The RADIO SHACK 200629 / ATS-505: Fixing an Intermittent Whip-Antenna Connection

A pic of my Radio Shack 200629 radio last year, when I was DXing the 1440 kHz channel. The 200629, an updated Sangean ATS-505, is a good long distance radio for the AM band, especially if you use an external loop.

As I have written here before, I have a Radio Shack 200629 AM-FM-SW-LW portable radio with SSB/CW capability. This radio was first designed in December of 1999, and the design was edited and finalised in 2000. Some time after that, the Sangean company sold the radios as the ATS-505. The radio was produced for over 20 years.

The ATS-505 was intended to be the intermediate range of AM-FM-SW-LW radios, somewhere in between the big models -- ATS-909, and the 909X after that, and the smaller radios like the ATS-404.

Radio Shack, the former American electronics retailer, first issued their badged model of the ATS-505 as their "DX-402". 

A section of the ATS-505 / 200629's RF/IF amplification section. The FM "Front End" chip is circled in blue. Front End chips had RF amplification and some IF amplification and filtering -- basically boosting and filtering the radio signal before it gets sent to the IF chip, which is the heart of the radio.

Also shown here is the MW/AM antenna (circled in red, bottom center), and the routes the MW signal takes, in pink. The MW/AM in the 200629 is configured like a boombox -- the MW radio signals go from the MW loopstick to the IF chip, from the chip to a mixer IF can & then through the ceramic filter back to the IF chip, where it's processed further before the signal is sent to the Audio amp chip -- and finally, to the headphones and speaker.

By the time the 2010's turned around, the DX-402 went by the wayside, and the "Radio Shack Synthesized World Receiver" was then introduced into Radio Shack's stores. Radio hobbyists instantly recognised it as a Sangean ATS-505, but unlike previous Radio Shack SW radios, this one didn't have a DX-xxx model number.

So it was known by various names. Most of us who have these little marvels call the radio the "200629", because that is the Radio Shack catalog number for the radio.

The 200629 has smoother, chuff-less tuning when you use the tuner knob (it sounds just like analog), and the audio chips are different from the AN7117's the original ATS-505 used. The new audio chips may have a little more power. Aside from that, and the black case (the Sangean ATS-505 is battleship grey), the operation of the 200629 is identical to the previous versions of the 505.

The back of the box my Radio Shack 200629 came in. The front side just has a cellophane window. The 200629 was the last Sangean radio that Radio Shack badged under its own label and sold in its stores. Within 2-3 years after introducing the radio, Radio Shack stores started closing all over the US, ending an era in electronics retail. I got my radio in the Summer of 2013. The store I bought it in closed within six months.

I got my 200629 in 2013. The Radio Shack store (in Wilderness Village, Maple Valley, WA) closed not too long afterwards. At the time, Radio Shack had been going through financial problems -- the electronics marketplace had changed, and brick and mortar electronics stores were going by the wayside. I actually have some fond memories over the purchase. In 2013 life was picking up a bit, and the MW band was loaded with long distance signals. Radio Disney was still on the airwaves, playing pop music, and SW had a lot more stations to hear.

And the pop music of the day was really, really good! 

I still have the box the radio came in.

I have gotten a lot of use out of my 200629 over the years, with very few issues.

I previously wrote a fairly extensive article on the 200629 a few years back. You can find that article here.:

Interrock Nation: MW DXing with the Radio Shack 200629 World Receiver / Sangean ATS-505

In that article I tell you how the radio works, how to get the most out of it, and especially how to DX the Medium Wave band with it, because it's really a sleeper DX radio. The bandwidth is about perfect, really, for an analog IF chipped portable. The tone control works really well, especially for DXing through headphones. The sound is also remarkable through headphones, and it is super easy to DX with this radio while using an external loop.

This is a section of the ATS-505 / 200629's schematic diagram, showing the stereo jack for the Shortwave External Antenna (left center). Below it you can see two diodes, reversed polarity, back to back, going between the 'hot' side of the antenna and the ground. What these diodes do is to conduct static electricity discharges to the ground, keeping them from frying the FET RF amp transistor, circled in orange at top center of the pic. Top left, the arrow shows the line coming from the whip antenna, showing that the connection from the whip is fairly direct.

The signal path from the whip antenna to the first RF amp is shown in pink, and the blue path is from the External SW Antenna jack. The stereo jack switches the whip off when the plug from the External Antenna is inserted into the jack. Inserting a mono plug seems to short circuit the connections somehow, maybe messing with the impedance the radios's RF amp is designed for -- but that is just a guess.

(Pics can be right-clicked and opened in new tab or window to see labels more clearly.)

There are only two weak spots with the 200629, and this may also apply to ATS-505's:

First, if you're listening to the SW ham bands using the BFO, it can overload on really strong signals. The CW or SSB will start to 'chirp'. The solution is to kick in the Attenuator "DX/Local" switch, putting it in local. Or you can just use the whip for reception when the signals are that strong (it's possible that you could wire a small resistor to an alligator clip, and clip it between your wire antenna and the whip antenna, too). It only does this form of overloading on the S5, CW and SSB signals, and there is little, if any overloading on AM broadcast SW or MW. 

Secondly, if you use a mono plug on the end of your wire antenna, sometimes the SW External Antenna jack might cause some occasional feedback of some sort. It seems that the radio's EXT SW ANT jack is stereo, and it requires a stereo plug to work correctly. This issue, overall though, is not debilitating. If you don't have a stereo plug for your wire antenna, you can clip it to the whip and do OK. The circuitry is basically the same. But this issue -- using mono plugs in the stereo EXT SW ANT jack -- may be the same with some ATS-505's or 200629's, especially as the 2000 dated ATS-505 schematic I found online shows a stereo plug for the jack.

I wrote an article on the stereo plug / feedback issue, too. You can find it here.:

Interrock Nation: Radio Shack 200629 Synthesized World Receiver -- how to quickly fix a feedback and whistling noise issue

That said, since 2018 or so, if I listen to SW on my 200629, I just clip my indoor, 25-30 ft. wire to the whip. This is partly out of convenience, and partly because I lost my mono to stereo adaptor plug, and keep forgetting to get another one online.

Clipping the indoor wire antenna to the whip works perfectly for most listening, and from an internal circuitry standpoint, there really is little to no difference -- except I NEVER have gotten the feedback issue by clipping the wire antenna to the whip.

A pic of the Radio Shack 200629 with the back off. At the top, you can see the internal loopstick, which is the antenna for the MW and LW bands. It's 120mm long, and about 8mm thick. Next to it, you can see the solder pad for the antenna terminal. The little prong mechanism -- visible in the other pictures I posted in this article, connects to the whip antenna by friction, and presses against the solder pad, connecting the whip to the radio. That little prong can weaken over time, oxidise, etc. Hence, the surgery required. :-) Some other older Sangeans have similar whip-to-antenna terminal setups -- connection via a little prong mechanism.

Now to the THIRD potential weakness -- and this is something that a lot of older Sangean SW portables seem to have: The whip antenna connection can get wonky. I.e., intermittent. And I'm not talking just the thing getting loose, and needing to be tightened. It acts up, cuts out, goes intermittent, even if you tighten the little set screw. This is after the radio is a few years old.

There's a reason for this. It's fairly well known among Sangean 'classic' SW portable enthusiasts.

Since 1989 Sangean has used a unique way of connecting a whip antenna (and sometimes the battery -- like with the ATS-803A) to their SW portable radios: there is this small, springy prong-like device, a little piece of metal that ends in what can only be called these tiny forks. This springy prong is attached to the whip, and then it touches a solder pad on the main printed circuit board. It's like a little spring-metal connector between whip and the antenna terminal on the PCB.

The springy prong-like thing gets weak over time -- or the prong wears down the solder pad that is on the main PCB. Oxidation on the tips of the prong also probably comes into play. Which means, the connection can go intermittent, because there is less solder for it to press against, and if there is any oxidation on the prong, that will interfere with the connection, too.

