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Sunday, February 26, 2006
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 Sunday, February 26, 2006
started 2/26/2006; 6:23:16 PM - last post 2/27/2006; 4:31:08 AM
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Doc Searls - Sunday, February 26, 2006 
2/26/2006; 10:23:16 PM (reads: 4326, responses: 4)
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Still grazing after all these years. 
| | Warms my heart. I started listening to WAMU's weekend bluegrass shows when I lived in rural Northern New Jersey (the hamlet of White Frame, in Sussex County) in 1972. I put a huge Finco FM-5 antenna on the roof, pionted at Washington, D.C., 220 miles away. The signal was serviceable because there was nothing else on that channel, in that direction. When I moved to North Carolina, just north of Chapel Hill, in 1974, I set up the same antenna, pointed at WAMU from 220 miles in the opposite direction, and got an even better signal. I listened every weekend. |
| | Now I listen to Bluegrass Country on the Net. And I just found out, following Dave's link, that it comes from WAMU as well. Shoulda figured. |
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Ralph Brandi - Re: Sunday, February 26, 2006
2/27/2006; 2:49:48 AM (reads: 1168, responses: 2)
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WAMU gets out like crazy, doesn't it? In the mid 1980s, I was living in a dorm on a hill at Penn State in State College, PA, about 180 miles from Washington, DC. I had a Sony ICF-2001 that I bought with the money I made as program director of the student radio station, then known as WDFM. The radio was primarily a shortwave receiver, and a revolutionary one at that, but the FM section was amazing too. And from my hill with this hot as hell radio, I could hear stations from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and amazingly, WAMU from Washington. And that was without an external antenna.
I don't think such reception would be possible from New Jersey today (although maybe from Sussex County, who knows?). Here in Monmouth County, every available frequency is full full full. No such thing as FM DXing here.... :-(
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Doc Searls - Re: Sunday, February 26, 2006
2/27/2006; 5:51:10 AM (reads: 843, responses: 1)
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The ICF-2001 wasn't just good. It was among the best of all time, at AM & FM as well as SW.
Sussex County is the northernmost in New Jersey, and our house was on the far side of the hill slope, facing away from D.C. This favored stations from upstate NY, CT, even MA. Got a lot of Boston, when the conditions were right.
The receiver also wasn't great: an old KLH. But it did the job very nicely.
In North Carolina I was in the midst of rolling hills, but at least not in a valley. Although we were 220 air miles from WAMU's transmitter, I could get the signal on my portable radios. One was the Nordmende Globetraveller Jr., a great German radio with a teak case and dials on the topl The other was the first digital boom box, made by GE.
In those days, the only signals on 88.5 were WAMUs and WFDD's, from Winston-Salem. WAMU was (and still is) 50kw @ 500 feet, the limit for stations in the rust belt. WFDD's was 36kw at 300 feet. It was only 90 miles away, but also 90 degrees to the west of WAMU's signal, so even with a whip antenna, it was easy to null out WFDD.
Now WXPN in Phily is on 88.5, and WFDD is 60kw at 900 feet. There are other locals crowded in all over the place as well. FM DXing is pretty much a Thing of the Past everywhere not utterly rural.
And there's not much point anymore, now that we have Internet and satellite radio.
When we went up and down the road to Mt. Baldy yesterday, we listened to Sirius all the way. Suddenly I'm impatient and even frustrated with the formely charming DXy qualities of stations one or two area codes away.
End of an era.
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melanie - Re: Sunday, February 26, 2006
2/27/2006; 8:31:08 AM (reads: 639, responses: 0)
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Ralph Brandi - Re: Sunday, February 26, 2006
2/27/2006; 9:18:23 AM (reads: 964, responses: 0)
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I understand what you're saying about Sirius; we have both Sirius and XM in our house, and I do enjoy listening to them a lot. But I still get a kick out of hearing something I'm not "supposed" to be able to hear. A couple of afternoons a week, I tune in Radio Tanzania Zanzibar on 11735 kHz, for example. They play an incredible mix of African, Arabic, and Indian music, as well as the local music, taarab, which incorporates influences from all three. They come in surprisingly well, armchair levels even. And it's stuff I never ever hear on the domestic satellites. XM had a couple of good world music channels, but they deleted them in order to have room for a couple of French Canadian channels when they entered Canada. Did away with half the stuff I listened to there. Sirius' world music channel is a joke every time I listen, more newage than actual music from around the world. I love having access to this window into places I'll likely never go. The net is great for listening in on the developed world; the developing world, not so much. Not yet, anyway.
I've seen a few of those old Nordmende radios. Absolutely gorgeous. I've got a couple of Grundigs of similar vintage, and a neat Polish knockoff of the classic Grundigs of that era.
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