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Heard an RRS FM station today

J

jim-satx

This afternoon I heard faint talking on 88.9 underneath the splatter from local 89.1 KSTX on my car radio. At first I thought it was bleed from elsewhere, but later KSTX went silent, although its carrier was still on. The faint audio then became copyable, and I heard news and local weather. The station IDed itself as "Owl Radio - Reading for those who cannot see" shortly before KSTX's audio/splatter resumed.

I did a search and learned that it's a local Radio Reading Service (RRS) station, which reads newspapers, magazines, etc. for people with vision disabilities. This particular station is on the 67 kHz subcarrier of KSTX. I'd never heard of RRS stations before.

The Owl Radio website says that you need a special RRS radio to receive the broadcasts. How common is it to receive these stations on a regular radio? My car radio is an Accord stock non-HD radio, and KSTX is about 8 miles from the reception point.
 
jim-satx said:
This afternoon I heard faint talking on 88.9 underneath the splatter from local 89.1 KSTX on my car radio. At first I thought it was bleed from elsewhere, but later KSTX went silent, although its carrier was still on. The faint audio then became copyable, and I heard news and local weather. The station IDed itself as "Owl Radio - Reading for those who cannot see" shortly before KSTX's audio/splatter resumed.

I did a search and learned that it's a local Radio Reading Service (RRS) station, which reads newspapers, magazines, etc. for people with vision disabilities. This particular station is on the 67 kHz subcarrier of KSTX. I'd never heard of RRS stations before.

The Owl Radio website says that you need a special RRS radio to receive the broadcasts. How common is it to receive these stations on a regular radio? My car radio is an Accord stock non-HD radio, and KSTX is about 8 miles from the reception point.
Click to expand...

I cannot help with the technical aspect of your question,
However, I did do a couple of hours a week doing
this exact thing: reading for the blind.
I cannot understand why a station with HD can't
devote a .2 or .3 to this. A little publicity, and there are
Plenty of radios out there with HD, this could give the
Station a good mark, especially at renewal time.

Also, it could be marketed for sighted people as well.
A person driving to wherever, can get straight news
(No spin from the reader) while driving. As well as sports, etc.
 
What you may have been hearing could have been some sort of bleedthrough in the station's audio chain, as opposed to hearing it via the regular FM transmission. Or there possibly would have been something a bit haywire with their transmitter.

You need a special radio or converter to pick up an FM subcarrier service. They won't be audible on a regular FM radio. I've never heard one in all my years of FM listening on various FM radios.
 
Thanks for the info, boombox4. I can still hear the station very faintly at times underneath the KSTX bleed on 88.9 when I'm close to the transmitter site like I was on that day. However, KSTX hasn't had any audio dropouts since then, so I've never heard it clearly again. Here's what I heard that day (you can hear the KSTX splatter resume at the end):

https://soundcloud.com/zzzimbob/owl-radio-891
 
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