Who's listening to FM Tonight? What tuner?

This morning I'm trying to tune in CBC2, off tuned a bit with the Sony XDR-F1HD and pull in WCPN from Cleveland/Northeast Ohio. Got to listen for about 20 minutes before it faded out. After hours jazz before the news feed started at 6am.

Does this morning count? Listened to last hour, or so, of WRTI, 90.1 out of Temple Univ's jazz program (6 p.m. - 6 a.m.) before it switched over to classical (6 a.m. - 6 p.m.). Listening to my 'full-house' modified Sony ST-J75 (dr*audio). Waiting for a similar 'full-house' mod'd MR80 from Terry DeWickt. First try on getting it here resulted in a broken faceplate, so back it went for a new one.

Morning counts. As with most mornings, breakfast ambiance here has been supplied by WDPR, 88.1 classical in Dayton. Alas, they have rather low power on an unclear channel, and reception for me is plagued by hiss and birdies in stereo mode.

I was hoping my new Pioneer F-99X would fight these issues successfully, but no, at least not in the basement over rabbit ears. Further, I find that you can't quiet the F-99X by forcing it into mono mode--there's no control that does that, not even ganged with manual tuning/mute off, as is often the case. Only recourse is to detune the station to 88.2. That works well but the necessity is annoying....

Rabbit ears are generally pretty decent. Can you move them to the attic or crawl space above your upstairs ceiling and the run RG-6 coax down to your tuner? You will likely get a nice surprise in improved reception. You'll need someone to rotate them to max reception while you watch the tuner strength meter to orient correctly. If that doesn't work, then put a yagi up there. You can still get a decent yagi for $50 and a spool or RG-6 from RS used to be pretty cheap, as well. Laying the yagi on non-conductive wood ceiling joists or insulation does not interfer with reception. Or, suspend from the roof rafters.

DonQuixote99 said:

I was hoping my new Pioneer F-99X would fight these issues successfully, but no, at least not in the basement over rabbit ears. Further, I find that you can't quiet the F-99X by forcing it into mono mode--there's no control that does that, not even ganged with manual tuning/mute off, as is often the case. Only recourse is to detune the station to 88.2. That works well but the necessity is annoying....

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You can set your preamp to mono mode and it works to reduce the noise just as well as setting the tuner to mono. It's amazing, but it works.

Nakamichi TM-1/TM-2 stereo clock radio by the bedside. Pretty decent for a clock radio. For serious listening the trusty (glow-in-the-dark) TU-9900.

Listening to the local jazz station, KXJZ 90.9, on yesterday's thrift find, my "new" garage receiver, a little NAD 7225PE that is a perfect fit for the shelf above the PC.

DX398 also known as the ATS909...

Pic above the marantz 1200 in my tiny broadcast studio which I use for pirate broadcasting...
http://i50.tinypic.com/2zojip3.jpg

What she looks like up close...
http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/_images/blog/_862/kaigaihousou-ju-cha/sonladx398.jpg

Yeah doesn't look like much but it is. In my opinion one of the best of the later digital radios ratcrack ever sold.
I replaced the greed LEDs behind the screen with white LEDs. Did a series of modifications to the muting on the jog dial, replaced the IF filters, and a few other things I can't remember at the moment. Now it works like a pro station modulation monitor, which BTW I actually use it for

Anyone else own this portable? The only radio I found since that seems to keep up with this radio is the TECSUN PL380 which even lacks some of the features of the DX398 but at least includes the digital DSP for FM which is new and really cool.

I love the RDS built in. It's nice to see what the station is playing for the current song and sometimes they text stuff out that is funny and unexpected on the RDS.

Only issue I have is that the antenna jack is really only useful for everything but FM reception. I can plug in my 40 foot vertical longwire antenna and pick up more stuff on SW and even MW than most people could wish for who DX, but on FM it's a joke since only the whip antenna works on that band. I have to remove the whip antenna to properly load the receiver to an outdoor antenna like a jpole or such.

