AM only.
I used to do this a lot more in the 90's and early 2000's, but kind of got away from it. Whenever we go up north in the bush, I take a radio with me and always find something good, usually every night.
Anybody else do this? What's the go-to equipment these days?
Zomby Woof wrote: AM only. I used to do this a lot more in the 90's and early 2000's, but kind of got away from it. Whenever we go up north in the bush, I take a radio with me and always find something good, usually every night. Anybody else do this? What's the go-to equipment these days?
I do but, I don't buy any fancy equipment. I have a really old Viking radio, ether bought at Sears, or Eaton's in the 60's by my parents... This thing is awesome!!! I can bring in AM signals from ridiculous distances with the Good old Viking!!
I have received AM broadcasts from Mexico, the UK, the Southwest U.S. and British Columbia. According to the call signs...
Not bad for a radio that was once destined to have a "Funeral by Fire at Mosport".... It was performing poorly, I decided to bring it to Mosport for it's funeral, during my drunken early 20's.
The battery compartment was filled with D batteries. We tuned it to a local FM station... When the fire died down to hot coals. It was tossed in with the radio still on turned full blast...
We wanted to see how it would last before it finally died... Half an hour later, it was still loud and allive!!! I pulled it out.. I figured if after all that, since it was still going.
It was a keeper!!
That was in the late 90's. It actually works better than before it was tossed in the fire!!
Maybe the fire melted some poor connections and made them good again..
Ether way, I still have it. And it is better than ever. Except for the melted E36 M3 (leather and some plastic, not the metal) on the exterior.
Also, I am not an avid DXer but I find that older regular equipment (never tried anything purpose built for DXing). Seems to work better than newer equipment.
It may be because of the analog tuners, or it may be that older equipment, even the cheap E36 M3 was built to be more durable...
I do know this.. I have a place near Bancroft. My old Viking can pull in signals from incredible distances there. May be the equipment, or it could be the elevation...
Sort of on topic - my clock radio can pick up 680AM Toronto and I'm in Temiscaming Quebec.
Not perfect reception, but it's just a clock radio...
drsmooth wrote: Maybe the fire melted some poor connections and made them good again..
Totally possible, even bad PC video cards have been fixed by putting them in an oven 
A tree knocked my only antenna down. I have an inverted V that I might throw up again.
Wow, I thought meant chugging Robitussin DM, which contains Dextromethorphan. I had insane friends who would chug bottles of the stuff and trip. One guy went so far as to buy straight up Dextromethorphan from a pharma company (totally legal).
But it looks like you are discussion radio stuff, so carry on...
akamcfly wrote: Sort of on topic - my clock radio can pick up 680AM Toronto and I'm in Temiscaming Quebec. Not perfect reception, but it's just a clock radio...
680's signal is pointed North so that is not to surprising you can hear it..... Although It is allowed a ridiculous amount of power for a AM station... Can you hear it during the day?? If you can I am impressed!
1984 Work on CFTR's eight tower array on Lake Ontario at Grimsby was nearing completion. The transmitter site would cost about $3.5 million to complete. CFTR was one of three Toronto AM stations moving its transmitter site to the other side of Lake Ontario. CFTR and CKEY were locating to Grimsby (more than 30 miles across the lake from downtown Toronto). The move would allow the station to up its power to 50,000 watts full-time and beam an unobstructed signal across the lake towards the metropolitan area. Site beautification was important because of the site location along the lake shore, adjacent to the QEW highway. The existing Mississauga transmitter site was on 106 acres, used 13 towers, and put out a full-time power of 25,000 watts. At Grimsby. 1985 In February, CFTR increased daytime power to 50,000 watts from its new Grimsby daytime-only transmitter site. Night power remained 25,000 watts from Mississauga. Eight 410 foot towers were used at the Grimsby site. Sister station CHFI-FM was authorized to use SCMO as a back-up monaural program feed for CFTR's new transmitter site at Grimsby. In June, night power increased to 50,000 watts. The station was now transmitting day and night from the Grimsby site.
I have picked up 680 on a car radio in North Bay during the day.