A pic of my Radio Shack 200629 with the back off, and the hookup wire I used to make the hard-wired connection between the whip antenna and the PCB's antenna terminal solder pad. The hookup wire is regular telephone 'twisted pair' wire -- very useful for radio projects if you can get it.

I had to hard wire my DX-440 / ATS-803A to overcome this, and I had to do the same thing with my DX-390 / ATS-818. I also hard wired my Realistic DX-370's whip to the PCB, and the DX-370 is a Sangean ATS-800A variant. A pic of this can be seen in a pic of my DX-370 I put in my DX-370 article.

My DX-370 article, with a pic of the wiring, is here.:

Interrock Nation: Medium Wave DXing with the REALISTIC DX-370

I took this pic after soldering the hookup wire to the little prong. After the solder cooled, the wire -- and the solder -- easily slipped off. There was no way to get the solder to stick to the prong. I later tried soldering the hookup wire to the base of the whip itself. That wouldn't take, either. It was then I decided to clamp the end of the hookup wire between the whip and the prong's flat base, basically using the prong's base as a washer. That worked.

Now I've had to do the same operation to my 200629. A few months back, I was tuning the shortwaves and all the signals were weak. Then BOOM! They were instantly loud. Then after a while they cut back to weak again, and then BOOM! they were loud again. It was like someone was flipping a switch. I tested the DX/Local attenuator switch. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was elsewhere. I suspected the connection between the whip antenna and the radio. I tapped on the whip antenna, at the base -- on top of the swivel joint.

BOOM! The signals were back 100%.

That told me one thing: Houston, we've got a problem with the whip antenna connector!

I tightened the whip antenna. That seemed to help. Then it did it again, two days later.

I took the back off the radio and added solder to the antenna solder point on the PCB. That helped for maybe two more days, then it did it again.

It was time to hard wire it and get it over with -- a chore I put off for over a month. I really don't like taking apart my radios unless absolutely necessary. I just get the feeling that there is a limit to the number of times a radio can be dismantled and reassembled before those operations may lead to a failure somewhere in the radio. So I limit it to be on the safe side.

But in this case, I wanted my 200629 to work correctly on SW. So it was a necessary job to do -- time to solder a piece of hookup wire between the whip's base, and the Antenna solder terminal on the PCB.

Here you can see where I clamped the bared end of the hookup wire under the end of the whip, using the prong mechanism's base as a washer, thus making a tight connection.

(If you can't read the type in the pic itself, the pics can be right-clicked and viewed in a new tab or window).

Well, I finally fixed the connection, and this time there was a wrinkle in the process: you can't solder anything to the little prong, because it won't hold solder, and you can't solder a wire to the whip itself, because it won't hold solder either. There was no way I was going to hold the solder gun onto either the whip or the prong long enough to force them to take solder, because it might start melting the plastic case.

The completed fix. The hookup wire is long enough to not mess things up if you have to open up the back of the radio for any reason, but short enough to not keep you from putting the case back together. The wire hard-wires the whip to the Antenna Terminal solder pad. It should last. Every now and then you might still have to tighten the Whip Antenna's set screw, if it works its way loose. The screw is metal, and shouldn't present too much problem. Don't over tighten it, though -- the threads are very fine.

So here is what I finally did: I cut a little piece of hookup wire, and I stuck the bare tip of the hookup wire in between the whip antenna's butt end, and the prong, using the prong as a sort of washer. Then I tightened the little assembly together, basically squishing the bared tip of hookup wire between the whip antenna end and the prong's base.

The little screw that tightens the whip to the body of the radio is metal, as is the whip, so you can tighten it considerably without worrying about stripping it. Of course, I didn't overtighten it -- you're not holding elephants down, you're just securing the whip, hookup wire, and prong together securely. Those tiny threads aren't made for automobile cylinder heads, they're just designed to hold a whip antenna to the radio. So be careful when tightening.

Then I soldered the other end of the hookup wire to the antenna terminal / solder pad on the main PCB.

So far, it's working well that way.

This is a pic of my Realistic DX-370 with the back off. You can see two wiring jobs -- I wired some back-to-back diodes between the antenna terminal solder pad and the negative battery terminal (just off the picture, lower left), to protect the radio from static electricity, and on the right you can see a wire going between the whip antenna and the main antenna terminal solder pad. In this case, the 'prong' device was made of steel, and it was easy to solder the wire to it.

In this pic you can see the DX-370's 120mm MW loopstick, at the top of the radio.

Next morning -- this morning, actually -- I test drove the 200629 on Shortwave, for two full hours or more. I had zero problems. The propagation was a problem -- even though it was 9 a.m., the 20 Meter, 17 Meter, 15 Meter, 12 Meter bands were all dead -- aside from some weak FT8 signals on a couple of the bands -- and the 11 Meter Outband was also dead. Most of the SWBC bands were spare, with the 31 Meter Band fading somewhat rapidly after 9:30 a.m. I did hear some CW on 20 Meters, and some week SSB on a couple channels in the SSB part of the band.

But what I heard was exactly the same on my other radios that I know for a fact work perfectly. So the 200629 was obviously working as it should. And I was able to catch a few SW broadcasts.

I heard China Radio International broadcasting to the Middle East from Kashgar, in Chinese, on 13710 kHz, so I know for a fact that the 200629 is doing its job OK.

And early on, before the 31 Meter Band faded into hiss and static, I heard Radio Free Asia in Korean on 9990 kHz, and Radio Free Asia in Korean with stronger signals on 9910 kHz, an UNIDentified station in non-Cuban Spanish on 9740 kHz; and in the 25 and 21 Meter Bands I heard what sounded like CNR-1 (maybe a jammer) on 11715, what sounded like Viet language on 11715 (Voice Of Vietnam, probably), CNR-1 jamming the Voice of Hope on 13670, and a weak WWCR-3 with a preacher on 13845.

So, the fix worked! My 200629 is back!

This morning, after doing the fix earlier before going to bed, I did some SWLing and the radio worked fine. The fix worked! Here I'm listening to an unidentified broadcast in Spanish on 9740 kHz, at 1703 GMT, April 5th.

DON'T STRESS THE WHIP ON THESE RADIOS -- Just Not A Good Idea

A suggestion: don't swivel the whip on these radios too much, or if you swivel it, lube the swivel, and then whenever you move the whip, do it slowly.

This is because -- to be blunt -- there isn't a lot holding the whip, prong, etc. together. And that fastening screw, even though it's real metal, isn't very big, and the threads are very fine.

In fact, it's probably best not to rotate the whip at all if you're FM DXing. Even with the little fastening screw battened tight, there will be movement of the whip's base inside the radio. I saw this while testing it before putting the radio back together.

Rotate the radio instead. The connection just isn't built for being stressed. Even if you use a little lubricant on the swivel point and the rotation joint at the base of the whip, the whip has such a tight fit that rotating the whip, or swiveling it a lot -- it just is going to weaken the connection over time, and you'll have to tighten it over and over again -- and even though the little screw is made out of metal, I'm not certain just how much re-tightening that little screw is going to take before it starts to strip. As said before, the threads on it are very fine.

So don't overdo it if you use an ATS-505 or 200629.

I have no clue how many 200629's are out there being used. I know that my 200629 article gets about one hit a week or so, so there must be a few of you out there. There was a DX'er in my state who had a DX-402 (the earlier ATS-505 sold by Radio Shack), and his antenna broke. He was an FM DX'er, so possibly he had this particular issue.

Either way, if you have a 200629 or ATS-505, go easy on moving that whip antenna around, maybe lube the swivel so using the swivel doesn't stress the connection to the radio, and if you end up have to do some surgery, it can be done. It's not fun, but it's not really a difficult fix.

