Red Sox in Andover on Mike FM HD3

[mgpt6]

I work in a building in Andover that the reception sucks. Cant get the Sox on WEEI 850 or WBOQ 104.9. I am going to try and bring in my radio that has HD. Mike FM 93.7 that comes in clear and I hope that the HD signal will get in as well. Because of MLB ruiles WEEI has to put ESPN Radio on its web stream during Sox games.
btw, is WRKO doing celtics games during conflict with Sox?

 

[raccoonradio]

This week at least, 4 Celts games are bumped to WRKO: Tue, Wed, Fri and Sat
WEEI has Sox

I have an HD portable ($40 on sale Best Buy) and have used at my workplace, a big postal facility in N. Reading.
In breakroom, all WMKK signals come in fine. But on workroom floor I get WMKK HD 1 reg format and WMKK HD 2
Funkytown OK but WMKK HD 3, WEEI, is shaky. In some spots it comes in and stays on. Others, it'll come in for a second then I lose it. After awhile the display says "station no longer available". I will say the HD portable does have pretty good FM reception and I did get WBOQ 104.9 with Sox from time to time. Maybe you will pick up 104.9 after all.....with a good FM/HD recvr./portable.....Otherwise I found myself placing one radio
nr wall and using mini FM transmitter to beam WEEI to my walkman. The signal comes in that way but with
interference it's tough to hear (machinery). If they were still on WRKO I would still have to use this method but at least signal would be clear. As they would say in Fantastic Mr Fox, Cuss Word you, Entercom! ;D

Entercom could make it easy on so many people by, say, having Sox games simulcast on the reg analog signal of
Mike. Mike we play everything--and the Sox in crystal clear FM stereo. But no. While it would poss. improve Mike's ratings it could mean lower ratings for WEEI itself.

As it is, some folks in metro west and Worc area may have trouble picking up Sox now that WCRN has dropped them.
They may nec. get the AM 1440 or RI's 103.7

Entercom happens. As Howie might say, maybe one day the Sox games will wind up on a REAL radio station.
(Note that if I want, I CAN put an AM/FM/cass mini boombox in one place where WEEI does come in, with
no interference, and tape the games to hear back later. But it's not the same as live.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I have an HD portable ($40 on sale Best Buy) and have used at my workplace, a big postal facility in N. Reading.
In breakroom, all WMKK signals come in fine. But on workroom floor I get WMKK HD 1 reg format and WMKK HD 2
Funkytown OK but WMKK HD 3, WEEI, is shaky. In some spots it comes in and stays on. Others, it'll come in for a second then I lose it. After awhile the display says "station no longer available".

My Insignia HD portable seems to be having problems with ALL HD3 channels lately. It's still fine on HD1's and HD2's, but ALL the HD3's are cutting in and out, and I'm just a few miles from the ones on the Pru. I wonder if it has gone out of whack inside because it's been dropped a couple of times?

 

[DanStrassberg]

I have an HD portable ($40 on sale Best Buy) and have used at my workplace, a big postal facility in N. Reading.
In breakroom, all WMKK signals come in fine. But on workroom floor I get WMKK HD 1 reg format and WMKK HD 2
Funkytown OK but WMKK HD 3, WEEI, is shaky. In some spots it comes in and stays on. Others, it'll come in for a second then I lose it. After awhile the display says "station no longer available".

My Insignia HD portable seems to be having problems with ALL HD3 channels lately. It's still fine on HD1's and HD2's, but ALL the HD3's are cutting in and out, and I'm just a few miles from the ones on the Pru. I wonder if it has gone out of whack inside because it's been dropped a couple of times?

Maybe Bob could visit you at your home and bring along his HD Radio. If the two receivers behaved the same on all of the HD-3 signals, you would not have proven that there is nothing wrong with your radio (or his), but you'd have pretty good reason to believe that there is nothing wrong. If the two radios behave substantially differently on the same signals, you'd have reason to believe (but still not proof) that the radio that provided the less reliable reception was defective.

