Today is one of those screwed up days. For about a week now radio reception has been deteriorating. Now, for my daily commute I have the choice of 3 NPR radio stations and two repeaters for those stations. One of those repeaters is no more than 19 miles from anywhere on my commute (WKSU, I normally pass within a mile of the tower about midway through my commute). Two stations I can pick up for 20 miles during that commute (WYSU and WCPN). So you'd think I would be set for radio reception. This morning it was easier to pick up Michigan Public Radio (89.5) that it was to hear any of my local stations. Last night the CBC out of London was a clearer signal than the KSU tower I was passing. Screwed up days.
I prefer to blame congress.
4 comments:
Consider yourself lucky, not burdened. Michigan Public Radio does a much better job than WKSU and WCPN anyway.
I travel between Toledo and Cleveland often for work, and can listen to all three during much of my drive.
I'm not sure why, but neither of the northeast Ohio public radio stations seem to be as good as they once were.
Anon, oh sure, I enjoyed it. Frankly I've been getting annoyed with WKSU and have found myself shouting at the local announcer, "what, didn't you read this before coming on the air" almost every morning. At least Michigan Public Radio gives the temperature in Fahrenheit before they give the Celsius. Listening to the CBC one morning I nearly drove off the road when they said the temperature was only two degrees.
In the fall and spring you get temperature inversions in the evening and morning and that can create skip conditions. That will let you pick up AM stations from half a continent away. I'm not 100% sure this applies to FM as well but it's a good theory.
I once got a local Washington DC station one evening when I was just out of HS.
Dan, oh yeah, I remember having that kind of fun with AM back in the day. Picking up Canadian stations and Mexican X (border) Radio. Listening in on radio play broadcasts out of Philadelphia. In Canton there was an AM transmitter right next to a public phone I had to use (I'm thinking this was 1978). Needless to say, to listen to the radio all you needed to do was lift up the handset.
For FM, though, I thought the signal wasn't supposed to bounce or "skip." AM you could bounce and modulate into valleys (if you lived in mountainous regions), I don't think you can do that with FM. But you're the ham, I'll defer to your knowledge.
Yeah, I seem to remember this problem occurring in the Fall and Spring (this isn't the first time, which is how I knew I should try the Michigan stations). This morning wasn't so bad, although I could pick up the WKSU Kent transmitter (about 45-50 miles away) better than the Thompson repeater (1-10 miles away).
As an FYI, on the way home the Thompson repeater was getting overlaid with a Mexican Music station (never did hear call letters or an announcer). I couldn't get the Michigan station, but WCPN followed me until I could pick-up WYSU (I like WYSU, they don't interrupt the newsfeed as often or for as long).
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