DC
drsmooth wrote:akamcfly wrote: Sort of on topic - my clock radio can pick up 680AM Toronto and I'm in Temiscaming Quebec. Not perfect reception, but it's just a clock radio...680's signal is pointed North so that is not to surprising you can hear it..... Although It is allowed a ridiculous amount of power for a AM station... Can you hear it during the day?? If you can I am impressed!1984 Work on CFTR's eight tower array on Lake Ontario at Grimsby was nearing completion. The transmitter site would cost about $3.5 million to complete. CFTR was one of three Toronto AM stations moving its transmitter site to the other side of Lake Ontario. CFTR and CKEY were locating to Grimsby (more than 30 miles across the lake from downtown Toronto). The move would allow the station to up its power to 50,000 watts full-time and beam an unobstructed signal across the lake towards the metropolitan area. Site beautification was important because of the site location along the lake shore, adjacent to the QEW highway. The existing Mississauga transmitter site was on 106 acres, used 13 towers, and put out a full-time power of 25,000 watts. At Grimsby. 1985 In February, CFTR increased daytime power to 50,000 watts from its new Grimsby daytime-only transmitter site. Night power remained 25,000 watts from Mississauga. Eight 410 foot towers were used at the Grimsby site. Sister station CHFI-FM was authorized to use SCMO as a back-up monaural program feed for CFTR's new transmitter site at Grimsby. In June, night power increased to 50,000 watts. The station was now transmitting day and night from the Grimsby site.
CFTR 680 was a rock station when I was a kid in Toronto 
On a recent shopping trip to Elliot lake, we got AM640 even during the day-in my truck. I was surprised. At night I was a little disappointed. That's why I asked about equipment. We had been using a GE super radio for a long time (still have) and a Grundig FR200 (dead) which both worked incredibly well. I since picked up Tecsun, and Kchibo to replace the Grundig, and haven't had much luck.
I thought for sure somebody on here would be into this.
Down here, the only thing of note that I've picked up was some dude's conspiracy theorist pirate station. I was using a borrowed radio, don't even remember what it was. It creeped me out enough (I was 15 at the time) that I never got into it.
In reply to Zomby Woof:
Replaced a Grundig? SMH... 
Whats DX'ing?
Gearheadotaku wrote: Whats DX'ing?
It's listening to far away AM radio stations at night when they go to full power.
I remember as a kid here in Minnesota listening to KOMA in Oklahoma City, WLS in Chicago, and the Beaker Street show on KAAY in Little Rock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaker_Street
WCCO in Minneapolis is another high power AM station, I picked them up one time when I was in the NW corner of Wyoming.
They go to low power at night. AM band (MF) signals carry much further at night, so low power is required for the stations so they don't interfere with each other.
By DX'ing, do you mean just AM (MF) band signals, or HF ("shortwave") as well? Either way, the Icom 730 I bought seriously rocks. I would say it is at least 10 times more sensitive than a regular car radio, and probably closer to 100 times. Works from 100 KHz (way below the comercial AM band which starts at 540KHz) to 30 MHz.
Now that I know what DX'ing is.
Used to listen to Wolfman Jack at night that way as a teen in SoCal. Built a crystal AM radio when I was around 12 or 13. It would pick up Central/South American stations. In the army at Yakima, WA, we could get AM stations out of Fresno, CA at night in our cars.
I know 870 AM WWL out of New Orleans reaches into Kentucky at night.
I had a portable multiband AM/FM/SW/weather radio as a kid. I didn't know it was called DXing but we used to do that a lot on sleepovers and campouts.
I remember being in the woods in east/central Pennsylvania and picking up some preacher out of Kansas (Salinas, I think) as well as a ton of Quebecois stuff in French.
We also used to tune in on some weird Canadian (I assume government) station that broadcast a beep at 1-second intervals, and on the minute - every minute - the announcer would say the time in English and French. No station ID, nothing else, just that neverending carrier signal and time stamp.
Dr. Hess wrote: They go to low power at night. AM band (MF) signals carry much further at night, so low power is required for the stations so they don't interfere with each other.
Guess I had it backwards. There are clear channel stations that can stay at the same power 24 hours a day, while others have to reduce power at night. This page has a list of clear channel stations, it includes WCCO, WLS, KAAY and KOMA as mentioned above. http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/am-broadcast-station-classes-clear-regional-and-local-channels
Best, I ever did one night was when I was travelling on a Sunday night on Hwy 17 between North Bay and Ottawa. There is a real dead zone in the middle where there are no stations.
I was clearly listening to a sports broadcast and I thought the broadcasters sounded funny.
Then they came on and did traffic reports, on a Sunday night. I was picking up a station from Boston, MA.
As a kid I could listen to WABC radio from New York City at night and a station from Fort Wayne, Indiana ( Go Comets!). I was living 40 miles NW of Montreal. The radio was a little brown plastic RCA I think. It had been my father's when he was a teenager.
In reply to NGTD:
I've picked up Boston games down here. In fact, hockey is what got me started in this. Since I live in the sticks, in the 80's and early 90's, if you didn't have cable, you didn't get half the leaf games. I knew they were on radio, but needed a really strong AM radio to get them, and found the superadio. On non game nights, I used to look for obscure stations, or shows. I recall hearing a lot of Dr. Laura 
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