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Do you still listen to FM when on an airplane?

cyberdad said:
radioman148 said:
What kind of stuff do you hear over northeastern Canada?
Click to expand...

A lot of French Language stuff. Then in English you can sometimes hear a few Montreal stations and stations from the Maritimes....all of which are at least a 100-200 miles away. Or even farther. Occasionally a U.S. station sneaks in, but usually not for very very long. On the westbound trip, at least a couple of Canadians are usually audible until right around the time of preliminary approach to O' Hare.

Approaching Europe, the Irish stations are the first ones in, at least IME

AM radio in a plane? Just put the radio (presumably a walkman) up to the window. I listened to the 2008 Super Bowl this way on a flight from Pensacola to Chicago. (Mostly via WWL).

I should point out that although I'm on planes every 3-6 weeks on average, I usually don't DX or otherwise try to listen to radio. Occasionally I'll do it on the transatlantic flights, but even with those, I'm usually asleep or have the iPod going. Trains, however, are a different story. I'm on trains frequently in the UK and in Europe. Once I'm away from urban noise, I'm curious to hear what's out there.
Click to expand...

Yes, very interesting! I'd imagine that it can get tiresome to hold the walkman up to the window through the whole flight!

I've heard many Canadians on flights between Chicago and the northeast. If you're flying to a place like Boston, Manchester, Albany or Hartford, the route usually takes you over southern Ontario. I remember a particular time that the routed us over Lake Ontario (rather than south of it) and I was picking up all sorts of stations from Ottawa/Hull and farther north like Sudbury. In a plane, which side your sitting on can make a big difference as to which stations you pull in.

As for train travel, I do exactly the same thing. I always have a trusty portable with me to check out the local offerings. It's worth noting that reception isn't great on most trains, even up against the window. You tend to lose the stations quicker on the train than you would normally. For example, I took the Mrs. to Leeds Castle a couple of years ago. In that area, about 30 miles SE of London, Capital Radio and most others were fading on the train and barely receivable at that point. However, once I hopped off I decided to try again and there were almost all London FMs - loud and clear. Based on the observed difference, I figure that you lose between 20 to 30 percent of the FM signal when you are on board. AM is even more degraded; I'd say by a good 50 percent.

Still fun though - heard a lot of local radio on my train trip from London to Edinburgh!
 
cyberdad said:
radioman148 said:
What kind of stuff do you hear over northeastern Canada?
Click to expand...

A lot of French Language stuff. Then in English you can sometimes hear a few Montreal stations and stations from the Maritimes....all of which are at least a 100-200 miles away. Or even farther. Occasionally a U.S. station sneaks in, but usually not for very very long. On the westbound trip, at least a couple of Canadians are usually audible until right around the time of preliminary approach to O' Hare.

Approaching Europe, the Irish stations are the first ones in, at least IME

AM radio in a plane? Just put the radio (presumably a walkman) up to the window. I listened to the 2008 Super Bowl this way on a flight from Pensacola to Chicago. (Mostly via WWL).

I should point out that although I'm on planes every 3-6 weeks on average, I usually don't DX or otherwise try to listen to radio. Occasionally I'll do it on the transatlantic flights, but even with those, I'm usually asleep or have the iPod going. Trains, however, are a different story. I'm on trains frequently in the UK and in Europe. Once I'm away from urban noise, I'm curious to hear what's out there.
Click to expand...

Yes, very interesting! I'd imagine that it can get tiresome to hold the walkman up to the window through the whole flight!

I've heard many Canadians on flights between Chicago and the northeast. If you're flying to a place like Boston, Manchester, Albany or Hartford, the route usually takes you over southern Ontario. I remember a particular time that the routed us over Lake Ontario (rather than south of it) and I was picking up all sorts of stations from Ottawa/Hull and farther north like Sudbury. In a plane, which side your sitting on can make a big difference as to which stations you pull in.

As for train travel, I do exactly the same thing. I always have a trusty portable with me to check out the local offerings. It's worth noting that reception isn't great on most trains, even up against the window. You tend to lose the stations quicker on the train than you would normally. For example, I took the Mrs. to Leeds Castle a couple of years ago. In that area, about 30 miles SE of London, Capital Radio and most others were fading on the train and barely receivable at that point. However, once I hopped off I decided to try again and there were almost all London FMs - loud and clear. Based on the observed difference, I figure that you lose between 20 to 30 percent of the FM signal when you are on board. AM is even more degraded; I'd say by a good 50 percent.

Still fun though - heard a lot of local radio on my train trip from London to Edinburgh!
 
I've also done the Virgin train between London and Edinburgh....and also agree that reception on trains isn't all that good. But its better than in a hotel where there's loads of urban noise. We have an office in Berkhamsted, about 30 miles northwest of central London, where many of the London stations (at least on am) come in better than in the city itself.
 
**NOTICE-SORRY I'M A LITTLE OFF-TOPIC**.

We're going back to Yakima on the 22nd for Christmas, and could take a Greyhound bus, so how's the reception on those buses?

-crainbebo
 
Crain,

I took a charter bus to Detroit a couple years ago and had a walkman handy. I had very little luck with reception going to Detroit, but coming back I discovered that holding the walkman up to the window helped out quite a bit.

Every commercial Detroit FM I tried for had a clear signal to Ann Arbor (30-35 miles to the west). Beyond Ann Arbor, I just tried for long-distance signals. Due to the IBOC from Detroit and poor selectivity of most walkmans, the best I could do on the distant stations was Chatham and Leamington in Ontario (maybe 70 miles) carried just to the west of Ann Arbor before losing to semi-locals on the same frequencies.

You'll never match car stereo or home reception on a walkman, but it's definitely worth a try on your trip to Yakima. If anything at all, you'll find 'new' stations you didn't know about and can try for them when tropo opens up in Bothell. I always find at least one 'new' translator or LPFM I previously knew nothing about on my longer car trips. I try for them when conditions are favorable and eventually log them.
 
Ive been to Detroit several times, I didnt realize I was right next door to Canada.. Is 89x still on the air,, I had luck back then with WDRQ when it was CHR, it went all the way to Toledo on a boombox setting in the car seat.. Also,, 96.3 did well even past Toledo..
 
I wonder what stations you got, kenrayc? I think you would get more than just portland, seattle and medford. Maybe Bend?

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
I wonder what stations you got, kenrayc? I think you would get more than just portland, seattle and medford. Maybe Bend?

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Yes I would add Yakima,Wenachee,Olympia,Everett, and the coast line on the flight between Portland and Sea-Tac, From Portland to Fresno I can include everything along I-5 and yes 'Bend', Reno, Coos Bay,Eureka, Klammoth Falls, San Francisco and San Jose and possibilly Boise ID.
 
To add to the flight there was a station on every frequency and kept changing about every 10-15 minutes, so its hard to identify more cities than the ones listed, one thing leaving Portland for Sea-Tac the Seattle stations started coming in after about 5-10 minutes the first one to receive was KJR 95.7.
 
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