Areas with No Radio reception

[dxer2_2000]

The only area in NSW (Australia) where I received NO FM whatsoever was a place called Yarrangobilly Caves. There's only a couple of buildings there. No one lives there. Scanning with a mediocre car stereo, there was not one signal to be heard. Not even the big 50kw commercial FM located in Cooma NSW .

dxer2_2000

 

[Tom Wells]

N

The only area in NSW (Australia) where I received NO FM whatsoever was a place called Yarrangobilly Caves. There's only a couple of buildings there. No one lives there. Scanning with a mediocre car stereo, there was not one signal to be heard. Not even the big 50kw commercial FM located in Cooma NSW .

dxer2_2000

Yes, no FM, but the AM is full at night. When I was there in 1991 (?) , I went from Sydney to Ballarat, where there is an antique radio museum. The owners of the museum had bought out a radio supply warehouse in Melbourne. They had put together a kit of new-old stock parts to build a 1-tube blooper AM receiver. I built it the next night at a hotel in Albury. The next day/night I drove the road through Yarrangobilly Caves and slept in the car in the middle of NOWHERE. The turnoff for that road had a sign "This road is unsuitable for Caravans". Anyway, I strung out a longwire from the car to a tree, and was amazed that there was a receivable, listenable signal on
every 9 khz spacing the whole AM dial. I guess that's because there weren't 12 users per frequency like in the US.

That was the most remote place I've ever been in my life. The twisty road was largely gravel and dirt, and I saw only one other vehicle the whole side-trip getting back to the Hume highway. Nobody went by the whole night. I did see some of the big red roos, and a whole pack of wallabys.

I suddenly have a craving for a 'strine fast-food spring roll and a VB.

Airport security really loved the one-tube open-board AM Blooper radio I carried on.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I know this is way off the mark, but I was in a place called Fort Portal in western Uganda about 2 years ago and there was almost no AM reception AT NIGHT. I faintly picked up one intermittent signal on one frequency (dance music of all things) - but couldn't ID it. There were 3 or 4 translators of national FM signals but nothing on AM - just silence. It's the only time I've experienced that.

Of course, SW was just crackling with lots of signals - including VOA and BBC, which you can't get in the US (anymore).....

I am really curious what station this could have been, I know this is a very old thread but im just now getting to it. I thought I pretty much knew about every Dance Station in the world, but I wouldnt think Uganda would have one. I know you couldnt ID It,,, But do you know the language the station spoke, and was it regular American and European type Dance Music, or did it sound more like African Music with a dance beat, which could have been South African Kwaito,, Still very unlikely to hear in Uganda... Its been bugging me for about a year trying to figure out what station this is, Do you remember what Frequency or close to the Frequency it was on.. Do you think it Originated in Uganda, or could it have been Beamed in via skywave from somewhere like South Africa where Dance music is pretty popular, even Namibia has a dance station, its Energy 100.9. Its just bugging me so bad, id like to see if I could find a website and a live stream, but if this happened 4 yrs ago this station could be long gone by now... It may have even been a pirate.. Are you sure it was a 24hr Dance Station, or maybe just a Public Variety station that offered some Dance Specialty shows..... Im sorry for bringing back this ancient thread, but im dying to find out what station this was, or is??? If it still exists, id say they have at least a webpage, dont know about streaming though, most African stations that do stream use such a low bitrate their barely audible,, like 8k and 12 k...YA know thats hi fi right there, but of course I imagine what few people have the internet there have a really slow dial up connection. Egypt has 104.2 Nile FM which is a Top 4o CHR that plays alot of Dance music, and they have been around since 2003, one of their sweepers states that their heard accross the Middle East and Africa Via Satelite,, but maybe they have some AM relays too, still a long way from Uganda, but you said the signal was weak. South Africa and Namibia both have Dance intensive stations but their all FM to the best of my knowledge. South Africa and Namibia are still really far from Uganda, but was this station only audible at night, or could you hear it during the day as well? Im sorry, but I just gotta figure this out.