This pic I took a few years back for another blog article. You can see the mono-to-stereo adaptor between the Panasonic wire antenna and the radio's EXT Antenna jack. The adaptor, being very small, got lost somewhere. Stereo plugs seem to be a necessity with these radios, as the jack is wired for a stereo plug. The middle terminal apparently switches off the whip. Why? I have no idea. If the whip is collapsed, it won't affect the reception any. It may be an impedance thing. Either way, if you use an external antenna, clip it to the whip, or use a stereo plug with the EXT Antenna jack.

Worse comes to worse, if by chance your ATS-505 or 200629 becomes unrepairable, you could take the whip off entirely, and solder a long bit of hookup wire to the terminal solder pad on the PCB, and then push the wire out through the hole, and clip another piece of stiffer wire to it if needed. But it doesn't have to come to that. I've had my 200629 for 11 years now, and it's doing fine. I am confident that if I reduce moving the whip around a lot, this fix should last. That little bit of hookup wire is squished in between the prong and the whip pretty tightly.

I've said several times that the 200629 is a great MW DX'er. This is despite the fact it's just a glorified boombox, circuitry wise. The IF chip, however, is a high gain one, and if you couple your 200629 with a good loop, and put on the headphones, you'll hear a LOT of DX with this radio.

I just heard WWL New Orleans 870 with it a couple nights back (they're almost a couple thousand miles away), using my homemade Crate loop antenna.

The radio gets the job done. Can't ask for much more than that. And the audio is so good, especially through headphones, that it's not a chore listening to either SW or long distance MW / AM. Good, smooth audio always makes distance listening a lot more fun.

With that, I will close this article. I hope it helped a few DXers out there with ATS-505's and 200629's. Some of this may apply to other, older "classic" era Sangeans, too (1990-2010 era SW portables).

See ya's.

C.C. April 5th, 2024.

Trees = Green; Spring = Normal; the 1993 band The Indians, & 'Indianism'

In Springs past, my neighborhood had maybe 8 different yards with Rhododendrons as beautiful as this bush. This Spring, this one is the only one blooming. There are a few others in the neighborhood that are beginning to bloom, and a couple yards where new owners tore the Rhododendrons out. :-(

The past several Springs have been cold and rainy, to say the least. What used to be a nice season for bike riding and photography turned into cold, wet, and often frosty, miserable times of the year.

Not so this year. Well -- at least it is looking that way. As I write this, it is April 5th, and it is green outside. And I'm not just talking about the evergreen trees that are everywhere, I'm talking about the other trees and plants -- the deciduous ones. 

They usually -- during a normal year, turn the nearby hills green by April 5th. Why that is, I don't know. Probably it has something to do with the latitude here (47.5 degrees N) and maybe the local terrain. When I took Meteorology 101 at the University -- a course I amazingly passed -- one thing they told us about was "micro-climates". In other words, even in a given locale there may be small areas where it's usually colder, wetter, drier, etc. 

These micro-climates can be as extensive as the Rogue-Umpqua, relatively arid, Garry Oak micro-climate that one sees near Roseburg and Medford, Oregon, where the weather is drier and hotter than any other parts of Western Washington and Western Oregon. A micro-climate can also be as small as the shadier side of a neighborhood, if that neighborhood is in a valley or near a big hill.

Cherry blossoms in my side yard. The trees were volunteer, and the cherries are always gone before anyone can ever eat one, thanks to the birds eating all of them.

In my own neighborhood there are several blocks where it's frostier at night, and if I ride my bike at night I have to be careful about the sheen of black ice -- that section of the neighborhood is affected by moisture from the nearby River. And apparently when it's freezing out, that moisture from the River frosts the streets and waysides in that part of the neighborhood -- where in my section there may be some frost, but the streets are clear.

My section of the neighborhood also sees a bit more sun, being further from the hills than the streets just a 300-400 yards / meters south of me.

Also, I've noticed that certain birds hang out in other parts of the neighborhood that don't hang out at my block. Whether this has anything to do with micro-climate or not is a good guess. Brewer's Blackbirds (the normal, small kind of blackbird) like to hang out in a section of the neighborhood about 4 blocks away. On my street it's only Redwing Blackbirds -- which are cool, because of their musical konk-a-reeeee call. 

I used to have a lot of house sparrows visit my yard. They would daisy chain it from the golf course, flying tree to tree, until they got to my yard where I was feeding them. 

Then a lady down the street, who was paranoid about volunteer trees and blackberries, bitched to the city about the plethora of greenery on the berm near the noise-cancelling retaining wall that's maybe 50-60 yards from my house. The city mowed down the blackberries (which protected the birds and rabbits) and wiped out all the small trees that the house sparrows used to stop at when making their way to my yard.

My house sparrow visitors went from maybe 150 or so in an afternoon to zero.

Some people seem to have a real hatred for nature, I guess.

That said, the neighborhood pigeons hang out the next street over, and down about half a block. And there are a couple other spots in the neighborhood where they hang out, roosting on the powerlines. Yet they never hang out on my street. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing them on my block, or even within 300 yards/meters of my place.

A view down a nearby street, with the greening trees on the hills visible. Unfortunately it was cloudy today, and on top of that, my Nikon L32 camera had reset before I put in new batteries, and I used the wrong "Night" setting by accident -- "Night Portrait", the one that doesn't compensate for low light settings, and always uses flash and drains batteries (the correct "Night" setting is "Night Landscape", which never has Flash, and always adjusts to low light settings).

Anyway, this year -- Spring 2024 -- is surprisingly back to normal. The cherry trees are blossoming -- last year they blossomed in May. And surprisingly -- after maybe 5 springs where the trees were one week, then two weeks, then four weeks late -- the hills are already turning green. Last year they didn't green out until May 5th - 8th or so. This year, they are right on time!

Hopefully, that means that the neighborhood rhododendrons will bloom in late April / early May, and I can get some pictures. Last year they bloomed oddly -- some bushes had blooms when others were still budding, and the blooms looked sickly compared to the mid-2010's, when I was taking pictures of them and posting them on my blog here.

Another, close-up view of cherry blossoms. Last year, they were nothing like this, and furthermore, they were more than a month late.

So posted here through this blog article are a few pics of leaves budding. Dull? Yes, but it's nice to see them happening when they should: during the first week of April.

Not much else is happening that I didn't cover in my last article.

A FORGOTTEN BAND -- THE INDIANS. 1993. 

Here's a couple vids, from a band I loved from the 1990's, and like many great bands that I loved during that decade (Engines of Aggression, Blinker The Star, Warrior Soul, Truly, Mantissa, Econoline Crush, etc.) they put out one album which was awesome, and then got dropped. Sucks when that happens. 

This band is one that is largely forgotten, but the music they put out was so remarkable that they should have been huge. The band? The Indians. Driven mostly by one woman's creativity and songwriting, and including the amazing guitar work of a relatively unknown Italian axe-slinger, the Indians put out a couple videos and just one CD. Then they disappeared into the ether.

The Indians were a quartet headed by female singer Angelique Bianca, who wrote most of the songs, sang them, and played acoustic and some electric guitar on them. Angelique definitely had the gift. She still makes music, and has some videos on her own YT channel, which you can find here. A few of the newer tracks she made in the 2010's are really good.:

https://www.youtube.com/@angeliquebianca4629/featured

Here is my favorite song by The Indians, Believe. It is a track that only could have been recorded and released in the 1990s. The recording is massive, and wonderfully done. Back in the 1990's, record companies were willing to put money into breaking acts, and this CD "Indianism", from which this track is taken, is an example of this. And why did they put the money into the recordings? Because a) the songs, and the band, were good. And b) because back then, record companies had the money to put into breaking acts.

