Radios not like they use to be

[NDAR15MAN]

55 years ago when I was a kid I remember Radios could pick up radio stations hundreds and hundreds of miles away. I have bought couple of radios trying to find one that will really reach out there and have been very disappointed. Some of these radios I have paid a lot of money for barley will even pick up stations in my own town !
Any recommendations on a radio I can keep in the house that will pick up stations 800 plus miles away ? Thanks. MD

 

[Downeast]

When radios went digital they all went downhill. I have an old analog portable radio and it will pick up stations, especially at night, clear across the country. With these old radios you can tune the station manually and precisely. My digital radio just skips right over these stations due I guess to weak signal strength and interference. I would look around some of the used goods stores (like Goodwill, etc) and you might find an old radio that still works.

 

[jackson1]

Like you I enjoy cruising up and down the AM dial to see what is out there. I use a cheap battery powered radio, because I like to drag it around during the day and if it gets dropped I won't be depressed all day. Cold clear days and nights it will still pick up in distant stations. The radio still fades in and out just like the old days. Like to here what the other side is talking about, mainly Boston and Chicago. On good night, I can get Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas.

 

[KMart]

It sounds like you listened to a lot of Wolfman Jack. In his heyday he broadcast out of a station out of Del Rio on the Mexican side that had a 250,000 watt transmitter. US stations are limited to 50,000 watt transmitters. At night you get the advantage of the radio signal bouncing off the ionosphere to increase the range. Early in the morning I can sometimes get WLS Chicago or WLW out of Cincinnati, down here along the Gulf Coast

Added
The signal will also skip off water to increase the range. The local 50Kwatt station can be picked up in Brownsville which is 300 miles, line of sight across water. Go 100 miles north and you lose the signal.

 

[pirate ammo]

HF Sideband,we could pick up the BBC halfway around the world.

 

[USMCDOC]

55 years ago when I was a kid I remember Radios could pick up radio stations hundreds and hundreds of miles away. I have bought couple of radios trying to find one that will really reaches out there and have very disappointed. Some of these radios I have paid a lot of money for barley will even pick up stations in my own town !
Any recommendations on a radio I can keep in the house that will pick up stations 800 plus miles away ? Thanks. MD

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/dak/atq/d/elko-new-market-beautiful-restored/7166267020.html

 

[rjtfroggy]

When I was young our car AM radios would pick up Wolfman and others after mid night when all the local channels went off air. This was from southern N.E. on clear nights.
Almost willing to bet they won't do that now.
If it is just around the house try the radio search on your P.C., should pick up all of the ones that stream.

 

[pirate ammo]

Find one of the old Hallicrafters and hunt for Doctor Demento

 

[jackieschmidt]

Do modern receivers still use the superheterodyne system for receiver sensitivity? I suppose now days frequency mixing is all performed with a circuit board rather than a actual variable capacitor.

Back in the old radios that actually had a variable capacitor for tuning, (a dial), you could barely turn that knob a little to the left or right to bring channels into fine tune.

Find a old radio that actually has a manual tuning system.

How many of you are old enough to remember when the first Transistor Radios come out? We all had to have one. I think it was on my 12th birthday I got one, it lasted about a month.

 

[KMart]

Do modern receivers still use the superheterodyne system for receiver sensitivity? I suppose now days frequency mixing is all performed with a circuit board rather than a actual variable capacitor.

Back in the old radios that actually had a variable capacitor for tuning, (a dial), you could barely turn that knob a little to the left or right to bring channels into fine tune.

Find a old radio that actually has a manual tuning system.

How many of you are old enough to remember when the first Transistor Radios come out? We all had to have one. I think it was on my 12th birthday I got one, it lasted about a month.

And it would eat about a battery a day. No Alkaline Energizers back then.

 

[rkittine]

Modern radios are actually better than ever if you get a quality one. Consider that a rusty razor blade and a safety pin could be made into a Fox Hole Radio. Modern synthesizers are much more accurate than variable tuning capacitors. Digital Filters and other noise canceling aids have made listening not only better but so much less noisy as to make it more enjoyable to listen.

For the past many years we have been in a poor Sun Spot Cycle. It is not your new radio, it is the atmospheric conditions that have not been conducive to long haul radio wave transmission. Us HAMs have had to endure this for a long time now with poor communication on equipment light years ahead of what we had to use 60 years ago.

