Small Portable Radio's?

[Lit Up]

I have plenty of miles left on the 350DL!

But yeah, I love internet radio too. Only problem is that it becomes a monthly pay service to access. Given that, you have Satellite Radio which its reach is by far going to outperform wifi at the current time. I just want to worry about grabbing some batteries, my analog radio, camping gear and head out under the stars somewhere. If someone tells me that will come along with pops, cracks and static, I'll tell them it damn well better!

[StarHalo]

you have Satellite Radio which its reach is by far going to outperform wifi at the current time.

Every time someone brings up satellite radio, I'm reminded of author Chuck Klosterman's tale of driving through the midwest in a rental car that included free satellite radio; driving into a storm, the radio of course offered no means of providing news or warnings, and at one point he watched a tornado literally tear through a distant neighborhood, the radio mindlessly playing pop music throughout without skipping a beat.. Non-local radio is great for entertainment, but that's all.

[Lit Up]

Every time someone brings up satellite radio, I'm reminded of author Chuck Klosterman's tale of driving through the midwest in a rental car that included free satellite radio; driving into a storm, the radio of course offered no means of providing news or warnings, and at one point he watched a tornado literally tear through a distant neighborhood, the radio mindlessly playing pop music throughout without skipping a beat.. Non-local radio is great for entertainment, but that's all.

Very,very true.

[Guy's Dropper]

For all of you survivalist-types out there, the best long-term emergency radio is one that can be made from materials that are available, doesn't wear out, and doesn't need batteries. Crystal radios are extremely easy to build. The only part you would really have to buy are the the high-impedance headphones, and they are dirt-cheap and last forever. Then all you need is a diode and some wire, and most electronic devices contain plenty of both. In WWII, soldiers would build their own and would substitute a razor-blade and a pencil for the diode!

[wyager]

Movements to stick to analog radio are mostly based on nastalgia... Digital radio increases the usable range of most services, allows for higher sound quality, more information transfer (think song info, weather alerts, etc) and really doesn't require that much more hardware. Maybe at most a dirt cheap ARM, in just a minute or so of searching I found a 50Mhz ARM for $2 apiece, without any bulk discounts. That can easily handle the 200khz bandwidth of standard FM radio, probably more. Any good radio/scanner already has that kind of hardware in it.

[silver_bacon]

Movements to stick to analog radio are mostly based on nastalgia... Digital radio increases the usable range of most services, allows for higher sound quality, more information transfer (think song info, weather alerts, etc) and really doesn't require that much more hardware. Maybe at most a dirt cheap ARM, in just a minute or so of searching I found a 50Mhz ARM for $2 apiece, without any bulk discounts. That can easily handle the 200khz bandwidth of standard FM radio, probably more. Any good radio/scanner already has that kind of hardware in it.

I have to disagree, though maybe I am not getting your point.

Analog radio is in my opinion, superior to some/most types of digital radio, such as HD Radio. DRM/DAB+ is another story that does not matter since neither are used in the USA.

HD-FM radios cost many times more than an analog radio. The hardware required costs much more, and they have the IBOC tax. Portables need a rechargeable battery because they can not run on AA's. They have potential for great features, don't get me wrong. But the interference, cost to operate and the lack of portability make it difficult to justify. Sound quality is good for HD-FM, but mainly only for the main channel. Sub-channels have the compression sound which Analog radio never has.

HD-AM fails, and always will. Interference is terrible and performance is terrible. AM is very susceptible to interference. When lightning strikes it will knock out HD-AM completely for several seconds, Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible. Not to mention the environment of AM at night makes HD-AM very difficult to use, which is why most stations have to turn it off at night.

