portable radios
Submitted: Sunday, Jun 30, 2002 at 00:00
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Neville
We travel a bit in the Western Australia Outback and when we
camp I use a generator .My question is does anyone know of a portable radio
for picking up am/fm while are camped out in the bush.
Fifthteen years ago i worked at a
mine 120k from Kunnurra
and could only pick up Radio National or Asian Stations . I hope radios have inproved since but cant find one at the moment.
Reply By: Bob - Sunday, Jun 30, 2002 at 00:00
Sunday, Jun 30, 2002 at 00:00
Neville
FM reception is limited to about 150km from the most powerful transmitters, and is blocked by terrain. Most country based FM stations use low power FM if at all, so unless you are staying close to towns, forget FM.
AM transmissions on the broadcast band (0.5 to 1.6 MHz) are limited during the day similar distances. At night AM signals can travel several hundred kms (by skipping off the ionosphere), but signals are susceptible to interference, and fading.
To stay i touch by radio you will need to consider shortwave. Territory radio (ABC) is on shortwave, but whether you will receive this in the West is uncertain. Your best bet would be Radio Australia or the BBC, the optimum frequency being governed by the time of day, and sunspot activity at the time.
Radios have improved, but they will never be able to pick up signals that don't exist.
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Reply By: Nigel - Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002 at 00:00
Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002 at 00:00
Subject to the limitations of radio (as mentioned in the previous post) the best radio I have found is the Sangean ATS909 (they have some cheaper models too that I haven't tried).
On a really good day for propagation I heard a 27 MHz SSB CB transmission from
perth (in
cairns) on the built-in telescopic antenna (it has a socket for a external antenna which is also supplied).
It can also pickup weak FM signals much better than the average radio due to it's PLL circuitry and very selective receiver.
It covers all broadcasts bands plus SW and can receive FM, AM, USB and LSB.
Hope this helps.
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