The musicianship The Indians displayed was outstanding. The lead guitar player was an Italian guy named "Zeb", and the bass was played by UK bassist Chris Wilson, and the drummer (who posted the Look Up To The Sky MTV video below) was DJ Danny G. A Los Angeles native, Angelique Bianca spent some time in the UK in 1989, which was where she met Chris Wilson. The two spent time working on music, later to come to the US, found drummer Danny G, and then got a recording contract as The Indians. 

And the recording itself? It's larger than life. 

Anyway, here is a "link" to a video of Believe, which I guess Blogger can't play directly, hence the "Video Unavailable" panel -- but if you click on the link inside the panel, it will immediately take you to the one on YouTube (I tried it, it works). Both Blogger and YT are owned by the same corporation. Go figure.:

Here is a link to the CD track on YouTube, which Blogger's searcher couldn't find.:

Believe (youtube.com)

And here is Look Up To The Sky, a 7 minute dreamtrip, rock track, with excellent guitars, cool lyrics, great singing, and psycho-flutes at the ending (actually a Mellotron on flute setting). This song was on the movie Kalifornia. I've never seen Kalifornia, but I was told by a workmate in the radio business that the movie was "weird". I'll take his word on that one.

Here's a link to the actual MTV video The Indians put out for Look Up To The Sky, with a few short clips included from the movie Kalifornia. The recording is good quality, and it's a radio edit. Sadly, it didn't get much play on MTV (if any), or any airplay on the radio that I'm aware of. I know that where I worked the CD was unused. I ended up with a copy of it.

If you get the chance, check out the entire Indianism album on YouTube. It's well worth it. The entire CD is on there, in high quality. Take a journey back to 1993. It was a good time back then, really. Especially for music.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C., April 5th 2024

KPNW-FM, 98.9 Seattle's Flip-O-Rama Station -- Flips Again, This Time To Country

KPNW-FM lasted about a year and a half with an Alternative / AAA format. Next!

A few years back, on of our local Seattle area FM stations, Click 98.9 flipped to Rock, call letters KVRQ. They called themselves, unremarkably, "Rock 98.9". I remember wondering what Rock 98.9 could bring to the table, as -- at that time -- we had KISW 99.9 for Mainstream Rock; KNDD 107.7 for Alternative Rock; KFOO 102.9 for Classic Alternative Rock, and KZOK 102.5 for Classic Rock.

As it turned out, KVRQ Rock 98.9 filled the niche between KISW and KZOK very well. They were a fun station to listen to. They played a lot of 80's, 90's and 00's music that the other stations didn't concentrate on, and the music was programmed very well. You could hear Motley Crue, followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers, followed by Linkin Park, followed by Rage Against The Machine, followed by A Perfect Circle, followed by Disturbed, followed by Danzig... you get the idea.

Rock 98.9 was yanked off the air after a year and a half. They had a lot of loyal listeners, like myself (as well as a couple musos I know in the area), but they weren't promoted enough, and consequently didn't get the ratings. They did a few promos at rock shows, but the problem with Rock promotions is that there aren't many current rock stars, and 'classic' artists -- who usually play at the local Indian Casinos and draw crowds of maybe a thousand or so -- don't usually have the same pull that the few, huge classic rock acts like the Stones, Pearl Jam and Metallica have. And apparently having a fifth rock station in the metro just wasn't paying the bills.

The banner which was atop the long defunct KVRQ Rock 98.9 website.

They were a fun rock station. They lasted just a year and a half, to 2 years.

I wrote an article about KVRQ Rock 98.9 here.:

Interrock Nation: KVRQ 98.9 FM -- New Classic Rock Station in Seattle

So, being that Rock 98.9's ratings weren't what the owners, Hubbard, desired, they did what seemed natural: they flipped to Country -- now they were "KNUC The Bull". Why Country, especially in tech mad, anything but farm country, West Coast Seattle, the home of grunge? Well, Country music is the most popular music format in the US. 

The Bull got ratings, but they never beat their main competition, a longer established station on 100.7 called The Wolf. The Bull's promotions were mainly at Country shows. Country radio is one of the few remaining formats where word of mouth, and or promotions at shows works. This is because Country is one of the few remaining formats that has big stars. But even with a popular morning show, and whatever promotion they were doing, The Bull's ratings began to drop after about a year. 

The station was then flipped to KPNW-FM, an alternative / AAA (Adult Alternative) station. A lot of the radio guys on the radio forums I go to thought KPNW-FM (there is a KPNW-AM, a talk station in Eugene, Oregon, about 350 miles south of here) might be a non-starter. AAA is a dying format nationwide, and there are AAA channels on the streaming services that have gained the listeners that the Over-The-Air radio stations cast off when they flipped to other formats in the 2010's. The Pandora app on my smartphone has an AAA channel. I'm sure the other platforms have them, too.

That said, KPNW played an interesting mix, and, once again, just like Rock 98.9 before them, they got some loyal listeners. I listened to KPNW-FM a lot. It wasn't always my cup of tea, but they played a decent mix of music. The station wasn't promoted much, however. There were no KPNW billboards, no KPNW placards on buses, few, if any ads in local online media -- nothing like that.

In other words, they weren't exactly creative in their attempt to reach all the alienated AAA listeners.

It was another case of Radio thinking "If we just put it on the air, the listeners will show up, as if by magic." That might have worked well in 1985, when FM listeners tuned around a lot, but it doesn't work so well in 2024, when FM listeners don't tune the dial much. Most radios in newer cars, for example, don't really have dials. You have your favorites, and punch the virtual buttons on the dashboard screen. Also, many listeners use streaming services a lot. 

Radio somehow hasn't figured this out yet. More on that later...

Anyway, KPNW's ratings started low and then kept going lower.

The logo for The Bull last time around, when it was KNUC 98.9 FM. The new logo is similar. I posted the older logo here because I think it looks a bit cooler.

On a radio forum I go to, where a lot of pros hang out, I asked them why KPNW wasn't promoting their station to gain listeners in an increasingly multi-media, internet dominated world.

In other words, why weren't they advertising? Stations used to do that all the time in previous decades. I used to see radio station billboards, and placards on the sides of buses. The concept of advertising a radio station seemed to work back then -- why not now?

What I got back from the experts was the keyboard equivalent of a shrug. Experts there said that KPNW was indeed promoting. They were giving away tickets to shows. They may have had some sort of presence at some musical events (what type of presence isn't really clear). 

I said "But.... what about advertising, though?" Radio used to advertise heavily -- and now, with so much competition from streaming platforms like Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, ApplePlay, and other platforms, advertising seems like a no-brainer.

No, said the experts. That's not how it's done. You do what KPNW did -- ticket giveaways. "That's how you reach their potential listeners."

OK, offer ticket giveaways -- but to who? If your potential audience doesn't know your station is present on the FM band, how are they going to get your tickets? The point is to get people to listen to the station, right? How is giving tickets to people who already are listening going to gain more listeners to your station? FM listeners don't troll the band looking for new music like they did when I was a kid. They keep their radio on a couple presets, and -- increasingly -- they use streaming services, streaming playlist, and curated streaming channels (like Pandora's AAA/Adult Alternative channel -- which I can get on my phone through the app) to listen to music.

You've got to find a way to get them to check out your station. They're not going to find it on their own anymore.

Not everyone is a radio nerd. Today, it's more like "What's a radio?"

Anyway, any time I asked questions about KPNW's lack of internet and billboard promotion, I got what seemed to be canned replies. "That's not how it's done in radio," seemed to be the gist of it. "It's word of mouth. That is the only thing that works."

Now, most businesses probably love it when a satisfied customer tells others. So the concept of 'word of mouth'? I get that.

But advertising is a billion dollar business for a reason. Advertising often works.

I shook my head after these interactions with the experts. If THAT is really how the people running radio stations think you promote your content brand with all that internet competition out there, RADIO IS DONE.

Now, I'm no radio expert. I'm a radio blogger / journalist, but I'm no expert. I'll admit that completely.

