Your Farthest Actual Listening Distance?

[musichal]

We all love tuners even though most of us probably don't use them often due to various programming issues - yes, I know some of you are likely exceptions to this, and I recall reading recently an AKer who still uses radio as his primary source.

Still, we love to talk about them, and distance comes up frequently, leading to discussions of RF performance, antenna types, cables, and associated paraphernalia. Not many of us - I don't think - are DXers, though we might play with distant tuning now and again. My question is this: how far away is the station you listen to most, and, also, what is your distance from the farthest station you regularly tune into for music on FM?

You can also throw in the distance to a station just out of clean-listen reach in your location, if you like.

 

[WobblySam]

The regular station, as far as I can figure (based on tower location provided by the station) is 31 miles line-of-sight.
The farthest station I listen to on occasion is 86 miles line of sight. To be fair, it's not too good in mid-summer with the heat and humidity and I do have to have the antenna pretty much dead on. At that distance multipath can be a bear.

 

[jlovda]

This probably isn't fair since it involves the weather related waveguide tunneling effect I've read about. But, 40 years ago in Champaign, IL in my 8th floor college dorm room with a KLH 18 tuner I was listening to a somewhat weak local station when the station faded and another station in crystal clear stereo took it's place. It was from Houston, TX. It stayed for about 2-3 minutes and then disappeared.

 

[needforspeed]

I use a Carver quartz lock tuner that does a nice job of staying locked, My Jazz and Classic Rock station is within 12 miles. My classical station is about 20. I use my old TV antenna as FM, Wired direct to the tuner.

 

[Nick_G]

This probably isn't fair since it involves the weather related waveguide tunneling effect I've read about. But, 40 years ago in Champaign, IL in my 8th floor college dorm room with a KLH 18 tuner I was listening to a somewhat weak local station when the station faded and another station in crystal clear stereo took it's place. It was from Houston, TX. It stayed for about 2-3 minutes and then disappeared.

That sounds like E-skip to me, as the distance from Champaign to Houston is 822 miles. The good strength and short duration would also back this up. Was this during the summer, by any chance?

 

[juncers]

BBC Radio 3. 21 miles from Broadcasting House in Portland Place. I sometimes listen to BBC Radio 2 which broadcasts from the same location.

Ray

 

[Sandy G]

Hard to say. Playing w/my R-389 the1st day I got it ,I DIDN'T have a proper antenna connector, but licked my finger, stuck it into 5the antenna connector SHOULD go, & WHAS-840, Louisville, KY, came booming in, like nobody's business.. They're about 250 miles away. Under the "Right" conditions, R-389s CAN sgore some amazing feats-, in 1996, a guy had one in Denver,& picked up a carrier, & a few notes of modulation, from a station in France... Transatlantic DX is not uncommon,, especially along the Atlantic seaboard area, but 2/3 of the way acrost the continent,? Wow... They are rather scarce, supposedly only 750 were ever made....I bought a KIWA MW Loop for it, I could see, even after only a few nights' fooling around w/it,my set-up,KIWA LOOP,R-389, was gonna be The Berries. Stupidly,I lent it out to this guy who promptly lost most of it, & of course, KIWA quit making their incomparable loops. Trust me, if YOU ever run up on a KIWA MW Loop, & the guy doesn't want 2 arms & a leg for the damthing, GET IT...(Grin)

 

[JoeESP9]

Well before the turn of the century, one night I picked up the Howard University radio station from DC. It was on the same frequency (90.1) as WRTI (Temple Univ.). The only reason I heard it was because I was listening to WRTI when they went of the air. Admittedly I had an antenna on the roof. However a large part of the credit goes to my Accuphase T-101 tuner.

WRTI is still my go to station. They now broadcast 24/7. During the day they play classical and switch to Jazz at night.

DC is ~181 miles away.