 

[charlestondxman]

Going back to areas with no reception, there are very few places in South Carolina that you can't get at least one, probably three stations. On some bad car radios, most FM reception peters out around Bowman (exit 159 on I-26) and stays out for a few miles. A good car radio will pick up the Charleston stations all the way past Orangeburg, nearly to I-77 on a good day.

AM does have trouble in the rural parts of our state, like Barnwell and Allendale counties, which only have very weak AMs like WDOG (1460) in Allendale, which barely goes more than about 15 miles out on a good day, and the 1270 in Hampton, SC, which has the only good AM signal in that part of the state between I-95 and the Savannah River Site, and 790 in Denmark (not the country, but a tiny little town along US 321, meeting with US 78).

In Charleston, just a few days ago, at around 10 at night, I got WSLQ in Roanoke, VA (99.1) with a good signal (308 miles away, very little skip). It was the first time I had ever gotten a Virginia signal from Charleston (other than WQOK).

 

[vibe]

I cannot remember the link but after my post on the lack of radio reception in the Big Bend area (corected by Bruce carter to include several stations) I read an internet article about a road trip taken by someone from the Phllly area. He apparently rented a car and couldn't get any stations on seek/scan deep in the park. when gassing up he heard music from someone's car radio and apparently learned to manually tune in weaker but still listenable signals.
Most people on the board, particularly on the DX portion, already do this but it was surprising to find that there are folks wouldn't have at least attempted this aproach first. In S.C. for example, there are few stations one can receive on portions of I 95 on seek/scan but a ton of stations one can manually tune in to from a lot of distant (75+ mi) markets.
I can't think of any more remote area in the Continental U.S. other than Big Bend for radio reception. Can y'all??

 

[RMarino]

Fields, Oregon is another area with no reception. Not even a Wal-Mart or a McDonalds for a hundred miles around either. Also many areas of Alaska have no reception.

 

[TheDingo]

There's a stretch of I-65 down south of Montgomery AL, where I can only pick up two or three stations, on the same radio that I have DX'd Dallas TX and Denver CO with (only hooked up to rabbit ears instead of an outdoor antenna, and I know the antenna is good because it held on to WXFX from Montgomery from mile marker 102 all the way untill Huntsville's 95.1 began overpowering it by downtown Birmingham.)

 

[crainbebo]

Metaline Falls, WA
Only a couple on FM, a few weaks on AM and thats it!
Bandscan (from Radio Locator.com)
FM
94.9 CBTA Trail BC
95.3 KPND Sandpoint ID
AM
610 CJAT Trail BC
760 CKQR Castlegar, BC
920 KXLY Spokane
1240 KCVL Colville
1510 KGA Spokane

 

[mimo]

Metaline Falls, WA
Only a couple on FM, a few weaks on AM and thats it!
Bandscan (from Radio Locator.com)
FM
94.9 CBTA Trail BC
95.3 KPND Sandpoint ID
AM
610 CJAT Trail BC
760 CKQR Castlegar, BC
920 KXLY Spokane
1240 KCVL Colville
1510 KGA Spokane

You can actually scratch 760 CKQR off the list now, they went FM, to0 bad. I used to listen to them when I lived in Vancouver in the late 80's. They were a really go0d station. I think CJAT 610 may have also gone the FM route as well. I'm not 100% sure

 

[TerryKay]

RMarino,

Yes! Cherokee, NC is amazingly dead. The 7K peaks of the Great Smoky's kill nearly everything FM and AM, and there's very few stations anywhere nearby for that matter. That said, just up the road at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center -- it's a great place to park and do band scans, especially late afternoon/sunset. I am there once a year, usually in May. Big, open parking lot that's not gated, restrooms, a nice open field to gaze at while punching the dials. Check it out next time!

 

[TerryKay]

radiorob2.0,

Right, too! Another good place to DX AM/FM is the parking lot of Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge, east of the Great Smoky Mtn. NP. But between Cherokee and Waterrock, the bands are pretty dead.

I didn't go to the GSMP this May (I chose NW of Atlanta to hike this time), but I should look for my MW/FM bandscan made at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center parking lot from 2007 and post it.

