Messages

286

General Radio Discussion / Re: Propagation

« on: January 07, 2018, 0015 UTC »

Well, perhaps MW and LW will begin to really kick in over the next couple of years.

Time for me to build that longwave loop.

And maybe check out 160 meters CW more often.

Even though prop has sucked recently, I have heard a few stations here and there on the SW bands. Mainly the Asia pipeline during the early mornings on 49 and 41 meters.

287

General Radio Discussion / Re: Norway becomes first country to switch off FM radio

« on: January 01, 2018, 1753 UTC »

In the USA its a vast waste of spectrum. religious freaks in sheets and crazy crap. Music generally is horrible. NPR sucks because its biased by the left elite. The news stories are not of any real interest.
Indeed the web seems the only place to get what u want. I can tune almost any station half a world away in India or Japan without interference or fade outs. Its a new World that some have lots of trouble admitting is the future.
Both AM and FM radio are largely dinosaurs 

All I can say is enjoy that online radio while you can, before it's all geo-blocked. The BBC already geo-blocks much of its output. Most FM stations (and many AM stations) in the US geo-block their streams also. Geo-blocking appears to be the trend, at least for most commercial (and some government) stations, due to streaming and royalty costs.

If AM and FM are dinosaurs, so is free broadcast listening. :-)

288

General Radio Discussion / Re: "Preacher Teacher" Alert

« on: December 29, 2017, 0548 UTC »

As for Brother Stair, his broadcasts will go on, even while he is locked up, there must be hundreds of recorded shows that will play on forever...how refreshing eh?

As I tell folks, his brand of preaching has to stay current to be effective. I imagine his warnings about Y2K had some power in 1999, but nobody would give it two seconds of their time if they rerun that. Ultimately, it's the same with anything else. The current events will change, and in a few months ranting how the US moving their Israeli embassy to Jerusalem was foretold in Revelation will seem about as quaint as Y2K.

That said, his legal troubles and their specific nature seems to have taken care of it for good. I think WBCQ is the only one still giving him air time, but that's per reports I've seen elsewhere online, not what I've had the displeasure of hearing for myself. So, taped shows or live, stale topics or up to the minute, we won't hear it if stations won't transmit it. He'll have to try his luck streaming online.

True, unlike some of the other fringe and wacko preachers (like the late Pete Peters, whose sermons I heard on air as recently as six months ago at least), Stair's claims to be a prophet make his sermons more time-stamped. It's not like he was a preacher per se, where you could re-run sermons like Gene Scott's.

The biggest issue for Stair's continued broadcasts may be funding. I can imagine that a lot of Stair's non-communal based funding will begin to fade.

289

General Radio Discussion / Re: Coast To Coast AM to be on Toronto's CFRB 1010 and CFRX 6070kHz AM in 2018!

« on: December 21, 2017, 1527 UTC »

Too bad 6070 kHz has been inaudible on the West Coast for the past two years or more.... But it will be nice to hear it on CFRX if and when propagation ever picks up.

290

General Radio Discussion / Re: S.C. preacher (Brother Stair) arrested following sexual assault allegations

« on: December 21, 2017, 1527 UTC »

One thing I don't get -- the guy was a leader of a cult-like organization. Why wasn't he able to find a wife from the harem a bit earlier in life and keep it inside the confines of the relationship like many other religious leaders have been able to do? Being a religious leader, he would have been able to have the pick of women in the organization basically.... This kind of stuff always gets someone into trouble. Didn't he know that? I guess his ego far transcends common sense.

291

General Radio Discussion / Re: Norway becomes first country to switch off FM radio

« on: December 15, 2017, 0018 UTC »

The irony is that they are the richest country in the world, and have no need to drop all FM for their NRK (and other nationally delivered) broadcasts -- it's not like the country is hurting for money.

They could have kept some FM on in places to fill holes in the DAB reception.

To their credit, like Iceland, they still have Longwave on in the north for mariners and oil riggers to hear the NRK.

292

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: Radio Nacional da Amazonia??

« on: December 05, 2017, 0856 UTC »

Thanks for the info. They used to be the most dependable signal south of the border on SW, aside from Cuba.

