On 10/13/94, Chuck wrote:
 
>A slightly un-hockey related topic, but helpful anyway:
 
>For those of you that are far from your favorite teams and ouside the range
>of radio broadcasts (like myself), GE has a product called a "Super Radio"
>that is supposed to be able to pick up AM broadcasts far from their source.
>For information on distributors in your area, call the GE Product Info. line
>at 1-800-626-2000 (option 3).  I made some calls around Minneapolis and found
>out that the price is around $54.95.  I wasn't able to get any specifics
>(i.e. how powerful a station needs to be for the radio to pick it up, range,
>etc.), maybe our resident radio "expert" (Mike) could throw out some
>information if he has some.  Thanks.
 
I have a little insight on this subject.  As an electrical engineering major up
at RPI, one of the first things I did as a freshman was to find out how I could
receive WBAL from Baltimore up in Troy so I could listen to the Orioles and the
Terps.  I could get ok reception sometimes from the 50,000 watt WBAL, but
nothing at other times.  So I started asking around.  I figured RPI was just
about the best place to get this kind of help.
 
Noone could really give me a difinitive answer on how to improve my reception
easily.  However, based on a bunch of physics I won't go into, AM radio can
travel great distances at night, but not very far at all during the day.  The
distances also depend on the weather between the transmitter and your radio.  It
also depends on which way the transmitter is directed.  I found that I could
sometimes get better reception from WBAL in Troy than in Washington, DC!  There
also have been callers into the sports shows saying they were getting WBAL all
the way in Germany!  This is very unusual, though.
 
Pretty much the only way I have come across to improve your AM reception is to
increase the AM antenna length to one quarter of the wavelength of the signal.
Let's take WBAL as an example.  WBAL is at 1090 KHz, so:
 
            (1) Frequency = 1.09e6 1/sec
            (2) Speed of light = 3e8 meters/sec
            (3) Wavelength = (2)/(1) = 275.22 meters
 
So 1/4 wavelength is 68.8 meters or 225 feet!
 
And even if you have 225 feet of wire lying around, its orientation and winding
configuration will also have an effect on the reception.
 
So unless GE is using some new antenna technology or is somehow retransmitting
the AM signals, I don't see how the Super Radio is going to be a significant
improvement in reception.
 
Don't get me wrong, though.  I'd LOVE to be able to pull in some good ECAC
matchups down here in Baltimore!
 
Dave / RPI '91
LET'S GO RED!!