 

[raccoonradio]

for mgpt6: hopefully the HD radio worked for you. I tried again last night and again, either the signal came in for a split second or sometimes it would stay on for a few minutes on the workroom floor. Was fine in the breakroom. We did find a way to put one radio in a room even closer to the edge of the building and use the mini FM transmitter to relay the signal. Despite a wall being in the way, it did work half decently. (I still wish the folks in Bala Cynwyd at Entercom HQ
would tell Mr Wolfe that it's OK to have WMKK's reg. signal do Sox games only...then the reg. Mike format. It would be so much easier.) WBOQ came in once in awhile in various spots. I tried to relay the signal of WBOQ via the portable (see below) but found WEEI was a better signal to use. (Portable has an extendable antenna)

The radio I used was a Sony portable with AM, FM, and TV sound Ch 2-13 and thus has been discontinued (now a similar looking model is out there, sans TV sound). The output was mono but somehow it got equalized onto both channels when one used a Walkman some distance away (the Maxell brand mini FM transmitter relayed the signal via 88.3).
Machine interference in my workplace makes this necessary. Even if the Sox were on RKO, I would need to use the mini FM transmitter but I could move it closer to where I work, plus there wouldn't be any interference.

Yes, we could try that experiment (I haven't dropped mine yet). In the case of my workplace the WMKK stick isn't far
away, maybe 5 miles as the crow flies, and HD-1 and HD-2 are fine while HD3 is tough to get. The WMKK stick is
in between routes I-95/128 and route 1(if you drive south on Route 1 from Danvers, it's an imposing sight in the distance and if you should be on the stretch of I-95 south before it merges with route 128, you can also get a good view of it. N. Reading is tech. one town away from Peabody (a small section touches Peabody)

 

[mgpt6]

Raccon, it didnt work for me. Could not get the HD of Mike FM. Analog was nice and clean instereo. Got its RDS. But only a couple of times of adjusting the antenna could I get the HD indicator on my Sony table radio to flicker. It never locked. Only station that I could get HD was WCRB 99.5 FM.
My coworker was amazed at the number of clear analog FM the Sony got. We listened to Mix104.1 the rest of the night. Other radios only get Mike FM WCRB and the River92.5 clear in the building. Guess , we are have to spend for MLB audio game pass on the computer.

 

[raccoonradio]

No surprise that you got WCRB given the Andover tower. You still may try to consider my other method. There's no place nr a window, edge of bldg where WEEI may poss. come in, however faintly? Use mini FM transmitter to beam it to a walkman or other radio. Note: you would be better off using a Walkman to hear that rebroadcast signal--boom box
or portable radios with extendable antennae don't work too well.

What about a component HD radio with a good antenna?
You may indeed need to get the MLB package, though. I really hope Entercom will consider simulcasting Sox on Mike's reg signal. Within 128 (other than WBOQ's Sox affiliation), we have the Pats and B's on a solid FM signal. Sox and
Celts still relegated to second class, AM status.
Wonder if you can pick up WRKO at your workplace? There may be instances (though who knows) where Celts playoff game may air on WEEI and Sox bounced to RKO..though I think they want to keep things as they are

 

[raccoonradio]

(was a dupe post due to tech problem/my connection

 

[Eli Polonsky]

My Insignia HD portable seems to be having problems with ALL HD3 channels lately. It's still fine on HD1's and HD2's, but ALL the HD3's are cutting in and out, and I'm just a few miles from the ones on the Pru. I wonder if it has gone out of whack inside because it's been dropped a couple of times?

Maybe Bob could visit you at your home and bring along his HD Radio. If the two receivers behaved the same on all of the HD-3 signals, you would not have proven that there is nothing wrong with your radio (or his), but you'd have pretty good reason to believe that there is nothing wrong. If the two radios behave substantially differently on the same signals, you'd have reason to believe (but still not proof) that the radio that provided the less reliable reception was defective.

I haven't tried another Insignia HD portable yet, but my two HD home radios, a Sangean component stereo tuner and an "iLuv" stereo table clock radio, have no problem receiving most of the local HD3 signals. The Sangean had a lot of trouble with WZLX 100.7 HD3 (my favorite HD3, "Free Form 'BCN") cutting out all the time a few months ago while it was fine on the "iLuv" in the same room, but I'm guessing CBS Boston must have tweaked something, because it's now also fine on the Sangean with only very occasional very brief dropouts, without any changes to receiver or antenna on my end. I'm only a few miles line-of-sight of the Pru, so there's plenty of signal strength, it's a matter of how the receiver detects and decodes the HD3.