But I can tell you this: whatever form of promotion KPNW tried -- ticket giveaways, word of mouth, it wasn't working.

As Radio ditches music formats that cater to age 50+ demos, treating the older demographics like they are little more than yesterday's trash, the migration away from Radio to services like Pandora and Spotify continues. Pandora has several channels featuring the AAA/Adult Alternative music that a lot of college educated, older demographics like. They also have several oldies channels, including a surf music channel. They have a smooth jazz channel, too.

 Radio ditches 'em, Pandora hitches 'em.

THE INTERNET: IT'S A DIFFERENT ANIMAL. GET USED TO IT.

News flash: The Internet is becoming the dominant form of music consumption, with YouTube, Spotify, Apple and Pandora leading the way. Amazon Music is also a key player. The radio based platforms like IHeart and Audacy have a long way to go to compete, but they're trying.

But when your industry is losing listeners to online platforms, shouldn't it be time to think outside the box?

Whenever I mention the FACT that in 15-20 years the vast majority of the more than 15,000 radio stations in the US will no longer exist, even online, the radio experts respond with crickets.

But it's fact. Online is a different animal. There are visibility issues. There are subscription problems. If you run ads, it can drive listeners / content consumers away from your site, so you have to work around that issue. There are expensive digital royalties for streaming music services -- including the radio ones. Even if you get them to load your "app", your "app" may be lost in the gazillion other icons on their phone's screen.

Online -- even for a radio station -- really isn't plug and play. Especially when you switch off the transmitters and antennas, and your entire operation is just one more website out of millions of them.

And that visibility issue is MASSIVE. It's so easy for any content channel to get lost in the vast internet static. Just ask any online newspaper that still failed. There are a gazillion news sources, valid and invalid, out there -- all that competition for screen time. The competition for the news marketplace today even is global in scope. All those websites, worldwide.

And even a decent local newspaper has issues keeping the lights on. Even national newspapers have problems. Ask the LA Times, which loses tens of millions of dollars a year, and laid off more than 100 staff in the past couple of years. 

The internet is a harsh mistress.

When I bring this up on the radio forums, no one gets it.

And that, in itself, is another problem.

THE 'NEW ECONOMY' ISSUES THAT ALL THAT RESEARCH MISSED

When the Audacy radio corporation bankruptcy was a news issue on the radio websites a couple months ago, one guy asked the experts: Why didn't the big radio companies foresee that the internet media competition would hit them in the wallet? Why didn't they -- with all their blessed RESEARCH and highly paid consultants -- foresee that the internet would drive down advertising rates, because of the infinite number of slots -- you know, all that competition?

The experts really didn't have a good answer. I suppose a lot of what is slamming radio now is post-Pandemic economics, something that nobody could foresee. But it still remains: the Internet has been vaunted as THE FUTURE since 1998-1999 -- just before the Dot-com crash -- when news articles were constantly talking about the "New Economy" versus the "Brick and Mortar" economy. That was 25-26 years ago.

These big radio companies depend on consultants, research, studies, polls, ratings services -- they have all of this expert information at their hands and they didn't see the advertising issue happening, and right now many of them seem to be lost when it comes to the future of Radio.

Personally, I think that if I'm still alive and kicking in 2045, there won't be more than a couple hundred AM radio stations on the air in the US, and more than 3-4 thousand FMs. And those numbers will probably drop, year by year. They may migrate to the internet, and still will probably fail. Because of the economics of streaming. Very few radio stations 20 years from now will have viable, independent streams. 

The vaunted future of every station on the air today having a viable streaming station tomorrow simply will not happen. The economics of competing in an increasingly national and global media audio market, and the complications of internet streaming economics will not support it.

Now, maybe that future dominance of just 5-6 major streaming platforms is inevitable, promotion or no promotion, thinking out of the box, or not thinking out of the box. Maybe there is absolutely nothing radio stations can do to see the end of this century. But that said, it appears that "Radio" -- as we know it -- won't last. It will be streaming networks, on one of the massive platforms. Your local station won't survive. The economics won't support it anymore than it's supporting your local newspaper right now.

And the backwards looking leadership at a lot of radio companies seems to be helping it on its way into the electronic trashcan in the sky.

Either way, this latest debacle here in Seattle on 98.9 is a head scratcher. KPNW-FM looked like a potential money maker -- maybe not a massive moneymaker, as the older Millennials and younger GenX'ers they wanted to reach are in their 40's and 50's, the high end of the sales demographics. But AAA listeners are generally educated, and well-to-do -- not much different from your average Public Radio listener.

I thought that if KPNW-FM advertised and actively promoted their station, they had a chance. Seattle, the home of Grunge and Alternative, would be receptive to Alt and AAA music. The listeners just had to be reached out to, and found. So that they would set the virtual buttons on their car system to KPNW.

But it didn't work out.

There, of course is another wrinkle in this story. Another Seattle FM station, Star 101.5, flipped from AC to Classic Country. They're now "101.5 Hank FM" (not to be confused with the "Hank 101.5 FM" in Dayton, Ohio). They flipped Classic Country the same day that KPNW-FM flipped to Country.

The question is whether a Classic Country station can do well in a city that isn't exactly rural or Country lifestyle oriented. In the 1990's we had two big Country stations (KMPS 94.1, which often topped the ratings, and KRPM 106.1), and a third one that made an attempt (KYCW, Young Country 96.5).

But that was when Country was massive, and their big stars were literally superstars. Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks, and some others were super popular even outside the Country music arena. But that was the 1990's and early 2000's. The young people who were into Country in the mid 1990's are over 50 now, and advertisers don't care about listeners over 50.

Also, Classic Country, as a music format, is said to be a hard sell to advertisers, as a lot of the listeners are older demographics. So KPLZ's flip from Hot AC -- one of the top radio formats in the US -- to Classic Country could be a gamble.

So what does this all leave for a station like "Hank"? It's hard to say.

I guess time will tell.

For those curious to hear "101.5 Hank FM" in Seattle (not the "Hank 101.5 FM" station in Dayton, OH), here is their website, creatively called "CrankTheHankSeattle".:

101.5 - HANK FM SEATTLE (crankthehankseattle.com)

If you want to check out "The Bull 98.9", here is a link to their stream.:

Number One For New Country - 98.9 The Bull (989bull.com)

If you want to get a feel for what many Seattle listeners thought about 98.9 flipping to Country and 101.5 being turned into "Hank FM", this RadioInk article covers some of that, and the numerous comments below the article are enlightening.:

Two Seattle Stations Go Country As KPNW and Star 101.5 Flip - Radio Ink

My Radio Shack 200629, which I got in 2013, strikes again! I logged WWL, New Orleans with it earlier this evening. The 200629 is a good MW DXer, especially if you couple it with an external loop antenna. The three way tone control works really well. 

With that, I'll close this article. Life is normal. As per usual, I've been MW DXing nightly... Earlier this evening, I actually heard WWL, New Orleans, briefly on 870 kHz, on my Radio Shack 200629 with my crate loop. WWL were playing the Dave Ramsey Show, his theme song "Baker Street" (by Gerry Rafferty) being easy to pick out in the mix. The snippet came up for several seconds and then faded back to unreadable audio behind Pasco, WA talker KFLD.

I hadn't heard WWL in nearly a decade. New Orleans is a long, long distance from here. When I hear WWL, it generally means that the really long distance DX is coming in. So perhaps this present dud of a Solar Cycle is sharpening up!

One can only hope, as Solar maximums are also good for other things, like growing crops. :-)

Aside from that, the weather is improving. I have a few radio articles I'm still working on. I hope this blog post finds everyone out there -- all over the world -- doing well.

Peace.

C.C. April 4th, 2024.

Rediscovering my GE Superadio III and my Sony XDR-S10HDiP; and a few loggings -- and, oh yeah, Easter

A pic of my trusty 1995 GE Superadio III, which I took one night while working out in my workout/storage room in 2015 or 2016. The radio has served me well over the years. I used to take it to work in the 1990's-2000's, and I also DX'ed a lot of stations with it at home. 

