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Nearby Symphony Hall in Boston Massachusetts how do you receive WCRB-FM 99.5 MHz ?...

T

thezak

Nearby Symphony Hall in Boston Massachusetts how do you receive WGBH's station WCRB-FM 99.5 MHz ?... not getting through, not powerful enough !
 
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I don't live in Boston, so I'll start off by saying that. Considering most of us here probably don't either, let's get a little more information from you so that we can at least attempt to help. First, what kind of radio are you trying to use to get 99.5? Is it in the car or inside a structure? What is preventing you from getting the station? Is it a total lack of signal, other stations blocking your ability to get them, or what? There are so many variations of possible reasons, we need to narrow things down a bit to give any useful advice.
 
No HD on the Aiwa CX-NAJ24U Compact Disc Stereo Cassette Receiver CX-NAJ24 Digital Audio System. The antenna is a curly wire to a small plastic loop/stand. Tabletop HD radios currently available are of lesser audio quality. Sony acquired Aiwa. The Sony call center in Manila didn't know about Aiwa. Manuals for the CX-NAJ24U CX-NAJ24 didn't turn up yet searching the web.
 
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The signal isn't great in the city proper to begin with... add a not-so-great radio with a not-so-great antenna in a steel building, and you'll get nothing. Did you try the translator, 96.3 W242AA Beacon Hill?
 
thezak said:
No HD on the Aiwa CX-NAJ24U Compact Disc Stereo Cassette Receiver CX-NAJ24 Digital Audio System. The antenna is a curly wire to a small plastic loop/stand. Tabletop HD radios currently available are of lesser audio quality. Sony acquired Aiwa. The Sony call center in Manila didn't know about Aiwa. Manuals for the CX-NAJ24U CX-NAJ24 didn't turn up yet searching the web.
Click to expand...

Unless I'm missing something "The antenna is a curly wire to a small plastic loop/stand" - that's a AM antenna.

You may want to try an FM dipole antenna or just a long piece of wire split in two.
 
I'm with Stewie, looks like you have plenty of signal. You just have a bad antenna or a bad receiver.
FYI red pin is the tower, circle is the service contour, you are the green pin.
 

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The issue is more than just the raw signal level 99.5 delivers in the Back Bay. It's the overall signal level on the FM band in the neighborhood, which is off the charts because of all the FM signals (92.9, 96.9, 100.7, 104.1, 105.7, 106.7, 107.9) transmitting from the Pru just a few blocks away. This causes a phenomenon called "desense" - there's so much RF hitting your radio in the Back Bay that it becomes unable to pull even a fairly strong signal out from under the much, much stronger signals emanating from the Pru.

This is not at all unique to the Pru and the Back Bay. If you live in the parts oif Newton and Needham near the tower farm, radios there overload from those FM signals (90.9, 94.5, 98.5, 102.5, 103.3) in a similar way. And believe it or not, even 99.5 itself can have a similar effect on radios in close proximity to its transmitter site in Andover. (I experience something similar here in Rochester, where I'm less than a mile from a site with six FM transmitters - anything in town broadcasting from any other location may as well not exist here on cheap radios.)

There's no easy answer to this. As others have suggested, the WCRB programming is also available on the W242AA translator at 96.3, broadcasting from the same MIT location as WMBR 88.1, as well as on WGBH's 89.7-HD2 and via streaming audio.
 
Just go to fcc.gov and select tools and click tools then scroll down to FM Query and input your call sign and you can get all the info you could want.
 
bradgoehl said:
I used the KML file from the FCC so i could plot your location with the pattern. but you can find the maps at fcc.gov
Just go to fcc.gov and select tools and click tools then scroll down to FM Query and input your call sign and you can get all the info you could want.
Click to expand...
How do you use the KML file from the FCC ? If you would, step by step please!...
 
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