HD-FM has some potential, but HD-AM does not. Both of them are very power-hungry, making emergency radios impossible. Analog radios can be listened to without ANY additional power-source, which works for both AM/FM. For easier listening, some can run for days on a single AA battery. Digital radio of all kinds require to much power to run off AA's for any long period of time. And HD-radios will always cost more. I can build a crystal radio by hand for almost nothing, and buy a cheap radio for $5. The cheapest HD radio is about $50. Digital radios require many more components. You also can not tinker with HD-radio as it is proprietary.

The usable range of HD-signal is smaller than that of their Analog signal. Some of that is because of FCC requirements and some of it is because it is digital. LW/AM should always be analog, FM varies. The jury is still out on digital short-wave.

I personally think a properly restored AM tube-radio can give HD-AM a run for it's money when it comes to sound. People often forget about tube-sound, something you will never get with a digital radio.

[StarHalo]

When lightning strikes...Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible.

One of my favorite features of the AM band, that crackle you get every time lightning strikes. The louder it gets, the closer the lightning. And when DXing distant signals, you get quiet background crackling from storms hundreds of miles away..

[wyager]

1.Analog radio is in my opinion, superior to some/most types of digital radio, such as HD Radio. DRM/DAB+ is another story that does not matter since neither are used in the USA.

2.HD-FM radios cost many times more than an analog radio. The hardware required costs much more, and they have the IBOC tax. Portables need a rechargeable battery because they can not run on AA's. They have potential for great features, don't get me wrong. But the interference, cost to operate and the lack of portability make it difficult to justify. Sound quality is good for HD-FM, but mainly only for the main channel. Sub-channels have the compression sound which Analog radio never has.

3.HD-AM fails, and always will. Interference is terrible and performance is terrible. AM is very susceptible to interference. When lightning strikes it will knock out HD-AM completely for several seconds, Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible. Not to mention the environment of AM at night makes HD-AM very difficult to use, which is why most stations have to turn it off at night.

4.HD-FM has some potential, but HD-AM does not. Both of them are very power-hungry, making emergency radios impossible. Analog radios can be listened to without ANY additional power-source, which works for both AM/FM. For easier listening, some can run for days on a single AA battery. Digital radio of all kinds require to much power to run off AA's for any long period of time. And HD-radios will always cost more. I can build a crystal radio by hand for almost nothing, and buy a cheap radio for $5. The cheapest HD radio is about $50. Digital radios require many more components. You also can not tinker with HD-radio as it is proprietary.

5.The usable range of HD-signal is smaller than that of their Analog signal. Some of that is because of FCC requirements and some of it is because it is digital. LW/AM should always be analog, FM varies. The jury is still out on digital short-wave.

6.I personally think a properly restored AM tube-radio can give HD-AM a run for it's money when it comes to sound. People often forget about tube-sound, something you will never get with a digital radio.

1.About DRM, I feel like I should mention that digital radio CAN be superior, as long as radio companies don't screw it up with DRM. So I'm not saying it always IS better, just that the tech behind it is. Plus, DRMs never stopped anyone tech-savvy from doing anything, LOL.

2.The only reason digital radios cost more is because of retards in the radio companies and retards in government. Increased costs from hardware are on the scales of cents or dollars on the receiver end, and the cost of a cheap, DIY-able encoder on the transmitter end. Radio taxes are a different issue, and you can change those with your votes. Digital radios don't have the same interference analog radios will have, discreet signals NEVER have more interference than analog signals over the same transmission method. That just wouldn't make sense.

3.Digital AM is poorly used, the multi-second blackout is due to poor transmission method choice. However, AM sucks in general anyway so I don't really care, LOL.

4.Agreed. Digital FM>digital AM. However, I'm not sure why you think they're "power hungry". The power used by a decoding chip is negligible, on the scale of milliamps. I have to dig up a datasheet, but my ipod touch can perform audio decoding on very high baudrate audio files for well over 36 hours straight IIRC, and that's with a relatively power-intensive CPU. And again, "HD" radio may be expensive, but that's only because people choose to make it so. And it's far from proprietary... I'm sure if you wanted to, you could make an HD radio pretty easily. And it's just as tinker-able as normal radio, just don't mess with the decoder IC if you don't think you want to deal with the software stuff.

