- it was a long time ago). I'm not sure how far from salt water I was, because Grand Isle is pretty narrow, and the main road through it is maybe a thousand feet from the Gulf, if that....
This was with a GE boombox, which was an excellent DXer.
Heard lots of Spanish signals. Had no log books, no station or frequency lists with me at the time. :-(
I'm sure a lot of what I heard was from Mexico and Cuba (especially Reloj's tick tick sound, and Cuban accented Spanish on some stations), as well as probably a lot of stations from the US Gulf states. Also heard the Turks & Caicos station on 530. This was when it still had high power.
This was with a GE boombox, which was an excellent DXer.
Heard lots of Spanish signals. Had no log books, no station or frequency lists with me at the time. :-(
I'm sure a lot of what I heard was from Mexico and Cuba (especially Reloj's tick tick sound, and Cuban accented Spanish on some stations), as well as probably a lot of stations from the US Gulf states. Also heard the Turks & Caicos station on 530. This was when it still had high power.
WFBM-TV was Indy's Ch. 6 many years ago. It is now WRTV, the ABC affil for the market.
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