293

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Nacional da Amazonia??

« on: December 03, 2017, 0251 UTC »

Anyone here heard them lately? They used to be full-on signals on 11780 and 6180 -- I haven't heard a peep from them over the past few months (granted, I don't tune the SW bands every night).

I used to hear them invariably, and the only time I didn't hear them was in the worst of conditions.

294

Equipment / Re: 22 Meter Band Part 15 CW Beacon Kits Now Available

« on: December 03, 2017, 0249 UTC »

WOW. How cool!

295

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Radio is a Costly, Overlooked Problem—and It’s Thriving

« on: November 30, 2017, 1214 UTC »

Redhat, I'm glad to hear that.

296

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Radio is a Costly, Overlooked Problem—and It’s Thriving

« on: November 27, 2017, 1452 UTC »

Weller says the noise floor is a common problem that doesn’t just plague AM. It’s one reason why HD Radio FMs needed a power boost and why when VHF television stations switched from analog to digital the coverage was not as good as expected, especially indoors.

The second canary in a coal mine: the fact that even with new digital broadcasting technology they have to boost power in some way just to make a signal listenable -- and as more RFI predominates, that need for some way of boosting the digital signal will increase.

This especially applies to AM, where digital can work, except the stations need to be fully digital and probably have more power to actually be listenable in most of their metro.

Power = electricity produced from burning coal in much of the U.S.

The only conclusion I can reach (sarcasm button on) is that RFI causes more global warming (sarcasm button off).

297

General Radio Discussion / Re: "Preacher Teacher" Alert

« on: November 19, 2017, 0029 UTC »

The only SW preacher I actually listened to was Gene Scott -- that is, when he wasn't yelling at his congregation to send more money.

Some of his religious commentaries were fairly interesting: it was obvious that he was an educated man.

As for Brother Stair, I find it curious when some preachers declare themselves "THE" End Time prophet. There was another guy I heard on the AM band in the 1990's, a different guy, who was claiming the same exact thing: that he was "THE" End Time prophet.

I always thought it would be cool to put both of them in a small room, ask them "which one of you is THE end time prophet", and see what happens.

298

General Radio Discussion / Re: Lawmakers demand investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

« on: November 17, 2017, 0031 UTC »

^^^^^^ The problem with FB unfortunately is that social and other internet media -- with the vast amount of accurate info actually available -- was supposed to make people smarter, not more gullible. Woops.

Like Token, I have seen a lot of junk on FB news postings. Links to questionable 'news' sources (sometimes they are just exaggerated blogs -- although other times they are indeed legit news stories from legit news sites), memes that are often exaggerations or out and out lies.

I've turned to clicking more of the music and cat videos in my news feed, and not clicking or responding to the news and political ones. The FB algorithm is useful in that way -- what you click on or respond to -- you get more of. :-)

299

General Radio Discussion / Re: Lawmakers demand investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

« on: November 15, 2017, 2342 UTC »

This is wild speculation, but I imagine all the am listeners will be dead in 50 years or less, at least in Canada and USA. Does anyone know any kids or young adults that listen to am radio?

Probably minimal. When Radio Disney went off the AM band, maybe 16% of the listeners were listening to the AM Disney stations. So they were at least aware of the AM band. Possibly some ethnic younger listeners tune into the South Asian and other ethnic stations -- but I've never read any studies on that.

I'm certain that there are millennials who are sports fans that probably tune into sports talk stations. And maybe some of the religious teaching stations have a small younger audience -- for those who are into religion heavily. But overall, young people are abandoning radio -- not in massive numbers, but disturbing numbers.... And streaming isn't helping. A recent study hinted that young people who listen to online music streams do NOT stream local radio stations.

300

Equipment / Re: Do it TO yourself RFI !

« on: November 15, 2017, 0350 UTC »

Sounds like it was a cool device for Halloween, at least.

I wonder how far the RFI reached. Blocks? A mile or so?

My neighbor's psycho washing machine at least reached two blocks or more -- that was into my short indoor antenna. I'm certain that if someone another two or three blocks away had a longer antenna they probably heard the alien noises over half the HF spectrum also.