5.Using digital would actually free up a lot of bandwidth. Digital is a lot less sensitive to similar frequency transmissions than analog.

6.That may be the case, but we're talking about portables, not tube radios.

I suppose this is really all up to preferences, but personally I have no problem with digital... no one uses analog for anything else anymore, why should we keep using it with radio?

Edit:LOL, this issue is almost exactly like LED vs Incan (LED being digital radio).

[StarHalo]

AM sucks in general anyway

You're on your own there; pretty much all of my radio listening is AM since FM has become almost exclusively homogenized Top 40 Pop format. I'm not really interested in a designating a completely new broadcast band and investing in specialized digital hardware to hear the latest autotuned rap chant. I can go for some NPR, some unique college and community radio stations, some classical, but you'd have to be a pretty die-hard classical fan to want to upgrade your entire radio setup just to listen to that one classical station, NPR and community radio certainly don't call for audiophile audio reproduction..

I'm all about content over sound quality, and when it comes to broadcast radio, good ol' AM is a goldmine in that respect. Sound quality is only a factor when I pick the music, I'm not going to invest hundreds of dollars to sit through other people's formats/playlists, so the internet or satellite radio is the place for high-quality music.

[wyager]

OK, again, I'm talking about the technology, NOT the music available, LOL.

If I want music, I use my iPod. All of the radio stations here are what you're talking about, there's one channel that literally loops the same 4 or 5 sh*t pop songs all day.

[Sub_Umbra]

Sat radio holds nothing for me. A couple days ago someone mentioned that sat radio has no local content. That is a huge factor for me. Even AM is much less local than it was 50 years ago. When I was a kid if there was a big fire somewhere in town a local AM station would send a reporter down and cover it all night. Now I'd be hard pressed to find out about the scope of a thunderstorm or power outage on AM...but it's still a great deal more local than Sat radio.

I don't listen to radio for music. After Katrina I was able to reliably tune to AM stations in Chicago, Detroit, Little Rock, and Cincinnati after dark and a myriad of other regional stations closer to New Orleans even in the daytime. For many this capability has no utility. Different Strokes. YMMV.

Also, even with the dreadful local content issues put aside, Sat radio is far too fragile for what I demand of radio. Google "Carrington Event."

We are talking apples and oranges here.

[wyager]

About local content-if I want updates on a local emergency, I just listen to the cops/fire department. Police chatter is usually pretty revealing, and their radios stay on when the power goes off. It's pretty crazy how many people think burglar alarms go off when the power does, LOL.

[Sub_Umbra]

That will work in some locales for very limited local content. Unfortunately I need more, much more than what may be gleaned from the emergency services comms. It has to do with community and continuity. You probably just haven't been in a situation where that was important enough to you -- or you'd have some idea what I'm talking about. That's your good luck.

[StarHalo]

When I was a kid if there was a big fire somewhere in town a local AM station would send a reporter down and cover it all night.

This is where the money for digital conversion should go, returning radio to its glory days.

And AM radio is definitely the one and only serious source of information during a [non-TV] event/emergency. Police coms are great for finding out why a helicopter is circling or what all the sirens are about, but when you want to know why there's a power outage and how big it is, or shelter/evacuation info, AM is all there is.

[silver_bacon]

1.About DRM, I feel like I should mention that digital radio CAN be superior, as long as radio companies don't screw it up with DRM. So I'm not saying it always IS better, just that the tech behind it is. Plus, DRMs never stopped anyone tech-savvy from doing anything, LOL.

2. "Digital radios don't have the same interference analog radios will have, discreet signals NEVER have more interference than analog signals over the same transmission method. That just wouldn't make sense."

