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AM stereo lives!!

D

dxer2_2000

I only just noticed last night (as I brought out my AM stereo tuner & blew the dust off......) that 2CA 1053 has indeed re-instated its AM stereo signal.

Pity their signal isn't great here at 90km - weak signal, plagued by a hash noise of unknown origin (emanates from the copper phone line & present 24/7) & c/c QRM from neighboring NZ.

2CA is a lot weaker here now than in 2009. I wished its signal could punch through like 2CC on 1206khz. I hope to get some good recordings done. I did record a couple of really good wav files back in 2009 & they play music from 60s ~ 80s.

dxer2_2000

PS - the hash QRM isn't so bad above 1170khz but bad from 531 ~ 1170
 
I should have added that 2CA is a real gem of a station, playing not just the usual safe hits also more obscure stuff. A wide variety. The way a radio station should be run!

eg - yesterday they played "buffalo Gals - Malcom McLaren" - an 80s hit rarely heard on radio downunder these days
 
When AM stereo came out in the 80s, I swear I thought I was the only one who was into it. If I had a dollar for every hour I spent listening to my Sony AN Stereo Walkman, I'd be rich.

And it was especially fun to hear distant AM stereo stations at night like WNBC and WLS.

Thanks so much dxer2_2000 for mentioning this station and thanks Tincap for finding the audio stream. It's great hearing a station from Australia too.

playing not just the usual safe hits also more obscure stuff. A wide variety. The way a radio station should be run!
Click to expand...

Thank you.

One of my pet peeves is how oldies stations only play the same worn out songs all the time to the point where you don't want to ever hear them again and they ignore all the other countless old songs that were made, many even #1 songs by well known artists.

Do people really want to constantly hear songs like 'What a Fool Believes', 'Play That Funky Music', 'I Will Survive' 'Who'll Stop The Rain' 'I'll Be Watching You', etc? ???

I didn't think oldies stations that play real variety existed.
 
I have a well-used Sony SRF-A1 AM Stereo Walkman which I purchased new in 1985. I would be at a loss to even think of how many hours that radio has on it.

The only AM Stereo station left in this area is WLS, and being a talk station, it is kind of wasted. They do, however, seem to go out of their way to make sure their commercials and spots are all in stereo and sound good. KCJJ 1630 was about the only consistent nighttime stereo station that plays music, but they have apparently shut the C-QUAM exciter off.

The real advantage to this amazing little radio is its ability to separate multiple stations on a frequency by moving them apart across the stereo spectrum, due to the "platform motion" phenomenon. This, along with its super hot sensitivity, makes it a great DX tool. I have ID'd graveyard stations on that little radio that I would have never been able to discern on a mono radio.

I do miss hearing stereo music on AM.
 
The news station KYW in Philadelphia broadcasted in AM stereo for years.

Their unique teletype sound effect in the background was in stereo.
 
The geekiest thing I ever did was to watch a live broadcast of the CMA awards in Nashville which was in mono on my local TV station. while listening to an AM stereo simulcast on WSM 650 Nashville on one of those little AM Stereo walkmans 500 miles from the station. The audio was excelent and much better in my opinion than the over the air TV audio. I wonder if I'm the only person who did that?
 
Yes - I have. Only once was there a specific AM stereo simulcast between Ch7 Melbourne & 3TT 1026khz. Pity I didn't record it :(

Even FM stereo simulcasts are a thing of the past now.
 
The audio was excelent and much better in my opinion than the over the air TV audio. I wonder if I'm the only person who did that?
Click to expand...

I remember many a time thinking how the sound of AM stereo was better than FM because it was a more 'solid' sound (hard to put it into words exactly) and it also seemed better because there was not the extreme high pitch sounds heard on FM stereo.
 
dxer2_2000,

In the last few months, 1580 KMIK Tempe (Phoenix), AZ (Radio Disney) has shut off their IBOC/HD, then more recently opened their analog back up to ±10 kHz.

Was wondering if you hear any stereo from them now that HD is off? I'd check myself on my SRF-42, but it's defective right now. For a station to be heard at all it has to overload the radio's front end (making it splash across the entire band, and totally overload a properly-functioning radio). KMIK on peaks is just under that, even when using a couple large antennas.

Also what stations (besides KBLA) have you heard from Southern California there? Wondering if my locals 760 KFMB (talk, 50kW aimed toward Pacific at night) 910 KECR (religious, 5kW aimed SW), 1130 KSDO (Spanish religious, 10kW aimed SW) or 1170 KCBQ (talk, 50kW day aimed SW) may be possible there? (I also wouldn't be surprised if you've heard 1700 XEPE, whose 10kW is about 15.6 miles south of me.)

I have yet to hear anything from Australia here, though. The closest to there I've heard is 1575 VOA in Ban Rassom, Thailand.
 
I'll second the use of AM stereo to ID stations on crowded channels. The platform motion makes it easier to keep track or 2 or 3 stations as they usually appear in different sections of the stereo spectrum.

