What do you listen to on AM?

[raditechman]

BBC Radio 4 on 720Khz MW from Crystal Palace and also on 198Khz LW from Droitwich. Test match special too when it takes over those frequencies.
Gold on 1548 from Saffron Green, Radio Caroline on 648Khz from Orfordness. Premier Radio 1413Khz from Heathrow and occasionally Radio 5 909Khz from Brookmans Park
All give good reception except Caroline but I can also get Caroline on DAB.
I try to listen radio off air while they are still available

John

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

I listen to Caroline on 648 kHz more now that their uprated transmitter is on the air. Sadly the excitement of the 'old' Caroline broadcasting from a rickety ship in the Thames Estuary/Ramsey Bay is no longer there and it all seems a bit tame now.
On the bright side, we have a good selection of buzzing, humming and cracking sounds to keep us amused!

Peter Moore, the Station Mangaer at Radio Caroline, would welcome reception reports from Members. Their "new" Harris solid-state TX now gives x4 the output over the previous Nautel TX. I get great sounds (and with a perception of treble emphasis) on my high-end Grundigs and Sonys. So why bother with compressed DAB......?! Ha Ha.

[stitch1]

Usually only listen to live broadcasts when I'm messing about with radios, on MW - R4, R5 and Greatest Hits Radio (listenting now as it happens), used to listen to the Radio Newcastle but that's gone now. Don't listen to anything on LW or SW. Otherwise I use a pantry txer for catch up on Sounds etc and music on Spotify.

John

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by stitch1

Usually only listen to live broadcasts when I'm messing about with radios, on MW - R4, R5 and Greatest Hits Radio (listenting now as it happens), used to listen to the Radio Newcastle but that's gone now. Don't listen to anything on LW or SW. Otherwise I use a pantry txer for catch up on Sounds etc and music on Spotify.

John

R4 is on LW, not MW - ?

[stitch1]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

R4 is on LW, not MW - ?

Hi
In a few parts of the country its available on MW:
R4 MW Medium Wave is only available in some locations: London 720; Plymouth 774; Hayle (Cornwall) 756; Newcastle 603; Carlisle 1495; Aberdeen 1449; Enniskillen 774; Derry 720; Glasgow 720

John

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by stitch1

Hi
In a few parts of the country its available on MW:
R4 MW Medium Wave is only available in some locations: London 720; Plymouth 774; Hayle (Cornwall) 756; Newcastle 603; Carlisle 1495; Aberdeen 1449; Enniskillen 774; Derry 720; Glasgow 720

John

Oh wow, I never knew that, thanks!

[hamid_1]

I do most of my AM radio listening in the car. Mainly Gold on 1548KHz but I've also stored Caroline 648KHz, Absolute Radio 1215KHz, Radio 4 198KHz and RTE 252KHz as presets.

It's also fun to try the manual tune mode on the car radio, particularly once it starts to get dark. All sorts of strange foreign stations can be found, including Polskie Radio on 225KHz LW and other Eastern European stations on MW. Since I'm close to London, there are some Indian-language stations available as well as the national 5 Live and Talksport, though I don't really listen to any of these. The LW radio in my car tunes in to 279KHz which is just close enough to be able to receive the Chiltern aircraft navigation beacon on 277KHz. Again, not very exciting to listen to, it broadcasts the letters CHT in Morse code over and over again. It's a good test of the radio, though. I can't hear it indoors at home. In fact my home radio listening is almost entirely FM/DAB/DAB+ from local relay transmitters. This is due to High Wycombe being located in a valley surrounded by hills on all sides, so terrestrial TV and radio reception is very limited. (No commercial Freeview TV here; almost everyone has satellite or cable TV).

Sadly I fear that traditional radio broadcasting is headed for extinction in the not too distant future. Many of the radio stations are promoting their online services or "apps" relentlessly and fail to even mention their continued availability on analogue or even digital radio.

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Makes the valves last longer though

I bought a DD4 valve for my McMichael 135 when I happened to see one on ebay because it now gets so much use and I thought they might be quite rare.

[G6Tanuki]

Since Atlantic 252 closed down I have no reason to listen to anything on LW, I can't handle the Cricket commentary they offer, which always seems like a bunch of geriatrics at the pub with a cricket match going on somewhere in the distance. Sky does a far better commentary - with decent player statistics.