Guess I am really only posting this to see who else here has this radio or even the Tecsun one which is as good. They are really the cream of the crop for portables and even make damn good radios for indoor systems. I have yet to find any decent receivers to plug into my marantz 1200 that pulls in stations like this besides it's receiver mate made by the same brand. Sad part is the looks, it doesn't look as cool having a portable connected to a indoor sound system compared to something as neat as a Marantz with a scope but I swear this little radio works as well if not better than those I have tested.


Oh yeah stations I am listening to...

I swear and I can record this if you don't believe me.. I can pick up a station on every single spot on the dial with my outdoor antenna AM or FM broadcast bands. You name it, college stations, hard rock , metal, classical, whatever. Even a FM pirate and not myself!
Then there is SW, just full of interesting stuff.
A few weeks ago tropo was strong and I was picking up FM stations over 200 miles away like they were next to me.

Generally though I can pick up AM stations a few hundred miles away at night, at least 50 miles day. FM around 50 miles usual day/night unless skip which I can get them quadruple that amount of distance. SW doesn't count since that's a whole other thread to itself.

Sorry for being so energetic in this thread but anyone else here get pirates on regular FM/AM?
Here I can pick up a few distant ones along with a ton on shortwave on 6925-6950kc.
1610 seems to be clear besides my own outlet for my friends. 87.7 is also clear here but if I put out a FM carrier on it even at 25mw it will carry for miles!

tuner saturday night

A 25 year old POS magnavox all-in-one stereo, tuned in to weekly grateful dead on 93.5 in MT washington valley, NH, 10PM to midnight. Rabbit ears at odd angle.

I will put on list of things to do to biuld a decent bedside table to hold a stereo setup, with speakers across room. Then put something decent in that bedroom.

TX9100 goes to desktop down in Boston, sitting on top of SA9100, scored this weekend at yard sale, very clean, very nice.

I'm listening to a Sansui TU-517, aligned by Terry DeWick a couple of years ago. For listening purposes, identical to the TU-717. It lacks the "calibrate" lever that would be useful for recording, and the boards / tuning cap look identical to me. I am near Winston-Salem, NC listening to WVTF broadcasting from Blacksburg Va. That is a good long hike! It always comes through fine in the evenings (atmospherics, I guess). The antenna is a Fanfare F2G (I think thats the number) mounted on our deck railing outside. I'd love to have a big Yagi of some sort, but there are neighborhood restrictions. Hey, my neighbors can all have AK-47s and Uzis, but I can't have an outside antenna. Go figure ; )

I checked out a few DC stations, 99.5, 101.9 on my new "garage" receiver, Yamaha RX-777. I picked it up today, locally from craigslist. It's very similar to my RX-797.

The good news: I don't have to DeoxIt or recap.

lasminit2 said:

Hey, my neighbors can all have AK-47s and Uzis, but I can't have an outside antenna. Go figure ; )

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I'll bet they can't mount them on their roof any more than you can a yagi. Do you have a crawl-space above you ceiling? That is where mine are mounted and work just fine.

On Sunday night, I regularly listen to the program called "Jazz Tonight" on JOAK-FM (National Radio) with my beloved KT-4500 and the dragon antenna. It is now under the manufacturer's alignment and I miss it.

Sony J60: WFUV 90.07 khz NY area; coming in loud and clear.

I'm tuned in to WUNH 91.3 in Durham, NH with a Magnum Dynalab FT-101. They're playing some awesome reggae from 7 to 8 pm.

-Matt

Left of the Dial on KUT 90.5, with my Mitsubishi DA-F10.

The last word..Marantz 10b tweeked by Mike Zuccaro. listening to WFMT Chicago..

Smoke Two Joints - The Toyes on KFOG-FM San Francisco 104.5 at 5 pm this evening, and every Friday at 5 pm for decades. Love those FM traditions.

McIntosh MR-71.

Listening to WAER on a T-85.

Hitachi FT-2: 41/2 hours of Dub and Roots, Rock Reggae.......89.9khz WKCR.