After a year or two's respite (just firing it up every month or so to ensure it still works), I decided to DX with it nightly again.... got to.

Lately the weather has been feeling like Spring, even if it doesn't always look like Spring. Spring time isn't always considered a time for MW DXing, at least not like Winter is thought to be. But a lot of times you can get a lot of decent long distance MW reception during the Spring months. 

And this Spring, unlike the last 5-6 of them, actually feels and looks like Spring than the previous three or four Springs did. The trees are actually starting to bud on time -- or mostly on time. Usually, in normal years, the hills look light green by April 5th or 6th. Last year the trees were a full month late. It doesn't appear that it will be that way this year, thankfully.

As I write this, it is very early, Easter morning -- meaning, it is still night out. I'm eating some homemade navy bean / potato / rutabaga / carrot / parsnip / celery / onion soup. When I went out to check on my outdoor cat, Tigger, I noticed it wasn't really cold. Maybe 45F or so. And, more importantly, it's not freezing outside. Awesome. Last year, it probably would have been, or close to it.

So, things are getting better.

As I have done for ages, I generally listen to MW nightly. 

My 1995 GE SRIII, probably tuned to 760 AM, when I was just barely picking up KGB-AM out of San Diego. Some GE Superadio 3's weren't all that terrific, sadly enough. The good years for making them were about 1995 or so, through probably 1997-98. Mine, a 1995 according to the date code in the battery compartment, is one of the good ones. The later ones have a mixed rep, because there were some issues with the potentiometers used in the tuning circuits. Both of my GE SRIII's work fine. They match my GE SRII in performance, at least when it comes to DXing. 

MY GE SUPERADIO III FLIES AGAIN!

Earlier last week I fired up one of my two working GE Superadio III's, the one I got for my mother -- in late 1995 or early 1996 -- for her to use where she worked. When I fired it up, the radio worked fine. 

It was then that remembered my own GE SRIII, which I got a few months earlier, probably some time in late 1995 or during 1996. Both of these SRIII's are good ones. Deciding to fire up my own GE SRIII, I first had to find the thing. I had to hunt around for it. I finally found the GE SRIII on the floor in my den, leaning against a stack of books. 

I dusted it off, and sprayed some DeOxit down the side of the volume control shaft (to keep the control lubed -- it's probably good to do this to a Superadio's volume control once or twice a year, depending on use). Then I switched on the radio. It worked perfectly. I decided to make it my main DX and listening radio for a while. After all, like guitars, radios are meant to be PLAYED. 

If you want your older radio to last longer, switch it on at least once a month or once every other month, and run it though the band. Let it run a while. Most electrolytic capacitors (a part that is common inside every radio) last longer if they see a fresh charge every now and then.

I'll repeat here: Radios were meant to be played.

So, anyway, my trusty, 1995 GE SRIII is -- once again -- sitting in its hallowed place, in my main DX room (which yes, it happens to be my bedroom, as it's the most RFI free room in the house). I've DXed with the Superadio III for about a week now, and it is like listening to an old friend. On my Sony headphones it sounds terrific (and although the SRIII is mono, the headphone jack is stereo compatible -- no adaptor needed!). I've been running the radio on AC, as I need to get enough D cells for it and for my Sangean PR-D4W.

As I DXed over the next few nights with my GE SRIII, comparisons to the PR-D4W were inevitable. The two seem to perform equally, with the PR-D4W's DSP seeming to have another stage of amplification / filtering included in its firmware. Overall, whatever the PR-D4W picks up, the GE SRIII picks up equally, and vice versa.

This is my Sony XDR-S10HDiP boombox a couple days after I got it, during the Summer of 2016. I ran a loop of wire from the two MW terminals on the back of the radio, and heard KBRE 1660, Merced, California -- about 900-1000 miles south of me -- coming in after 4:30 p.m. local time one afternoon. And yes -- the Sony XDR's run the AM band off just a simple loop of wire, and FM will work off of just a 3-4 ft or so hank of stiff wire as well.

Another radio that needed to be played was my HD Sony boombox -- my Sony XDR-S10HDiP. It's a remarkable DXer. When I fired it up, thankfully it worked perfectly. It had only been maybe 3-4 years since the last time I used it. The first night I had it tuned to 1330 CJYM and 1660 KBRE. The second night, I tuned it to 1570 kHz and heard some political and religious talk in English -- KBCV, Hollister, Missouri. It's a rare catch on the channel, which usually has a weak, weak XERF and a stronger KCVR Lodi California, which plays Punjabi and Sikh music at night.

The Sony XDR is a remarkable radio. It's great on both FM and AM. On FM it will work off a length of wire, and on AM/MW it works off of a 3-4 foot loop of wire (that's a little more than a meter, for the rest of the world). I had one reader who said that his XDR would bring in MW even in Europe -- or it at least sounded like he was using it to hear EU MW stations. Another reader in India bought an XDR, used, and was dismayed to find out that the XDR only has 10 kHz steps on MW. He asked if there was any way to switch the XDR to 9 kHz steps. I looked, and could find no way for it to be switched to 9 kHz steps.

One gentleman in southwest Scotland said that he can hear some UK and EU MW on the Sony XDR's 10 kHz channels, because the 9 kHz channels in question are pretty close to the 10 kHz channels on the radio.

He also says the XDR is poor on MW, but he's dead wrong on that one! In the summer of 2016 -- before the conditions went into the toilet during the next year, in late 2017-- I heard KBRE 1660 come in during the afternoon, on my porch, and it was just off the 3-4 foot loop of wire I rigged for it. So a Sony XDR definitely DX's the MW/AM band well.

Here is a link to the guy's article on the XDR series of radios. He apparently got the XDR without the speakers, the more popular one than my XDR S10HDiP.:

SONY XDR F1HD (dxarchive.com)

The fact that the XDR never had a 9 kHz function is pretty sad, because there are quite a few XDR's floating around out there, and they're great on MW. Why Sony didn't implement a 9 kHz function is hard to figure. Who knows -- they could have sold more XDR's that way. I would bet that all it would have taken was a slight reprogramming of the firmware in the chip.

But it is what it is. 

One of the first stations I checked on with my Superatio III was KBRE, 1660. I always check out 1660, and 1660, naturally, is KBRE The Bear, a hard rock station out of Merced, California. There are a few other stations that I tune to, to see if they're coming in over the ionosphere. But the Bear is remarkable, in that they have a better mix of current rock than the local rockers. Plus -- hey, it's coming out of CALIFORNIA.

Here's a link to the Bear's website. I believe that they don't geo-fence. At least, I've heard their stream more than once, and I'm 900 miles north of them. They play a really good mix of modern hard rock, with some metal shows at night on the weekends.

105.7 The Bear – Merced's Rock Station (1057thebear.com)

All this said, I listen to radio nightly, and probably much more to the MW/AM band than the Shortwave bands. On FM I only tune into AAA / Alt station KPNW-FM, a relatively new station out of Seattle that gets low ratings but plays a lot of interesting rock music. A lot of their songs, strangely enough, are in mono.

Another station goes off the air. KKOV 1550, which broadcasted out of Vancouver, WA (the real Vancouver), just north of Portland, OR (the real Portland), had a standards / classic hits format in the early to mid 2010's. Their slogan was "Sunny 1550", the "Sunny" format being a nationwide classic hits one that had a lot of easy oldies and standards. "Sunny 1550" came in well at night at my location. Sometimes at night while fiction writing I would tune in and hear a lot of older stuff I'd long forgotten. One night they played Glen Campbell's By The Time I Get To Phoenix, and I included a mention of the song in a story I was writing at the time.