One exception is 104.1 HD3, "Psychic Radio". Though 104.1 HD1 and HD2 are full-strength and steady on all radios from the Pru three miles away, 104.1 HD3 is non-existent on the Sangean (it won't even detect a 104.1 HD3 at all) and it only comes in as brief blips at best on the iLuv. Oddly, the Insignia portable does the best on 104.1 HD3, it gets it intermittently as it does all the other HD3's. I personally don't care to listen to "Psychic Radio" so it hasn't bothered me that my home radios don't get it, but I still don't understand the phenomenon.

At this time, both the Sangean and the iLuv do well on all of the other local HD3's, 89.7, 93.7, 98.5, 100.7 and 103.3. Only 104.1 HD3 is inaudible on those while its HD1 and HD2 pin the signal strength meters. The Insignia HD portable cuts in and out badly on all of the HD3's, even when it's just sitting on a table, regardless of whether I'm moving it around. Because it's become so much worse just recently, I suspect something happened to it from being dropped, but whatever happened only affects its reception of HD3's. HD1's and HD2's are still fine on it. I guess I'll have to buy a new one.

I also noticed that if I put the Insignia FM HD portable near an AM radio, the LCD display of the Insignia creates horrendous interference across the entire AM band within at least a foot of it. It actually wipes out reception of all but the strongest local AM stations when the Insignia is next to the AM radio, and the interference disappears when the LCD display of the Insignia turns off. No wonder the Insignia is FM-only with no AM section, I don't know if they could possibly internally ground out that much AM band interference from its own LCD display.

 

[mgpt6]

Raccoon, WRKO would come in with static at night which is better than EEI. My workarea is in the middle of the metal sheild nightmare of a building. At home south of Boston, get WGBH,WZLX,WBZ, WJMN HD signals from Boston. Sometimes WROR ,WBMX and WMJX HD. Never get WBUR,WERS, WBOS, WUMB,WMKK, WCRB HD.
Do get WKLB and WTTK HD .

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

@Racoonradio, I was just thinking, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that "Northshore 104.9" broadcast the Red Sox Games. Are you able to get that station in that part of Peabody where you work?
I was in that area on the bus the other day. On my walkman, I could not get 92.9, 94.5, 98.5, 99.5, 100.7 came in little, 101.7 little, 103.3 was two stations combined with static, 104.1 same as 103.3, 105.7 same as 103.3, KISS 108 little. The only good station I was able to get in (Contenential Park area) in Peaboy was
93.7 Mike FM. It came in perfect from Revere to Danvers. The only few stations I can pick up on AM all the way there was 680am, 850am, an 1090am, 1030am was the strongest, aron Peabody those others were very staticky, but still a tiny bit listenable.
ow I agree with you that 93.7 would be a good station to put Sox Games on

 

[raccoonradio]

I work in N. Reading...one part of N. Reading (but not where I work) touches Peabody, and the WMKK antenna is in Peabody. The _WBOQ 104.9_ signal can be picked up easily in our breakroom but on the workroom floor it's very sporadic if at all. The antenna may be in Gloucester or Beverly...Maybe 3,000 or 6,000 watts, and our building makes it tough to pick up some radio. There are a couple spots I can pick 104.9 up on the workroom floor but I can't stand in that spot all night! I pick it up with a walkman--most portable radio/mini-boomboxes can't pick it up--on workroom floor

I have an AM-FM-cass mini boombox at work, and also an AM-FM-CD mini boombox at home which I brought in to work to try and hear the games...comes in if you're in the breakroom but not really on the workroom floor.
If I tried to use either to re-broadcast the games with the mini FM transmitter (both have whip antennae),
well, first of all the second one has no headphone jack...the first one, tried, didn't quite work. Would do better trying to rebroadcast WEEI, IF I can pick that up (in certain places I can...often w/ interference making it
very tough to hear)
Reception of WMKK--analog signal--where I work, anyplace, is 10 out of 10. That's why it would be great indeed

 

[mgpt6]

same with me In Andover, Laura.

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

if 93.7 can't put games on their station, at least put a ??? one-two minute sports update on the top of the hours (example weekdays 6am-10am, and then 6pm-Midnight, and weekends 6am-Midnight) It's just an idea, nothing to hurt no one