On MW I listen to Caroline, Talksport and the various Asian stations - a burst of Bhangra is great to get me going first thing in the morning when I am having a shower.

On shortwave the choice is rather limited, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep closed down a decade or more back, still we have Voice of America for sensible stuff and various religious broadcasters for comedy.

Weekends are good for SWL stuff too, there's a bunch of free radio types who come up between 6.1 and 6.3 Mhz for you who want to relive the old Pirate Radio vibe.

[MurphyNut]

I very much enjoy listening to my vintage radio and it's Radio 4 on LW that gets the lion share of my time. Sadly I find very little of interest on MW as I have no interest in sport.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone could use MW to broadcast vintage music and interesting/amusing programmes that were once the order of the day some years ago on radio 2.

[Sideband]

I can't listen to AM. There is so much QRM it makes all but one or two stations completely unlistenable.

[JoshWard]

This thread does make me feel rather spoilt. The Caroline transmitter is around 15 miles as the crow flies from me so I am blessed with interference-free reception. In fact since the upgraded transmitter was installed, I have never heard AM radio sound so good. I was listening on a KB radiogram a few days ago and was truly shocked at how good it sounded. Other than that there's not a lot going on. Smooth Radio comes in well, as does Absolute Radio with a decent aerial, but I soon tire of hearing the same songs every day. I believe all our BBC local stations have now ceased on AM.

[Hartley118]

Originally Posted by Sideband

I can't listen to AM. There is so much QRM it makes all but one or two stations completely unlistenable.

Here based in Cambridge with a conventional long wire aerial I entirely agree. The AM bands are polluted with numerous hums, buzzes and crackles due no doubt to many many switched mode PSUs and lots of high speed internet.

However, with a loop aerial, sensible reception returns, probably due to its rejection of the near field electric component of the interfering signals. I use a Wellbrook loop sited just outside the door of my shack so that I can turn it whilst listening for optimum signal quality. It adds a rather rewarding adjustment factor in ‘winning’ the best reception of stations like Caroline, Gold, RTE1 etc, all of which arrive with good entertainment value. And of course, you can make your own loop aerial: just search for relevant threads on this site.

Martin

[Radio Scotland]

Absolute radio. Bush and richie talking absolute Garbage, But the tunes aren't bad, And clyde 2 now and again, But their play list consists of the same 20 songs on constant rotation along with covid public announcements

[onlineguy]

Radio Scotland, Caroline on 648khz, Manx radio radio Wales, trawl around a few Scandanavian mw stations in the past, they might be defunct now. Also mooch around for North American mw stations with all kinds of antennae...still good fun..thinking about it ..stations closing might well free up more spectrum for Johnny Pirate.

All great fun ..a Welbrook loop does the trick most times..ALA 1530. Think thats the model number.

[Hybrid tellies]

I still use AM for a lot of my normal, non DX, radio listening.
BBC R4 on 198 from Droitwich, RTE R1 on 252 from Clarkstown, BBC R5L either on 909 from Clevedon or 693 from Droitwich, BBC R Wales on 882 from Washford and Absolute Radio on 1215 also from Washford.

On short Wave I do sometimes listen to the English service from the BBC World Service, Voice of America, China Radio International and Radio Romania International.

my 1350 kHz 'modulator'

The very same frequency as mine, I doubt we will have co channel interference though.

[ChristianFletcher]

Sadly I listen to very little now as I can only pick rubbish sports channels. I do still enjoy the continental DX at night on a long wire. I tend to use my own pantry transmitter and listen to radio 4 or classic FM

I like Radio 4 Extra or an old drama/crime/play (think Paul Temple, Sherlock, Poirot...) on my A22 when SHMBO is out, I can turn it up a bit then. All on MW/AM courtesy of the SSTRAN AMT3000, why did they stop making them?

MW/AM off air is fairly rubbish, but why suffer, most of us have a pantry job.

As SHMBO is at her mums this weekend I may make a Saturday afternoon/evening of it enjoying how MW should sound. I wonder if M&S do a bumper pack of volevents/party nibbles to go with the bottle of wine? Plus a good book and the cats, bliss.

[G6Tanuki]

I'll be doing an insomniac's-special late night listening around this evening on my Eddystone 840A.

Alas the MW band no longer offers truly exciting stuff like boxing-matches and baseball-games relayed live by the American Forces Network to the troops in Germany...