KKOV dumped their "Sunny 1550" format a couple years before the Pandemic hit, and they went to Viet and brokered Asian programming. The Pandemic economy apparently ended that. They are off the air, possibly permanently, and have been silent for a year or more. 1550 is now KRPI Ferndale WA (Punjabi and Sikh) and San Francisco's KZDG (Punjabi).

My GE SRIII and my much newer Sangean PR-D4W, which matches it in performance, with or without an external loop. The only difference is that the PR-D4W sounds like it has an extra stage of gain and filtering, making the weaker stations just a hair more readable when they're in the mud. I chalk it up to the DSP circuitry in the PR-D4W's main chip. They're still quite close, however, showing that even a 29 year-old, 1995 radio can cut it in 2024.

The GE SRIII, like the other Superadios before it, has 4 IF transformers ('filters') in the signal chain, making it not only fairly selective, but also pleasant to listen to. The PR-D4W's "filtering" is all done via software in the DSP chip. 

A SHORT MEDIUMWAVE DX LISTING

Anyway, prompted by my DXing with my GE SRIII, I thought I'd post a listing here of what I've been hearing here in my small section of the Seattle-Tacoma metro on MW at night, since October or so. I'll try to keep it brief. It will be a sort of rundown of the usual channels I tune to when I scan the MW band, and what I hear on them, vs. what I used to hear on them. There is a difference. :-)

540 kHz: This channel is one I check out frequently. If DX conditions are good, CBK, Watrous, Saskatchewan (a small town in the middle of the province, not far from Manitou Lake) will be in around S3-S4 signals or so. If DX conditions are really good, I'll also hear XESURF, Tijuana, Baja California, too. I've only heard two other stations on this channel historically -- a station out of Redding, California (KVIP, which has religious preaching) just once, and XEWA San Luis Potosi, Mexico -- which I logged just once a long, long time ago (using my boombox and a 3.5 ft spiral loop antenna). Lately CBK has been touch and go. XESURF has appeared maybe half the nights I've tuned the channel.

550 kHz: This channel is almost always KOAC Corvallis, OR and a religious station out of Bellingham, WA (KARI). I like listening to KOAC at night because it's BBC World Service. Corvallis is famous for the Oregon State University (with its Linus Pauling research center) and -- more recently -- porn star Kendra Sutherland, who made a name for herself around 2014 when posing, partially clad, in the OSU library, calling herself the "Library Girl." Understandably, her postings became viral. 

650 kHz: Usually at night it's KSTE Sacramento with talk, often mixed with CISL's sports talk from Vancouver, BC Canada. The last few nights KSTE has come in with stronger signals than usual.

670 kHz: This channel is usually wall-to-wall KBOI Boise, but I like to find the signal's weak spot and try to hear KMZQ Las Vegas, because -- well -- I like hearing Las Vegas. Mostly it's fadey and barely audible, and unreadable, but at least one night in mid-March I heard KMZQ loud and clear. I think it was during some semi-Auroral DX conditions we had then.

690 kHz: 690 is an unusual channel, because you can simultaneously hear Canada and Mexico on it (both 'BC's -- British Columbia and Baja California), and often you're hearing three languages: English, Spanish and French. CBU Vancouver comes in OK at night, although not as well as they did before they cut their power in half about 6 years ago. XEWW Rosarito, Baja California (which, long ago, was the "Mighty 690") is sometimes audible with their Spanish language talk -- other times not so audible. And the French language station is CBKF-1 Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. CBKF-1 serves the Fransaskois community in SW Saskatchewan. Although most French-speaking Saskatchewanians live in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, there is a considerable number of French speaking farmers in SW Sask.

My trusty Tecsun PL-398, still working off its second set of batteries in 2 years. Not bad. Although this pic was taken a few months ago, I still use this radio regularly on SW, FM, and MW. I'm still getting used to using a loop with this thing while DXing MW, as you have to tune to the programming, rather than listen for an obvious increase in volume when you peak the external loop. The key seems to be to always switch to 1 kHz bandwidth, peak the loop, and then widen the bandwidth. Switching it to 4 kHz bandwidth actually is very pleasant. Almost Superadio fidelity -- Almost.

760 kHz: This channel is difficult, as there is a local station on 770 (KTTH) that clobbers it from one side, and KXTG Portland (750) also clobbers it from the other side. But if there are decent DX conditions to the south, I can sometimes hear KGB-AM (the former KFMB) out of San Diego, and at least a couple times I heard the station readably over the past couple weeks, which is actually kind of rare. I like hearing KGB-AM because I like hearing San Diego, as I have a few fond memories of the place from the one time I spent some time there. It's a wonderful place, with perfect weather. I always thought it would be a great place to live... I mean, who wouldn't want to live there? I suppose, better put: who can afford to live there? But you could say the same thing about Seattle anymore, I guess....

840 kHz: KMAX, Colfax WA (a talk station in Eastern WA) usually dominates this channel, along with CFCW, Camrose Alberta, which plays country. I usually tune this frequency to see if either KSWB Seaside OR is there (they play classic hits, and I used to hear them nightly in the early 2010's -- I haven't heard a peep from them since probably 2015 or so), or KXNT Las Vegas. Las Vegas seems to come in readably about once or twice a month maybe. KSWB has been completely MIA since around 2014-2015.

870 kHz: In the early to mid 2010's, I used to hear WWL New Orleans peeking through the 880 kHz spillover, and sometimes it was readable behind KFLD 870 Pasco WA's talk. I haven't heard WWL in 8 years or so. This is one reason that when I read online about the new Solar Cycle being awesome, I call bullshit on that. Still, I keep tuning the channel, and I'll listen to see if anything outside of KFLD's weak signal is there. Aside from a variable KFLD, it's crickets, basically. So, where's WWL? It's still on the air. It's a 50KW station with antennas in the water near New Orleans. There is very little on 870 kHz to get in the way of at least hearing it. The answer is obvious: the Solar Cycle isn't living up to the hype.

1010 kHz: CBR Calgary often comes in strong enough to splash on the local station, KNWN (the former KOMO) on 1000. I like CBR's programming. Ironically, even though CBR is 400+ miles away, it's much clearer than CBU Vancouver, which is only 140 air miles away.

1200 kHz: I used to tune this frequency at least once every other night or so, to see if WOAI San Antonio, TX was peeking through, because, well, it's coming out of sunny Texas. Usually this channel is wall-to-wall CJRJ Vancouver's South Asian programming coming in at S3-S4, but sometimes WOAI is readable behind it. But aside from one or two times I heard them a year ago, WOAI has been MIA. And it was MIA for maybe 5 years before the last time I heard it. And that trend has held over the past couple months.

1220 kHz: Sometimes I get a station out of Salem, Oregon here. They used to be KPJC, the "Hebrew Nation" religious station with Hebrew Nation preachers and music. They usually came in pretty weak, but often they were fairly readable. Then they went political talk. But most nights I hear an intermod image from local 1620 KYIZ's R&B programming. A long time ago I heard KHTS Santa Clarita, Calif. (Canyon Country, CA, actually), with pop and AC music, but I haven't heard them since 2015 or maybe 2016. Most times anymore I tune past this channel.

1260 kHz: CFRN Edmonton, which was ESPN and sports, used to be a regular on this channel, always with a really good signal. Then the owners (Bell Media) yanked the plug -- and also pulled the plug on 6-7 other AM stations -- taking them, and CFRN off the air, even though CFRN had decent ratings. The other main station on this channel, KLYC McMinnville Oregon, played Classic Hits and oldies. A month or two ago they switched to Hot AC (Hot adult pop hits), and I think they got a translator. 

1270 kHz: I usually tune here because its a mix of classic hits, Catholic programming, and AC music, depending on which station is coming in. KTFI Twin Falls, Idaho is Catholic, and I've mentioned them before on my blog, in my posting on New Year's. But KAJO Grants Pass, Oregon often comes in during the early morning hours with Classic Hits; KMYI Tulare comes in with AC, and sometimes KXBX Lakeport, Calif. makes its appearance with Classic hits. It's always cool to hear Southern Oregon, and California.

