TheRadioBoard

posting infobit here beacuse lots of xtalers are dxers.

looking at lots of xtal radio info, i see lots of folks are into dxing their sets. also, there are periodic contests listing high numbers of dx contacts.

in my car, i hit the scan button and come up with a smallish number if hits by comparison, so wondering why my hi-tech rav4 radio is back seat to so many xtal radios, i asked www how many am stations ARE there in USA? fcc says about 4700!

but who are they and where?

this place has some interesting stuff. http://ac6v.com/clearam.htm

what i'm trying to resolve is this: if station bw is 10khz, from 540 to 1600khz,

1) how many stations would fit on my dial, and

2) is there any practical limit to how many i could catch from my location in so. fl?

i mean, saying i had the best-ever set attached to my cans...

jw

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onct, when i was younger, i knew everything. now, i'm old and jeswondering.

Theoretically you could pick up all of the stations. Practically the lower power stations and the ones that restrict transmissions in your direction are not good targets. Some terrain severly attenuates the signals.
This will give you a good idea of what to expect. The general list is limited to 200 miles but you should see 2 or 3 different stations on the same frequency. Using a loop antenna in series with your long wire antenna you can usually enhance one and null the other one out enough to verify the station ID's.
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate ... =freq&sid=
Older auto radios do better (in the older vehicles). Most have good FM but the AM circuits are usually not up to par in newer cars. Auto radios rely on the body as a counterpoise type ground. Too much plastic and fiberglass and you reduce the quality of the ground.
The antenna and ground system is the most important part of the system as far as receiving signals.

There are stations above 1600 in Florida. One in Miami on 1700.


You will hear stations almost every 10 kHz on a good set.


Well, yeah. A weak daytime-only station in Washington State is going to get covered by stations in between.

I'd start out with a good AM receiver and antenna and tune the band for a few days and nights, logging what you hear. Especially note the strong signals. Then you have a good idea of where to start looking with your crystal set.

We have an unusual situation here that most crystal-set listeners don't: The Bahamas on 810 and Cuba on 530. You should be able to log them any day of the week, any time of day. Once in a while I can null the Bahamas and get Syracuse, NY or other stations on a regen, but the Bahamas station is pretty strong here.

73,

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http://kr1s.kearman.com/
http://qrp.kearman.com/

".. in my car, i hit the scan button and come up with a smallish number if hits ..."

Of course, JW. Scan is designed to work that way. It skips over weak signals and locks on the strong ones. You'll miss many signals using scan. Try stepping through each 10 khz channel and you'll locate a lot more stations.

BTW, with a good DX crystal setup (including antenna and ground) one can hear almost as many stations as a good communications receiver.

Richard