4.Agreed. Digital FM>digital AM. However, I'm not sure why you think they're "power hungry". The power used by a decoding chip is negligible, on the scale of milliamps. I have to dig up a datasheet, but my ipod touch can perform audio decoding on very high baudrate audio files for well over 36 hours straight IIRC, and that's with a relatively power-intensive CPU. And again, "HD" radio may be expensive, but that's only because people choose to make it so. And it's far from proprietary... I'm sure if you wanted to, you could make an HD radio pretty easily. And it's just as tinker-able as normal radio, just don't mess with the decoder IC if you don't think you want to deal with the software stuff.

5.Using digital would actually free up a lot of bandwidth. Digital is a lot less sensitive to similar frequency transmissions than analog.

Edit:LOL, this issue is almost exactly like LED vs Incan (LED being digital radio).

1. I think we are talking about two different DRM's. You are thinking of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and I am thinking of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale.) The first DRM is bad, I agree. The second one has potential, but will not be used here for AM/FM. They are considering using it for Shortwave.

2. While you will not here the interference via static, it will simply drop out if something does interfere. There is an excellent youtube video someone put up to demonstrate what happens when lightning strikes for HD-AM. It has to drop back to analog then after several seconds it will go digital again just to be knocked back down to Analog. If the Analog signal was discontinued, then there would be several seconds of silence every time lightning strikes, which could be very inconvenient in an emergency.

4. IC chips are not terribly power hungry, but there is more to a digital radio than that. You would be hard pressed to run a digital radio off of AA batteries, if you can even find such a beast. Crank/solar digital radios would be impracticable and crystal digital radios are impossible.

5. Very true, although in AM broadcasting, the stations are so close that you could not have a 600 & 610 broadcasting in the same city on either analog or digital. Same goes for LW and SW.

And a reason to have analog radio is Shortwave. The number 1 source in the world for news/information and other content is shortwave radio. Most SW broadcasters would not be able to afford to go digital, and the majority of SW's listeners could not afford to buy a digital SW radio. Even if they could, it would have terrible performance as SW is very unstable.

This is where the money for digital conversion should go, returning radio to its glory days.

And AM radio is definitely the one and only serious source of information during a [non-TV] event/emergency. Police coms are great for finding out why a helicopter is circling or what all the sirens are about, but when you want to know why there's a power outage and how big it is, or shelter/evacuation info, AM is all there is.

I agree 100%. When we had a ice storm hit Central/Eastern Iowa, power was knocked out nearly everywhere. ALL FM stations either went out or just kept on playing music. AM on the otherhand had news/info for people who needed it most. Same thing happened for when Cedar Rapids flooded. FM stations plugged away with music and AM had excellent coverage of what was going on. Now that TV stations have gone digital, people need AM more than ever (since the last 50+ years) because when the power goes out, you can no longer listen to TV broadcasts via your pocket radio with a TV tuner.

SW/Satellite radio is useless in the case of a regional disaster.

As far as Radio going back to the glory days... sadly, never going to happen. For example, Clear Channel just recently swapped a local AM sports station (terrible ratings) for a classic country format. Well the station's programming is entirely syndicated, they do not have a single DJ. The format is also very shallow when it comes to a playlist, playing few songs then throwing in a song released in the last few years and calling it a classic.

However, there is another AM classic country station that kicks butt. They play true classics and have local personalities, news, information and everything you could want. The station was owned by clear channel, but they sold it due to poor ratings and because they were going private. Now the station is on the way up and is doing well because it is owned by a smaller broadcaster. The station also covers the entire state and then some. It is ultimately doing well because it is not owned by greedy corporate broadcaster. Sadly, this is becoming more and more rare.

[wyager]

1. I think we are talking about two different DRM's. You are thinking of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and I am thinking of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale.) The first DRM is bad, I agree. The second one has potential, but will not be used here for AM/FM. They are considering using it for Shortwave.

