I'm having a hell of a time getting a good station to catch M's games. For some reason I can't get 990 AM out of Albany, nor can I get the 50,000 watt 1080 out of Portland. But I am getting a kinda fuzzy 1240 AM out of Pendleton that only broadcasts at 800 watts. How is this happening? Does anybody have a suggestion for a better station to catch M's games on?
Posted May 24, 2015, 7:32 PM UTC
Get a cheap portable AM radio and one of these. Or just make your own. It's pretty easy and there are a lot of online resources to get you going. I've made several out of quilting hoops and I am constantly amazed at how well they work.
At night, I can pick up AM stations from Nevada, San Francisco, Seattle, and more. Daytime still gets the more powerful far away stations in pretty well too.
This is exactly what I need. Thank you. Got a project for when I have some time off work. Do you know of any amateur radio shops in town that might offer advice for getting better reception or range with one of these?
Don't know of any local shops. Oregon Electronics maybe, but doubtful. I would just experiment, though. Hell, I've seen them made out of styrofoam packing scraps so it's way easy to just try something out for kicks.
I'd start here if you want to go the DIY route (which I really like because it kicks ass when you pull in really weak stations with an antenna you built with your own hands). Keep in mind that the site is focused on a box loop, but it's pretty much the same if you were to use a circular frame.
Some links at the bottom of the page might be useful provided they still work (which most don't... jeezus, geocities.com was popular with amateur radio guys back in the day).
Really, all you need is wire, a variable capacitor, and some sort of frame. Square, circular, whatever... Use the calculator to estimate the rest.
If you are just in a hurry and want something now, I dug up my Terk loop and would be willing to part with it for a few bucks, but I really think the antenna building process is way more satisfying.
Yeah I'm definitely gonna try to build my own. That's just what I need right now. As long as I can get my m's fix on a fuzzy broadcast I'll be okay. Just gotta get something proper going eventually.
I assume this antenna will work better if it's outside yeah? I hope my landlord considers AM radio valuable enough that it's an improvement to the property and not damaging their building.
Nope, not necessarily. No real need to put it outside. This antenna works best when it is right next to the radio. That's about it. It amplifies the signal that radio receives on it's internal antenna, and I rarely use it outside. Mostly use it on my kitchen table.
Check out this video or this one for a demo.
*edit... no, I'm not "Larry". Just happened to be the first two videos I came across while searching youtube for am loop antennas.
Sorry man, not too familiar with AM at all let alone the area. A bigger antennae?
My stereo is primarily focused on the turntable and the fm/am receiver isn't interchangeable. I can't get the station on the radio in my car (digital tuner, won't pick up weak transmissions) but with a manual tuner I can get a pretty crappy broadcast from across the state but not from one a couple tens of miles away.
http://mynorthwest.com/streams/stream_kiroam.php
Is playing the postgame show from KIRO radio in Seattle. I assume it had to have been playing the game.
EDIT: The tuneinradio site for 1240 KTIX our of Pendleton outright shows that Toronto vs Seattle was on their lineup for the day... maybe they're another option, but KIRO sounded very nice and clear.
It wasn't. I caught the pre game show and as soon as the first pitch was thrown, it went into not streaming mode. It might have something to do with being an away game but i'm not sure. Most of the radio station streams I checked out said they weren't streaming the game.
The only thing you can do is listen via mlb.am. We have no affiliate here and the closest one is a low power comedy station out of corvallis which is extremely fringe even to albany.
Can't get that one. I can get 1240 am out of pendleton though.
I wish cumulus would play their games, they have an am station that is literally useless in INFO RADIO 1320 (which used to be the sports talk station). Perhaps they need a sponsor since it took Dalton Carpet to play Seahawks games on 95.3
This isn't answering your question, but T-Mobile customers get free access to MLB At Bat subscription which allows for streaming all MLB radio feeds.
I appreciate it but verizon. I've been trying to find radio streams online but most of them don't stream live broadcasts of games.
Yeah, they are usually blacked out due to licensing. $20 is steep, but the app and service are decent.
AM radio does strange things at night, so keep that in mind when experimenting.
$20 for the whole season isn't that steep.
Compared to free on the radio...