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Old 23rd Nov 2019, 10:39 pm   #16
Argus25
No Longer a Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia.
Posts: 2,679
Default Re: Translucent Tuning Dial 'knobs' - re-manufacture?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jolly 7 View Post
For me there's something about MW that's magical about not just how the different circuit types work, but also the manner in which signals can propagate over vast distances unpredictably.
It is surprising how well and how far MW radio stations propagate, even locally. For example there is a station 4KQ in Brisbane on 693 kHz, if you are in Brisbane and start driving away from the transmitter for over an hour, all the FM radio stations vanish, but even over 100km away you can still get a good signal from 4KQ, which I can get with good reception, in most places in the town I live in 100km north from the transmitter, day or night. The FM stations are really only good line of sight. It is great if you are in the city where the transmitter is, but that is it. It is a shame that many AM stations are getting decommissioned.

Then at night with a good AM radio you can get all kinds of stations, both MW and and shortwave ones wordwide on a fairly small antenna.

One thing that might have saved some of these AM stations is that they are also on the internet and can therefore generate some revenue from that.

Also, one advantage of the AM transistor radio, is that you can have the ferrite rod antenna (the thing that made the "pocket radio" possible) and don't require a whip antenna like an FM radio, and the rod drastically reduces interference effects that exist in the electric component of the field.
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