Article on WJIB-740

[JIBGUY]

Article on WJIB, in "The Weekly Dig", an alternative newspaper in Boston. A unique combination where most of The Dig's emphasis is on CURRENT music and the club scene; then an article on WJIB that plays music before the publication began (a couple tears ago). Very intelligently-written, by a reporter in his young 20's.

http://www.weeklydig.com/index.cfm/...b/nodeID/5666324c-2898-4bdc-a362-4afcac799fcd

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I recently got a mid-80's Sony STR-AV490 digital tuning AM Stereo/FM Stereo
receiver from eBay, in my apartment in Somerville.

WJIB sounds amazing on it on wideband, almost as good as FM stereo. I've
never heard such good high end response on AM. Even on night power!

There is something in the apartment house I live in, or around it,
causing a whistle on the frequency which the day power overcomes,
but the night power doesn't, fully.

It's not a heterodyne from adjacent AM stations. It sounds like a
computer, TV set, or interference from some other kind of transmitter.
I also get it on the AM stereo in my car when I pull in my driveway,
after I shut the engine off. When the car is running, the whistle is
covered up by static from the ignition, alternator, electric fuel pump,
etc... it's horrendous in that car, no matter how well I ground everything.
Even the 50 kW powerhouse AM's have ignition static behind them in my car
any more than a few miles from their transmitters.


> Article on WJIB, in "The Weekly Dig", an alternative
> newspaper in Boston. A unique combination where most of The
> Dig's emphasis is on CURRENT music and the club scene; then
> an article on WJIB that plays music before the publication
> began (a couple tears ago). Very intelligently-written, by
> a reporter in his young 20's.
>

 

[raccoonradio]

> Article on WJIB, in "The Weekly Dig", an alternative
> newspaper in Boston.

Congrats! ooh, one of Carlin's seven dirty words is included, naughty naughty

I was unaware that that part of Cambridge was known as "Alewife". I know of
Alewife Brook, the Alewife Brook Pkwy, and the Red Line subway stop/garage
had that "fishy" name, but...

 

[DG02816]

Eli....it may WELL be a het from another radio station....just NOT one in this country. Across the Atlantic, there are very powerful stations on 738 kHz(most of the rest of the world uses a 9 kHz channel spacing to our 10 kHz). Enough carrier crosses the Atlantic to create a low pitched growl on 740. I hear it here too in PA on my station after it goes to its 6 watt night power.

Dave Gardiner

WVCH 740

Chester/Philadelphia

 

[Eli Polonsky]

> Eli....it may WELL be a het from another radio
> station....just NOT one in this country. Across the
> Atlantic, there are very powerful stations on 738 kHz(most
> of the rest of the world uses a 9 kHz channel spacing to
> our 10 kHz). Enough carrier crosses the Atlantic to create
> a low pitched growl on 740. I hear it here too in PA on my
> station after it goes to its 6 watt night power.

Could be, but I think it's local interference of some sort.

It's definitely there in the daytime (though more covered up by WJIB's day signal) so it's not a skywave from a distant station, and similar interference shows up on many other AM frequencies in and around the apartment house I live in. When I pull away from the house, that particular interference goes away.

A local taxicab company recently put a digital repeater for their two-way radio system on the roof of the house (providing my landlord with additional income). I'm guessing it transmits either up in the UHF or 800 mHz bands, but I wonder if it could be emanating some sort of interference on AM as well? There's also undue interference on the lower VHF TV channels here.