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Finally, some good news regarding AM radio
I was scanning the radio dial and found radio station WJRD (1150) out of Tuscaloosa, AL. This station is playing oldies from the '60's through the '80's. They are currently playing "The Fool On The Hill" by Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. I did a web search and they used to be a talk format. It's rare to have a talk station flip to (decent) music. I'll admit the music is pretty common; but, it's better than anything else we have. Oh, here's comes "Alfie" by Dionne Warwick. Maybe the music selection is a little more obscure. I never heard that song on any FM oldies station. Anyway, I'm located about 95 miles (Meridian, MS) away from the station and it fades in and out; but, is listenable. I may have to put up an outside antenna and find a good AM radio with an RF stage. I know I'm happy at the moment....
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#2
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Retired USN. "Good ........ bad ........ I'm the guy with the gun." Ash, Army of Darkness |
#3
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Ever check this site out?
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin...sort=freq&sid= Not one for AM myself! Yank
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Way too many toys!!!!! |
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The main reason I'm into AM is because I collect tube radios and most of mine don't have FM. I usually end up repairing my radios and then sitting them on the shelf, only turning them on every five years to make sure they still work, because there is nothing decent to listen to in my area. Now, I may get motivated to fix and use more old radios since I've found a decent music station.
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#5
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I'll add that AM sounds much better to me on a tube radio than on most modern consumer grade stuff. It seems that most of the newer stuff is designed just to pass a signal on AM and that's about it. Even the AM section in my mid '70's Kenwood receiver has poor sensitivity and fidelity. A basic 5 tube radio from the '60's has better fidelity and sensitivity than my Kenwood receiver. I was listening this afternoon on a '50's Zenith Bakelite case AM/FM with good results. The AM sounds almost as good as the FM on that radio.
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Audiokarma |
#6
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There are just some days that I wish I'd never heard anything better than a Bakelite 5 tube AM set, especially during the last 1/2 of the 50's and the 60's. I know I enjoyed it more then.
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"proximo satis pro administratio" KAØSCR |
#7
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#8
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. |
#9
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However, selectable bandwidth on some older radios could and often does improve the fidelity of local signals, as you noted. Many communications receivers designed for amateur radio have crystal filters with selectable bandwidths; the receiver (Hallicrafters SX-101A) in my first amateur radio station had a switchable crystal filter which could, at its narrowest setting, reduce the audio bandwidth to as little as 500 hertz. This is considered an optimal bandwidth for CW (Morse code) reception in the high-frequency (HF) amateur bands. My current HF amateur radio transceiver (Icom IC-725) has a fixed plug-in optional CW crystal filter, also 500 Hz if I remember correctly.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. |
#10
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Interesting discussion.
Jeff, the deregulation you mention falls right in the time period when the AM mega-stations pretty much disappeared in Phoenix. Being so close to Mexico, unregulated signals from south of the border absolutely blowtorch the airwaves here after sundown. Except for a few sports/talk stations, quality AM listening has pretty much vanished...for music anyway. Good luck and long listening with your new favorite station radiotvnut. Although we're lucky to have some quality FM stations locally, I've occasionally been very disappointed with various programming aspects. Most of us who love radios love listening to them too. It can be tough.
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Bedroom: Marantz 2015 / Pioneer CS-88 Living Room: Zenith Y928 / MJ 1035 vintage stereos Office: Zenith H845 Home desk: Zenith X338 / H272W Circle of Sound Truck: Kraco Dust-O-Matic, circa 1977 |
Audiokarma |
#11
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As far as FM radio goes, in my area the stations play mostly rock, oldies, active rock and classic rock, probably, even likely, because Cleveland is the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the last of the easy-listening stations left the air about 18 years ago. Thank goodness for Internet radio stations, which still play a good variety of music, including easy listening. My favorite Internet station in the latter category is "The Breeze" from Crown Point, Indiana, near Chicago (www.thebreez.com), as I may have mentioned in an earlier post. I can also get easy listening and a wide variety of music on Time Warner digital cable. I don't know if you have digital cable at your house or if the cable company serving your area has converted to digital yet (TW did a complete digital conversion of all systems it owns in northern Ohio last year, including the system serving my small town), but if you do, I'd suggest running it through your Zenith console stereo (don't know if it has external audio inputs) or even your MJ-1035, which I seem to remember does have at least one auxiliary audio input. You won't be disappointed. When I had my cable box connected to my stereo, the sound was excellent. This cable service offers some 45 channels of commercial-free CD-quality digital music; there are absolutely no interruptions except an occasional Emergency Alert System test. There are no commercials and few other interruptions on The Breeze, except for recorded ID announcements every half hour or so.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. |
#12
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Another thing that could be done is to feed the audio output of the cable box into one of those small AM transmitters and then tune it in on your antique radio.
As far as our FM selection, we have: NPR, many religious stations, a current top 40 station, two modern country stations, one classic country station, two (c)rap stations, 1 R&B/Southern Soul station, 1 adult contemporary station, and 1 classic rock station. No oldies station anymore. That one is now a (c)rap station. I usually find myself going from the classic country station to the classic rock station to find something I want to hear. The oldies station got so it played only the same 20 songs over and over. That's probably why they went under - not enough variety. |
#13
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. |
#14
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Living here in Southern California I remember the "border blasters" from Mexico. Back in the 60s Wolfman Jack was on XERB that transmitted at about 100KW if I remember right maybe more. You could listen to him pretty much from the border to Washington State and most of the western US at night. Other border blasters were XPRS an XETRA from Baja. Those were the days.
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#15
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We have a few stations here in Pittsburgh that plays music on AM, 620 and 770 kc are the ones on top of my head although there are a few more. Every Saturday night, WABC, 770 kc out of New York plays music from 6 to 10 PM and they come in quite well here in Pittsburgh. The music sounds great over my grandfather's 1953 Philco 5 tube, 2 band, bakelite radio. Even my 1965 Magnavox "Maggie" 8 transistor radio has a nice sound to it.
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Mom (1938 - 2013) - RIP, I miss you Spunky, (1999 - 2016) - RIP, pretty girl! Rascal, (2007 - 2021) RIP, miss you very much |
Audiokarma |
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