 

[TerryKay]

US-27 between Columbus, GA and Bainbridge, GA is pretty dead, too. I just remembered that from a few months ago heading back to FL.

 

[charlestondxman]

Cherokee is bad, as basically, all FM radio reception dies at the base of the mountain going into Cherokee. About the only FM that goes through there at all is the big Knoxville stations at 100.3 and 103.5. Everything else basically is lost. Even satellite reception gets lost in parts of that area.

If you are on one of the high hills, you could probably pick up everything from Asheville, Knoxville, lots of Chattanooga, Greenville/Spartanburg, and maybe even some Charlotte/Atlanta from there.

 

[RMarino]

Thanks for the tip about that visitor center TerryKay. Sounds like a nice place. I haven't visited that one although I have DXed in other parts of Cherokee. I'm actually only 50 miles away from Cherokee so I should take a trip down there sometime soon.

charlestondxman, you are correct about what you can receive in the mountains. I posted a DX log I made during a trip to Clingman's Dome earlier this year:

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,98954.0.html

 

[Aljr]

The central and southeastern parts of my home state of WV. It's not like it was but there are still spots where you can be driving in the middle of night,hit AM scan and have maybe 2 stations come up loud enough to lock in. I know of lil' communities in those areas where the folks still drive to the top of ridges to listen to WVU football and basketball games.

It was great growing up in the days of sunrise to sunset b-casting. You could hear stations signing off and others opening up on a decent radio. I used to sack out on the bench seat of our old Ford truck on hot summer nights and listen to American Legion baseball games from the High Plains. No scan in those days though,nothin' but dials and buttons.

 

[Aljr]

One area that had little or hardly any FM reception is the Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory in Pocahontas Co., WV, not far from the VA border. I think that's where the FM signal can't interefere with the radio astronomy. Might be a good place for dxing. I visited the observatory back in the 90s.

Believe me,it is. It's a bowl shaped valley with 4500-4850 ft. ridges ringing it. There are directional/power regulations on every radio/tv station in 100 miles of the place. I have friend who used to build radio stations in the region. FM in the immediate area is limited to a network of 3-4 small stations on and near the valley rim with a max ERP of 250 watts.

I had a great Uncle who lived about 4-5 miles from the place. AM dx is very good,especially this time of year. TV was non-existent until cable in the mid/late-60's. Channel 7 out of Roanoke was it before then and it was some shapes in the snow and audio.

The regs not only protect the NRAO but the Navy/NSA facility two ridges over at Sugar Grove. There used to be some hinky things that went on at the NRAO during the Cold War,but they'd just escort you off the property if you were a local sneaking in to fish or hunt.

Sugar Grove was another ballgame. Wandering into that place drew folks with guns and no uniforms who would give you a long Q&A session. After it was over they'd leave you along one of the roads outside the place in the middle of the night to walk home. I figure these days it's a one-way ticket to Guantanamo if your story doesn't check out to the letter.

 

[kc0ltv]

Continuing w/Vibes, thought, I'm curious about Nevada N of Las Vegas, or in/around Death Valley, or Montana or Wyoming or Washington/Oregon/Idaho, or the U.P. in Michigan.

The UP of MI is served by quite a few local stations, 580 from Canada is a blowtorch up there - and at that latitude, there is usually a small degree of skywave and the Chicago 50 kW monsters fade in and out.

As far as the Great Lakes area goes, I've heard that the Lake Superior shore between Duluth and Thunder Bay is pretty sparse radio-wise...FM between the two cities supposedly consists of little besides Minnesota Public Radio translators, and AM is limited due to poor ground conductivity (due to the iron-rich soil I guess?).

Not at all. Stations from Michigan and Wisconsin across the lake come in very well (in Grand Marais, for example, Houghton, MI stations are essentially local, despite being nearly 100 miles distant), and the relative lack of local stations means very distant FM stations often come in: for example, driving up MN 61 on the North Shore on a un-tropolike today, I was able to hear Minneapolis stations most of the way up, well over 200 miles from their transmitters. This does not seem to be due to special weather conditions, but regular scatter reception.

(there are some full-power locals now in Grand Marais: