Reception in space

[schmave]

I used my Walkman a handful of times on flights in the mid- to late 90s purely to see what I could hear at peak altitude. AM was pretty much useless as I remember, but my experiences with FM echo those of other commenters.
I do remember flying from Houston to Detroit on the final day of the 1998 baseball regular season and trying to hear if my Cubs had made it into the playoffs, or at least the 163rd game they would end up playing the next night and winning. I remember picking up KMOX over, I think, western Kentucky and/or southern Illinois, but never got a score. Other than that, I don't remember any specifics about which stations I heard on those limited occasions.

 

[Dondd]

Have been wanting to take my Grundig Yachtboy with me on business trips, but it's heavy. I don't have the case anymore, and am afraid it could get broken in baggage or in my carry-on laptop bag (with wheels).

Am afraid hotel rooms would be full of static, and it wouldn't be feasible to go outside in winter to scan the dial for stations.

 

[Weiserguy]

My understanding is that the FAA was concerned that the oscillators in inexpensive portable radios could create interference for the plane's avionics. It never made sense that the expensive and very-carefully-engineered avionic equipment wouldn't reject or filter out any spurious signals coming from a known intermediate frequency, but since it's my ass up in that plane I wasn't willing to fall on my sword to test my theory.

 

[Xale57]

Have been wanting to take my Grundig Yachtboy with me on business trips, but it's heavy. I don't have the case anymore, and am afraid it could get broken in baggage or in my carry-on laptop bag (with wheels).

Am afraid hotel rooms would be full of static, and it wouldn't be feasible to go outside in winter to scan the dial for stations.

Hotel rooms are usually very bad with AM reception. FM is usually normal if not on the lower floors.

 

[secondchoice]

My understanding is that the FAA was concerned that the oscillators in inexpensive portable radios could create interference for the plane's avionics. It never made sense that the expensive and very-carefully-engineered avionic equipment wouldn't reject or filter out any spurious signals coming from a known intermediate frequency, but since it's my ass up in that plane I wasn't willing to fall on my sword to test my theory.

It's physics. The received power drops as the distance increases. A weak harmonic "leak" within 100 feet might be stronger than a signal 100 miles away.

 

[bobdavcav]

Hotel rooms are usually very bad with AM reception. FM is usually normal if not on the lower floors.

I don't often DX AM when traveling, but can confirm these observations with FM. The only exception was one particular hotel I stayed in over the summer where the air conditioner put out buzzing all over both bands. I've listened to AM in hotels twice. The first time there was a buzz under the signal most of the time, but as it was a local 50 KW signal it was still clearly audible. The second time no buzzing was present, but that was at a much cheaper place. I didn't do much DXing from that room because I was only a couple miles from where I grew up, so was quite familiar with what would come in.

 

[Miss Tuned]

Have been wanting to take my Grundig Yachtboy with me on business trips, but it's heavy. I don't have the case anymore, and am afraid it could get broken in baggage or in my carry-on laptop bag (with wheels).

Am afraid hotel rooms would be full of static, and it wouldn't be feasible to go outside in winter to scan the dial for stations.

I'm off to Tromsø, Norway for a few days in a couple of weeks. Sadly, no room for any AM gear in my suitcase for Arctic DX, but the Sony FM/DAB receiver that goes everywhere with me will be coming for a ride to the Arctic Circle, to see what's on the local dial. The BBC weather app says it's currently warmer in Tromsø than here in Manchester, UK!

I've got a conference in London before I go there, though. That always used to be an interesting place to take a radio, because it was packed with pirates at every spare spot on the dial, 40 or more on the air every day. These days, there aren't that many, and there's an FM SDR in London that picks them up! I'm not staying over, it's a down-and-up, so I'll probably leave the radio at home.

 

[TheTVExplorer]

Hasn't that always been the case. I know it was in 2002, when I brought a Walkman-type unit on board a Boston-to-Tucson flight (via DFW). I brought several cassettes with me and listened to them, then quietly switched to FM to see what I could hear there. No one hassled me at any point. Do flight attendants now order passengers to put any such device away if they see one in use?

I was on a flight once and the flight attendant told me to put up my radio. However, now that I use my MP3 player as an FM radio, nobody bats an eye.

 

[boombox4]

In 1984 I had a Realistic TRF with me when I went to San Diego and back. I didn't listen on the way down, but on the way back I listened, through headphones. As the plane passed all these small cities and towns below us -- the Highway 99 corridor -- I heard stations changing on a frequency every 3-4 minutes or so. It was pretty cool. I had a window seat, so that's probably one reason I was able to hear what I was able to hear.

As for outer space, the ionosphere would absorb AM signals, but VHF -- as others here have mentioned -- goes up to the ISS and back, and EME hams bounce their signals off the moon. The EME guys have massive, multi-yagi antennas, but they have had contacts that way. Usually VHF or UHF.

I've heard NOAA's weather satellite beeping away before, with just a Radio Shack Patrolman SW 60, at 136 MHz, reaching just a whip antenna. Haven't heard one of those in decades, though.

 

[tvnut]

In 1984 I had a Realistic TRF with me when I went to San Diego and back. I didn't listen on the way down, but on the way back I listened, through headphones. As the plane passed all these small cities and towns below us -- the Highway 99 corridor -- I heard stations changing on a frequency every 3-4 minutes or so. It was pretty cool. I had a window seat, so that's probably one reason I was able to hear what I was able to hear.

As for outer space, the ionosphere would absorb AM signals, but VHF -- as others here have mentioned -- goes up to the ISS and back, and EME hams bounce their signals off the moon. The EME guys have massive, multi-yagi antennas, but they have had contacts that way. Usually VHF or UHF.

I've heard NOAA's weather satellite beeping away before, with just a Radio Shack Patrolman SW 60, at 136 MHz, reaching just a whip antenna. Haven't heard one of those in decades, though.

Your NOAA satellite experience reminds me that China's first satellite, in 1970, had a shortwave transmitter around 20 MHz. I could pick that up as it went overhead with my Realistic SW receiver. It only lasted a few weeks.

 

[RMarino]

I don’t think radios were specifically disallowed back in the 80s or even 90s. Might have been part of post 9/11 restrictions. If you had a large/obvious radio, they would probably tell you no. But assuming a small device and headphones, they wouldn’t likely notice. I also doubt that a majority of people bother to put their phone in airplane mode…

It may not have been fully disallowed but it was frowned upon at the very least. I first tried this in December 1990. Similar to what someone else posted, I brought a Walkman-style cassette player/radio combo. I mostly listened to my Led Zeppelin cassettes but a couple times flipped over to FM to hear what it was like. So even back then I had to be sneaky.

The next flight I took was in April 2010. That time I brought a radio-only Walkman. No one said anything. The flight attendants probably assumed it was an MP3 player. I listened to it the whole flight. I was careful to keep my frequencies low (below 97) so as to keep my potential 10.7 MHz IF interference below the air band.

 

[Dondd]

I'm off to Tromsø, Norway for a few days in a couple of weeks. Sadly, no room for any AM gear in my suitcase for Arctic DX, but the Sony FM/DAB receiver that goes everywhere with me will be coming for a ride to the Arctic Circle, to see what's on the local dial. The BBC weather app says it's currently warmer in Tromsø than here in Manchester, UK!

I've got a conference in London before I go there, though. That always used to be an interesting place to take a radio, because it was packed with pirates at every spare spot on the dial, 40 or more on the air every day. These days, there aren't that many, and there's an FM SDR in London that picks them up! I'm not staying over, it's a down-and-up, so I'll probably leave the radio at home.

That's very far north. Would be interesting to hear what you captured.

 

[Miss Tuned]

That's very far north. Would be interesting to hear what you captured.

I'm going shortly - I'm not taking anything AM for space reasons (easyJet is well known for being fairly limited in baggage!) but a radio listings site suggests that the area has just two stations on FM, both from the same local operator, and the full suite of Norwegian national DAB networks. They turned off FM for all but small local stations a few years ago:

Radiostasjoner i Tromsø, Norge / Radio stations in Tromsø, Norway — Radiomap.eu

radiomap.eu

I'll see if what I hear, especially on FM, tallies with this site.