 

[rmp]

The station I listen to the most is about 60 miles away. The furthest is about 100 miles away. Tuners are usually a Scott 310-B or a Sansui TU-517. I sometimes use a Hafler 330 or an Onkyo TX-8211, but they are not as sensitive to the distant station. Antennas are an attic-mounted twin-lead dipole at about 15 feet and a roof-top 4-element yagi at about 18 feet.

 

[EddyR]

Wncw 88.7 Isothermal Community College, transmitter just north east of Ashville nc to my house east of Charlotte is 115+miles I have listened to this station for many years and it is not a high powered but it is the highest antenna on the east coast USA 6,600+ft above sea level. It is only 17,500 watts.
Comes in like a local on simple dipole. I have been a DXer since the 1950 so have hundreds of long range catched well over 1500 miles on FM & TV.
Ed

 

[jlovda]

That sounds like E-skip to me, as the distance from Champaign to Houston is 822 miles. The good strength and short duration would also back this up. Was this during the summer, by any chance?

It was most likely late spring. A lot of big thunderstorms in central Il at that time of the year.

Back in the late 60's the big feather in your cap was to see if you could get any Chicago stations 150 away. If I recall there was a mention of Chicago reception from Champaign in a Marantz 10b ad.

 

[Gazdatronik]

I live in the south, among the appalachians, so not very far, if at all.

 

[Nick_G]

It was most likely late spring. A lot of big thunderstorms in central Il at that time of the year.

Back in the late 60's the big feather in your cap was to see if you could get any Chicago stations 150 away. If I recall there was a mention of Chicago reception from Champaign in a Marantz 10b ad.

Thanks. It was almost certainly E-skip then, as the season runs from May to the end of August, with the main part of the season in June and July. It was probably an early season opening.

 

[Splatter Pak]

The farthest station I listen to is the University of Kansas station out of Lawrence, 55 miles from here, and that's with an ADS T2 tuner with a "T" antenna in the basement.

I should add that the farthest I have ever been to an FM station I could hear, was in the Ozarks on my car stereo, when I caught the news from a station that seemed, from the news it broadcast, to be in or near San Diego.

 

[fiddlefye]

From here in Windsor I sometimes listen to a station in Lansing, MI a bit over 90 mi. away. I frequently listen to PBS out of Ann Arbor and that is about 45 mi. That one consistently comes in gangbusters on any tuner in the house. Nothing better than bunny ear bipoles to be found around here as yet.

When we are up at the cottage we listen to CBC Radio 2 out of Toronto and that is about 95 mi. That with a little Advent 300.

 

[fiddlefye]

The biggest challenge I have to deal with in FM listening is not weak signal, but multipath distortion. I have yet to find an arrangement that allows me to get my local CBC Radio 2 station in my listening room without a load of it most of the time.

 

[judsonw]

I do not listen to much radio, but I found a local, lower powered station that is 1.5 miles from my apartment. So far I have only listened to it in my car, which has not had a clear signal. That may be due to the fact that KOUW (NPR) is on the same frequency and is roughly 80 miles south.

I may get around to getting a proper tuner for my set up. I am not sure.

 

[vwestlife]

Yesterday on my car radio in the Rockaway, NJ area I heard 101.1 WBEB ("More FM", formerly "B-101") from Philadelphia, about 70 miles away. This is possible because it's about 500 feet in elevation above Philly, so it's like having a 500-foot-tall antenna on flat land.

 

[nailer]

Forty miles or so.

 

[JamVal]

If I listen to FM it is 97 Rock in Buffalo, NY (96.9) only about 10 miles away.
My test of how well a tuner does is Jazz FM Toronto 91.1, about 55 miles north northwest of me. But I have the advantage of being located about 14 miles south of the Niagara Escarpment which overlooks Lake Ontario and then it's unobstructed across to Toronto. Most tuners/recievers I have tried can bring it in, but the best of what I have tried is a Realistic TM-1000 and a Kenwood KR-4600. I made a half assed rhombic shaped antenna and hoisted it up about 10 feet, which brought that Toronto station in loud and clear.