When the bands open, I have worked 100 countries with a 5 watt micro transceiver. When the bands are closed, I have issues even running 2,500 watts from my station except for ground wave and repeaters.

Bob

WA2YDV

 

[squint-n-squeeze]

Modern radios are actually better than ever if you get a quality one. Consider that a rusty razor blade and a safety pin could be made into a Fox Hole Radio. Modern synthesizers are much more accurate that variable tuning capacitors. Digital Filters and other noise canceling aids have made listening not only better but so much less noisy as to make it more enjoyable to listen.

For the past many years we have been in a poor Sun Spot Cycle. It is not your new radio, it is the atmospheric conditions that have not been conducive to long haul radio wave transmission. Us HAMs have had to endure this for a long time now with poor communication on equipment light years ahead of what we had to use 60 years ago.

When the bands open, I have worked 100 countries with a 5 watt micro transceiver. When the bands are closed, I have issues even running 2,500 watts from my station except for ground wave and repeaters.

Bob

WA2YDV

I was just going to say this exactly. The Sun cycle is not good for propagation right now.

That said, you can still pull in some pretty cool stuff with a better antenna. If you are listening only, one of the best antennas I've found is a Slinky - got to be the metal kind, and if it's painted, scratch some of the paint off to get a connection. Clip an alligator clip to the slinky, and connect the other end of the wire to your antenna port. If possible, ground your radio to a proper ground rod, or at least a water pipe. Stretch that slinky up as high as you can reasonably get it, and you should be able to pull in some stations. Here in Texas I can usually get Cuba and Vietnam, plus many broadcast stations around the United States. Short wave listening (or SWL, as the Hams call it) is fun because they're actually allowed to play music on the radio!

Have fun, and do not transmit with a Slinky antenna - it's for listening only.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

Why bother with all that stuff when there isn’t anything worth listening to anyway?

 

[Fuj]

How many of you are old enough to remember when the first Transistor Radios come out? We all had to have one. I think it was on my 12th birthday I got one, it lasted about a month.

Here ya go Jackie !! I would sneak mine into school to
listen to World Series games when they used to be played
early afternoons. Living in Erie Pa near the shores of Lake
Erie, some of them Canadian stations are still Rockin' that
Under Ground. My old Sylvania can still pick them up on a
good night. The G.E. in the pic stays in my bug out bag
along with some recharge able batteries and a mine solar
panel picked up at "Horror Freight". I'll be 68 in 10 more
days. Oh !! If I look around, I may still have an old Insta-
matic camera.....LOL

 

[Fuj]

Why bother with all that stuff when there isn’t anything worth listening to anyway?

I still like listening to a good ball game on Radio. I'll be
at my work bench and have it on. On "AM", Cleveland
and Detroit games are clear with no drift. On a good
night, I can get a Cubs game in. For some reason, 120
miles south of me, the Pittsburgh games do not come in
well. Anything north or along the Lakes come in great.

 

[squint-n-squeeze]

Why bother with all that stuff when there isn’t anything worth listening to anyway?

Why do anything ever? It's fun, lighten up!

 

[USMCDOC]

Find one of the old Hallicrafters and hunt for Doctor Demento

When i was stationed in Oakland at the Naval Hospital.. we would spend many a saturday evening playing spades, and listening to the Doctor, just laughing our heads off! Good times!

 

[rardoin]

It sounds like you listened to a lot of Wolfman Jack. In his heyday he broadcast out of a station out of Del Rio on the Mexican side that had a 250,000 watt transmitter. US stations are limited to 50,000 watt transmitters.

"I heard it on the X"- ZZ Top


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHRF-FM

 

[Texas10]

I used to tune my Radio Shack weather radio off band and pick up ship to shore radio to telephone conversations on rainy nights. I vividly remember a guy calling his wife (you have to give the operator the number and everything is over the air for all to hear) and telling her he's working late and won't be home. Then call his girlfriend to set up a dinner date. I heard it all, and it took everything I had to not call his wife and spill the beans.

 

[KMart]

"I heard it on the X"- ZZ Top


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHRF-FM

Wolfman Jack was the only program we could pick up at night in the valleys of Camp Pendleton in 1968. The bad part was you never got to listen to the music. The SOB talked all the way through every song.