 

[Big D]

I had my walkman on a flight once and asked the flight attendant if it was ok to listen to radio. She said as long as it wasn’t during takeoff or decent. FM reception was actually better than I expected. I listened for maybe 30 minutes while at cruising altitude to see what came in. Most stations seemed listenable for about 10 minutes. I probably won’t try again but it was an interesting experience.

 

[boombox4]

I'm going shortly - I'm not taking anything AM for space reasons (easyJet is well known for being fairly limited in baggage!) but a radio listings site suggests that the area has just two stations on FM, both from the same local operator, and the full suite of Norwegian national DAB networks. They turned off FM for all but small local stations a few years ago:

Radiostasjoner i Tromsø, Norge / Radio stations in Tromsø, Norway — Radiomap.eu

radiomap.eu

I'll see if what I hear, especially on FM, tallies with this site.

Tromsø is called the 'Paris of the North'. Never been there, but seen pics of the place. Interesting location. I used to hear the pop station Radio Tromsø over the internet back in the 2010's. I'm not sure if they made it to the DAB system or not, being that DAB had only so many slots, most of them being the NRK network stations and larger national commercial networks like NRJ. Enjoy your visit and let us know what you hear.

 

[JeeperOne]

The premise of the movie "Contact" is based on the aliens picking up German TV signals of the 1936 Olympics, never mind they were low power and barely reached across Berlin. Hey, it's a movie.

That brings up THIS

What about TV signals either in space or on an aircraft??

Yeah you'd probably be doing more scanning for HDTV signals with your Portable HDTV (I've got one of these (shout out to Tyler the Antenna Man for pointing out THE EXISTENCE of them. Thanks Tyler )) than watching them (Unlike the old analog days when you could just scan around until your Portable TV found something) but that too I magine would be interesting experience

 

[Miss Tuned]

Tromsø is called the 'Paris of the North'.

I thought that was Blackpool

 

[boombox4]

I thought that was Blackpool

Norwegians will tell you differently. I just looked over your link, and Radio Tromsø, the hit station, is the one I heard online. It's one of the regional FM remaining stations. There are some in the Oslo area as well, and the other big cities. The DAB system had only so many slots, and they were sort of raffled off to the commercial stations with the biggest ratings.

If conditions are just right, you might be able to hear some FM from northern Sweden and Finland, including a couple Sami FM stations, although the nearby mountains might preclude that. Should be interesting to listen either way.

I know the NRK has a Folkemusikk channel and a Sami channel. I believe they're both on DAB. I have heard them online before. Both channels are pretty good listening.

 

[wildthangjim]

I'm off to Tromsø, Norway for a few days in a couple of weeks. Sadly, no room for any AM gear in my suitcase for Arctic DX, but the Sony FM/DAB receiver that goes everywhere with me will be coming for a ride to the Arctic Circle, to see what's on the local dial. The BBC weather app says it's currently warmer in Tromsø than here in Manchester, UK!

I've got a conference in London before I go there, though. That always used to be an interesting place to take a radio, because it was packed with pirates at every spare spot on the dial, 40 or more on the air every day. These days, there aren't that many, and there's an FM SDR in London that picks them up! I'm not staying over, it's a down-and-up, so I'll probably leave the radio at home.

I was in Tromsø in summer 2019, interesting place. I recall only the local Radio Tromsø was available on FM but the DAB dial was full. We drove from there all the way down to the Lofotens and I was amazed with the DAB coverage out in the middle of nowhere. You could usually get 5-10 NRK stations and a few commercial ones on the car radio just about everywhere. AM dial was blank due to it being 24 hour sunshine at that time of year. The view from the top of the cable car in Tromsø was spectacular.

 

[Miss Tuned]

I was in Tromsø in summer 2019, interesting place. I recall only the local Radio Tromsø was available on FM but the DAB dial was full. We drove from there all the way down to the Lofotens and I was amazed with the DAB coverage out in the middle of nowhere. You could usually get 5-10 NRK stations and a few commercial ones on the car radio just about everywhere. AM dial was blank due to it being 24 hour sunshine at that time of year. The view from the top of the cable car in Tromsø was spectacular.

I've just realised I'll have an AM radio with me after all - I'm hiring a car, which is apparently a Toyota Yaris 4x4. I have the same car (non-4x4) in the UK and it has a good AM radio, so I might give it a listen after dark to see what comes through.