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A great place for a good mix

K

ksradiogeek

(I did mention part of this in the DXing/reception board, but may have more traction on the Boston board.)

For the first time, I’m going on a cruise later this year, starting out in Boston. Before embarking, I’m anticipating to do some local scans just within the city itself.

I believe Scott has mentioned about shadowing in downtown, making reception of the FM-128 sticks a bit challenging (though I can’t find the thread). What’s reception like in the core, outside of the Pru stations?
 
Depends on the quality of your radio. A cheap radio is likely to get overloaded by all the Pru signals and you'll have to struggle a little to hear the FMs out along Route 128 (90.9, 94.5, 98.5, 102.5, 103.3) and beyond (89.7, 91.9, 93.7, 97.7, 101.7, 107.3). The stations near the harbor on One Financial Center are good in the core - WMBR 88.1, WHRB 95.3, WERS 88.9.

Get some distance between you and the Pru, or a good selective radio, and it's usually pretty easy to hear the bigger Providence signals (92.3, 93.3, 94.1, 95.5), as well as 96.1 from Worcester, 101.1 from NH if you can get around the WMEX translator on the south shore, 104.5 Fitchburg, 99.1 Plymouth, etc.

There are a zillion little non-commercial signals that you can hear for a few miles at a time depending where you are. And a ton of small translators and LPFMs, too, that come and go as you move around. Within the core of Boston, you're likely to hear the 94.9 LPFM from East Boston, one of the 102.9 share time LPFMs, the AM translators on 96.5, 100.3, 101.3, and maybe a little more.

At whatever location you're at, download and use the Radioland app. It will give you the best snapshot of what you can expect the FM dial to look like at any given spot.
 
fybush said:
The stations near the harbor on One Financial Center are good in the core - WMBR 88.1, WHRB 95.3, WERS 88.9.
Click to expand...

WMBR isn’t on Financial Center, it’s on a recently built MIT grad student housing skyscraper in Kendall Square, Cambridge (called MIT Bldg. E-37) that replaced its longtime perch on MIT’s former Eastgate Bldg. skyscraper when it was demolished several years ago.

WMBR does come in well in Boston’s “core” from that nearby location just across the Charles River, but with lower wattage than WERS and WHRB, it’s more susceptible to blocking right among the shadows of Boston’s large buildings and, on cheaper radios, intermodulation interference from the FM transmitters on the Pru, and even from the Financial Center ones (especially fourth adjacent WERS) on the waterfront.
 


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