I was able to ID a couple GYers this way on my Sony SRF-42. Sensitive little radio -- although there's a point where the sync kicks off and the station may drop drastically in volume. Using an external loop keeps that from happening, though.

I also like the sound of it. I've only heard real AM Stereo signals through it once, when I took it back east with me to Louisiana on a visit to some relatives. WSM was broadcasting in AM stereo, sounded very cool.

I think there was a regional station here in WA or OR that ran their commercials in stereo, but I can't remember which station that was.
 
pianoplayer88key said:
dxer2_2000,

In the last few months, 1580 KMIK Tempe (Phoenix), AZ (Radio Disney) has shut off their IBOC/HD, then more recently opened their analog back up to ±10 kHz.

Was wondering if you hear any stereo from them now that HD is off? I'd check myself on my SRF-42, but it's defective right now. For a station to be heard at all it has to overload the radio's front end (making it splash across the entire band, and totally overload a properly-functioning radio). KMIK on peaks is just under that, even when using a couple large antennas.

Also what stations (besides KBLA) have you heard from Southern California there? Wondering if my locals 760 KFMB (talk, 50kW aimed toward Pacific at night) 910 KECR (religious, 5kW aimed SW), 1130 KSDO (Spanish religious, 10kW aimed SW) or 1170 KCBQ (talk, 50kW day aimed SW) may be possible there? (I also wouldn't be surprised if you've heard 1700 XEPE, whose 10kW is about 15.6 miles south of me.)

I have yet to hear anything from Australia here, though. The closest to there I've heard is 1575 VOA in Ban Rassom, Thailand.
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Hi pianoplayer88key. I have much trouble receiving 1580 KMIK these days due to high QRM. Although the Sony XDR-F1HD was able to receive it, I'd doubt the ST-JX220A could, because, as far as tuners go, the 220A is nothing special (poor front end etc). So I can't check for stereo on 1580.

As for the other stations, some of those I've logged using a Kenwood R-5000 & 300m longwire. Stations KFMB, KSDO, XEPE but that was back in the 90s. I've sold my R-5000 since then. Forget 1170, as we have 2CH Sydney on that channel (some 9khz channels align with the 10k spacing).

I was finally able to get a good stereo signal from 2CA, but it took brute force - a 100m longwire aimed right at it, hooked in series via a small MW loop antenna (which somehow must aid impedance as it helps stop front end overload). I also had too:

1) unplug the phone line from the wall socket to minimize the hash noise from the phone line system
2) turn off PC from the powerpoint, BUT left plugged in, otherwise all my signal from 2CA would vanish!
3) turn off many other applicances to remove other noise (eg modem)

I will record heaps of wav files. I could send copies to interested fellow radio geeks if you wish to contribute to postage costs (I'd send wav files on a CD). via paypal use email addy [dxer2_2000 at hotmail dot com] but I'd need to get a quote from the PO. so best to email me directly 1st.

The recordings are being done in wav format using one of those high quality Tascam digital recorders (which funnily enough, wipes out FM on a boombox, but no QRM to MW!!!!) - huh????
 
I've since discovered my Tascam recorder can do 24Bit/96khz wav files, so I'm recording 2CA in 38min chunks (max file size with 2GB SD card) to give very high quality recordings! - sounds awesome 8)
 
Who remembers having two radios tuned to an AM stereo station with one just tuned left of the frequency and the other to the right of the frequency to get the AM stereo effect. It was great sounding. I'm not sure if it was the C-quam version but I remember hearing WTIC 1080 and WNBC "stereo 66" using this technique.
 
JaxRadioFan said:
Who remembers having two radios tuned to an AM stereo station with one just tuned left of the frequency and the other to the right of the frequency to get the AM stereo effect. It was great sounding. I'm not sure if it was the C-quam version but I remember hearing WTIC 1080 and WNBC "stereo 66" using this technique.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing until I was able to finally get my AM Stereo Walkman. This was when I was still living in New Jersey.

And what I did was take my two portable receivers and send them through the auxiliary connection to my big stereo system and listened through the headphones.

WFIL and WNBC sounded great.

Once I got my AM Stereo Walkman, I noticed the two different settings of 'A' and 'B' depending what station you were listening to.

I forget what 'A' was called but I remember 'B' was called "Kahn Hazeltine' because WNBC and WFIL seemed to use that mode.

You could hear a stereo sound with either setting but it seemed more spread out from left to right on those particular stations in B mode.

WLS, which came in at night, sounded better in the 'A' mode.
 
yesterday, I'd sent an email to 2CA telling them I was listening in AM stereo. So Imagine my surprise when this afternoon during my recording, 2CA actually gave me a cheerio on air! - "He's listening to us on an AM stereo receiver....I didn't think there were many of those left...." (Robbo in the afternoons on 2CA)

A real buzz for me.
 
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