2. While you will not here the interference via static, it will simply drop out if something does interfere. There is an excellent youtube video someone put up to demonstrate what happens when lightning strikes for HD-AM. It has to drop back to analog then after several seconds it will go digital again just to be knocked back down to Analog. If the Analog signal was discontinued, then there would be several seconds of silence every time lightning strikes, which could be very inconvenient in an emergency.

4. IC chips are not terribly power hungry, but there is more to a digital radio than that. You would be hard pressed to run a digital radio off of AA batteries, if you can even find such a beast. Crank/solar digital radios would be impracticable and crystal digital radios are impossible.

5. Very true, although in AM broadcasting, the stations are so close that you could not have a 600 & 610 broadcasting in the same city on either analog or digital. Same goes for LW and SW.

6.And a reason to have analog radio is Shortwave. The number 1 source in the world for news/information and other content is shortwave radio. Most SW broadcasters would not be able to afford to go digital, and the majority of SW's listeners could not afford to buy a digital SW radio. Even if they could, it would have terrible performance as SW is very unstable.

1.Indeed we are, LOL.

2.Again, this is due to poor transmission method choice... It sounds like the current method buffers a few seconds in advance or something.

4.I'm not sure where you're getting this... I know for a fact that if you want a cheap digital/trunking radio, all you need is a connection to the discriminator output and a few MIPS worth of processing power. A few mA if you're smart with it. That's easy on any kind of battery, even crank or solar sources. And correct, you can't have crystal digitals, but I'm not quite sure when you would ever use a crystal radio in a practical application...

5.With digital, you probably could... Digital multiplexing techniques are incredibly advanced and way over my head for now, there are ways that you can have many, many unlicensed band (315mhz, 433mhz, etc) devices running on the same frequency in the same area with no interference, let alone different frequency devices. With efficient use of digital bandwidth, you could probably have multiple channels on every frequency.

6.If shortwave is so unstable, wouldn't it be nice to be able to download lots of relevant information in the few seconds you might have reception and then be able to listen to/read it over time? In 2009, above 70% of the world population had cell phones, so I don't think digital radio is too expensive for many people... As cell phones have demonstrated, digital communications are actually very practical for basically everyone. Just because manufacturers keep the prices of digital receivers high doesn't mean they have to stay high. Everyone has to come in to the modern era at some point, even if it happens slowly. It won't be long before the super poor countries get the trickle-down of our current tech and analog devices start becoming fewer and fewer in number, except for hobbyist/enthusiast purposes.

[silver_bacon]

1.Indeed we are, LOL.

2.Again, this is due to poor transmission method choice... It sounds like the current method buffers a few seconds in advance or something.

4.I'm not sure where you're getting this... I know for a fact that if you want a cheap digital/trunking radio, all you need is a connection to the discriminator output and a few MIPS worth of processing power. A few mA if you're smart with it. That's easy on any kind of battery, even crank or solar sources. And correct, you can't have crystal digitals, but I'm not quite sure when you would ever use a crystal radio in a practical application...

5.With digital, you probably could... Digital multiplexing techniques are incredibly advanced and way over my head for now, there are ways that you can have many, many unlicensed band (315mhz, 433mhz, etc) devices running on the same frequency in the same area with no interference, let alone different frequency devices. With efficient use of digital bandwidth, you could probably have multiple channels on every frequency.

6.If shortwave is so unstable, wouldn't it be nice to be able to download lots of relevant information in the few seconds you might have reception and then be able to listen to/read it over time? In 2009, above 70% of the world population had cell phones, so I don't think digital radio is too expensive for many people... As cell phones have demonstrated, digital communications are actually very practical for basically everyone. Just because manufacturers keep the prices of digital receivers high doesn't mean they have to stay high. Everyone has to come in to the modern era at some point, even if it happens slowly. It won't be long before the super poor countries get the trickle-down of our current tech and analog devices start becoming fewer and fewer in number, except for hobbyist/enthusiast purposes.

2. They could use a better choice of digital standard, but digital is still not be as flexible as analog.

4. Well there is no such thing as a cheap HD-radio as it is proprietary. You need more than just a small cpu, you need an LCD screen and many other components to make it tick. It is not that a Digital radio takes large amounts of power, it just takes several times more than a traditional analog radio. The Insignia portable has a built in rechargeable battery, and only has 10 hour battery life. It is the only portable currently manufactured, and is head-phone only.

4-2. I did manage to find a 2AA battery DAB digital radio, but it only has a 6 hour battery life and does not have a built-in speaker which would lower batterylife further. I can run a 2AA analog with a speaker for days.

4-3. You have a point, Crystal radios are not often used. However, they can be used for AM/FM/LW/SW and some people do use them.

5. You also do not use a fraction of the watts in those instances. HD-AM uses many more watts and does not use 10khz, it uses 20khz and overlaps adjacent stations. This is why Clear Channel Communications and other broadcasters have started turning off HD-AM as it causes interference. At night, clear channels can blow out adjacent stations 100's of miles away if they keep their digital signal on. Local analog AM's also cause interference with adjacent stations, but adding a digital singal makes it worse.

6. At this time, you would have gaps in your programming, which is not good. Shortwave drifts, fades, and suffers from interference from just about everything. Digital makes it more difficult to listen. Shortwave is a skywave, not a ground wave. Therefore it is affected by many different factors and is often distorted. Some broadcasters are digital, and it works, but not particularly well.

70%? Possibly, but that still leaves over 1 billion people without. That 30% probably makes up the majority of shortwave listeners. Shortwave covers extreme distances and reaches to super rural and super poor. If they had money/access to other sources, they would probably use them. As is, many do not. Africa is the number 1 source of shortwave listeners. Switching to digital would cost broadcasters money, everyone would need new radios, and they would need more batteries to power their radios as DRM takes more energy to decode.

[Radiophile]

One of my favorite features of the AM band, that crackle you get every time lightning strikes. The louder it gets, the closer the lightning.

I tell people about this on a regular basis and they don't believe me!

[silver_bacon]

Well my Grundig Mini 100 PE is finally failing me. I only use it for use with headphones and it is now noticeably louder in the right ear, regardless of headphones used. The FM band is also completely useless, everything is strongly distorted.

What is out there for small portable AM/FM pockets for $40 and under these days? It has been a while since I bought a pocket radio, actually this was the last one I purchased.

[StarHalo]

What is out there for small portable AM/FM pockets for $40 and under these days?

If you don't mind going ~$10 over your budget, one of the best full-featured small portables out there, the Sangean DT-400W, gets you free shipping at Amazon.

If that's out of your budget, the very simple but seriously DX-strength Sony SRF-59 is only $15.

[ypsifly]

That Sangean looks sweet and will probably be my next purchase as I need a small radio with WX.

I bought a Sony ICF-S10MK2 from Walgreens for $12. Good sound and it can really pull in the AM. I can get 650 out of Nashville, TN in my basement and it sounds very clear.

[silver_bacon]

If you don't mind going ~$10 over your budget, one of the best full-featured small portables out there, the Sangean DT-400W, gets you free shipping at Amazon.

If that's out of your budget, the very simple but seriously DX-strength Sony SRF-59 is only $15.

I can go $10 over, no problem. Do you think the radio is worthwhile versus the Sony? I mainly need it for AM, though the weather feature could come in handy.

I have had to revert to using an old GE AM-only transistor radio for the time being. Works pretty well, but is single earphone only and produces deafening volumes with the slightest bump. I have to turn the thing down nearly all the way or it is too loud. It also uses 9V cells, which is a pain.

[StarHalo]

Do you think the radio is worthwhile versus the Sony?

If all/nearly all you're going to use this radio for is DXing, go with the Sony. If you're going to use it day to day for casual listening and maybe some DXing on the side, get the Sangean.

Also, the included earphones or earbuds included with either of these radios are included at minimal cost and don't do either receiver justice. If in-ear audio quality is something you're taking into consideration, I recommend the Sony MDR-E828LP earbuds, which you can find at your local Target for ~$7. These easily match the $40 "upgrade" headphones that used to be sold alongside Walkmans years ago.

[silver_bacon]

If all/nearly all you're going to use this radio for is DXing, go with the Sony. If you're going to use it day to day for casual listening and maybe some DXing on the side, get the Sangean.

Also, the included earphones or earbuds included with either of these radios are included at minimal cost and don't do either receiver justice. If in-ear audio quality is something you're taking into consideration, I recommend the Sony MDR-E828LP earbuds, which you can find at your local Target for ~$7. These easily match the $40 "upgrade" headphones that used to be sold alongside Walkmans years ago.

I will be using the radio mostly for daily listening. Most of the stations I listen to are of high strength, although some are on the weaker side.

I will probably use my v-moda's or the earphones that came with my Cowon I9. However, I will keep those in mind should either of these break. Knowing Vmoda's build quality, they will break.

[StarHalo]

I will be using the radio mostly for daily listening. Most of the stations I listen to are of high strength, although some are on the weaker side.

You'll love the Sangean then; you can program FM and AM stations together in its memory in whatever groups or order you want, so you can quickly blip through all your preferred stations across all bands, like a Favorites feature on a TV tuner. And this is the only current pocket radio I know of that has a backlight, very handy.

The Sangean is close to being as sensitive as the Sony, but either will be a match for your car stereo (and with good earphones, sonically as well.)

[M@elstrom]

AM radio is definitely the one and only serious source of information during a [non-TV] event/emergency. Police coms are great for finding out why a helicopter is circling or what all the sirens are about, but when you want to know why there's a power outage and how big it is, or shelter/evacuation info, AM is all there is.

For a majority of our populace AM is a distant memory, the only exception are a handful of Metropolitan stations and the odd country station everyone else went over to FM, thankfully the local content, varied music format and news services remain the same

Back when we were kids I remember using an old AM Sanyo radio to receive distant stations, you could even get Tasmanian radio from Victoria across the Bass Strait on some summer nights, IIRC we opened up that portable and peaked the "tuning gang" to achieve better results


Remember these old codger hearing aid styled ear pieces?... man I hated those!

[StarHalo]

For a majority of our populace AM is a distant memory, the only exception are a handful of Metropolitan stations and the odd country station everyone else went over to FM, thankfully the local content, varied music format and news services remain the same

Here in California, the AM band is a treasure trove of every topic imaginable, it's like cable television with no listings, endless fun.

And Aussies, specifically the Outback variety, are the masters of AM radio. A significant fraction of all the AM antenna instructions out there are from Outback folk trying to get the rugby scores.

Back when we were kids I remember using an old AM Sanyo radio to receive distant stations

You can still get distant stations, on some nights I can get a country/news station in Oklahoma (the center of the continent), 1,100+ miles away.

[M@elstrom]

You can still get distant stations, on some nights I can get a country/news station in Oklahoma (the center of the continent), 1,100+ miles away.

I imagine you still would, I was merely reminiscing... I prefer SWL these days

[Lynx_Arc]

Here in California, the AM band is a treasure trove of every topic imaginable, it's like cable television with no listings, endless fun.

And Aussies, specifically the Outback variety, are the masters of AM radio. A significant fraction of all the AM antenna instructions out there are from Outback folk trying to get the rugby scores.



You can still get distant stations, on some nights I can get a country/news station in Oklahoma (the center of the continent), 1,100+ miles away.

probably KVOO, they have 3 antenna towers set up such that at night they turn it into a beam while in the daytime it is more a ground plane type setup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVOO-AM

[Black Rose]

Anyone here have the Kaito WRX911 (AM/FM/SW)?

I did a forum search and only found one passing reference to it.