1280 / 1290 kHz: these two channels are usually covered by George Noory's C2C program at night, with KIT Yakima on 1280 and KUMA Pendleton, Oregon dominating on 1290. KGVO Missoula on 1290 often also has C2C. I'll tune in and listen to C2C for a while, and I like hearing Pendleton because when I was a kid we went to Eastern Oregon a lot on our camping vacations.

1330 kHz: Most nights, thankfully, I hear CJYM, Rosetown, Saskatchewan coming in, usually with a considerable amount of fading, but generally with S2-S3 signal levels, and they play a wide variety of Classic Hits -- with a LOT OF Can-Con (Canadian content). So you can hear Honeymoon Suite's tracks that never got played in the US, a lot of Corey Hart, Chilliwack, April Wine, Nick Gilder, Sweeney Todd, etc. There used to be a station out of Portland, KKPZ, which had a praying preacher guy I used to listen to from time to time, but he went off KKPZ and then KKPZ went off the air 2 years ago or so (a victim of the Pandemic), so CJYM has the channel all to themselves, until local (Auburn, WA), alt rock college station KGRG-1 starts fading in during the late mornings.

1460 kHz: ESPN Yakima (KUTI) used to be here perennially. Then last year they yanked it off the air. Now it's a rough mix of ranchero/Exitos from KRRS Santa Rosa and recently KION, Salinas, California has been showing up on this channel with news-talk and Coast To Coast AM overnights. I used to hear KION when I was a kid and just starting to DX the AM band. A couple times on this channel I have heard KCNR, Shasta Lake, California playing Gordon Deal's early morning news show, and Redding area commercials. Obviously, this channel is a grab bag channel -- you never know what is going to be there. 

1480 kHz: This channel is half KBMS Portland (old school R&B) and KEJB Eureka, California (Oldies). The two stations often trade off dominating the channel, and on weekend nights you can hear all sorts of old school music emanating from these two stations, from the Spinners and the Brothers Johnson (KBMS) to Jan & Dean and Strawberry Alarm Clock (KEJB) -- often at the same time. Take your pick. It's like a radio time machine. I'm fine with that. :-)

1570 kHz: this channel is one of the few 'quiet' channels on the AM band here. Aside from some splash hitting the frequency from each side, it's usually pretty faint, and often just weak static with barely a trace of audio on it. I used to hear XERF, out of Ciudad Acuna (across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, TX) nightly, at S2 signal levels most times, with their sedate announcements and old-school ranchero music. Since 2017 XERF is mostly MIA -- you can just barely pick it out of the static -- IF it's there, that is. KCVR Lodi, California used to be Romantica in the 2010's, but then went South Asian, and their Punjabi pop and movie music is easy to pick out of the airwaves... And KCVR has been audible more than it used to be. Whether this is because of the shitty overall DX conditions keeping XERF from interfering, or something they did at their transmitter, I don't know. On very rare occasions I can hear KBCV, Hollister, Missouri with their preaching and religious talk. Before 2017 I heard KBCV maybe 10-15 times total. Since the Solar Cycle picked up I've only heard them once. But hey, maybe that will change as the cycle progresses.

1600 kHz: Usually KVRI Blaine, WA is here with Punjabi and other South Asian programming, and overnights they play Sikh prayer chants and singing. In the mid to late 2010's I had my radio tuned to them nightly while doing fiction writing. Since the last Solar Cycle downturn, although KVRI are still regulars on 1600, they haven't been coming in as strongly overnights as they used to. In the mid to late 2010's I would sometimes I'd hear them as late as 9 a.m.. Not anymore. Underneath KVRI I sometimes hear KOPB, Eugene Oregon (NPR & Oregon Public Radio), and KOHI St. Helens, Oregon, which is definitely a local-oriented, small town talk and information station. After 5-6 years of not hearing them I've started hearing them again underneath KVRI, on my Superadio III. Other incidental stations are the classic hits / oldies station out of Yuba City, California, KUBA (heard maybe 3-4 times total), and a Spanish language station out of Utah (KTUB, Centerville), and KEPN, Denver which -- last time I heard it -- was ESPN sports.

1630 kHz: Although this channel is generally clobbered by nearby local 1620 KYIZ, I used to hear a station out of Cheyenne, Wyoming -- KRND -- playing ranchero (haven't heard them in years), and on rare occasions XEUT, Tijuana, Mexico would play experimental music (they are a college station). I haven't heard XEUT in ages, either -- not since 2016.

1650 kHz: This usually is KBJD Denver, a religious Spanish language station that often comes in pretty strongly. On very rare occasions, I've heard the Korean language station out of Los Angeles, KFOX. That's rare, though. I used to hear a couple NOAA TIS stations, one of them out of the Central Oregon coast; and there are a few more local TIS's that have shown up now and then also. KCNZ, Cedar Falls, Iowa (a sports station) made an appearance on my Superadio III last night -- that was pretty cool to hear. In 2012 or 2013 I heard KSVE El Paso -- just once (they were ESPN Deportes -- a network that was yanked off the air 5-6 years ago), and once heard a station out of Ft. Smith, Arkansas (KYHN) with Red Eye Radio. That was in 2013. Not a peep out of it since then. The Solar Cycle strikes again!

I've already covered 1660, and 1700 is XEPE Tecate BCN Mexico, at varying levels.

To sum it all up -- basically, the AM band here is nothing like it was in the early 2010's, with all the current DX no-shows, and even regional no-shows (like KSWB 840, KSHO 920, etc.). There were a lot of stations I used to hear more or less nightly that have just seemed to have disappeared -- and yet, they are still apparently on the air. I'm just not hearing them -- regardless of equipment.

This is why I think the Solar Cycle we are in right now is more or less a dud.

And I have been working on an article about that, which I hope to post before Summer.

an Easter Decoration -- sort of

This is Floppy Bunny, a completely unexpected, surprise gift I got in an Easter basket on Easter 2009, from my late, ex-GF Sheryl Phillips. I used Floppy Bunny in a kid's story that I never finished. It was to be a sequel to my kid's Christmas book Woody The Woodchuck Saves Christmas -- a book inspired by these stuffed animals and puppets I had hanging around the house -- which I had thought I would make useful, by turning them into characters in a children's book -- a la A.A. Milne's Winnie The Pooh. 

Well, the Christmas story took long enough to write and illustrate. It was a LOT of work. Fun, but painstaking, especially with the illustrations. And then I got two -- count 'em, two -- sales. 

So the Easter story / sequel, which would have had the bunny in it, never got written. Floppy Bunny was going to be a goofy Easter Bunny who broke the eggs, hid them in strange places, etc. And Woody the Woodchuck was going to set Floppy Bunny right, and save Easter, but Easter is doing fine by itself. I lost the will to write a book like that, illustrate it, and then put it out on Amazon just so it would get zero sales. Sorry Floppy Bunny, your chance at stardom came and went.

Well, right now I need to go for a nighttime bike ride. Got to do something for Easter morning, right? Easter, like most other holidays, is a time when the memories flood back, memories from back when my father and mother were still alive, when the holidays had a little bit of 'zing' to them -- something that simply is hard to feel anymore -- religious holiday or otherwise.

I'm glad I still have my health, food, my cat is OK, and I've got a roof over my head.

Really, there isn't much more to need, right? So far, I have indeed had one pleasant surprise this Easter (a friend contacted me from Austria after a few months not hearing from her), but the rest of it shall remain low kay.

I'll end this with a vid. I mentioned Can-Con music previously. Here are a couple tracks from Honeymoon Suite, a Canadian hard rock band that had one hit here on FM Rock stations in the 1980's, New Girl Now. It was pretty catchy. I always cranked it up on my boombox, before it got stolen.:

Here is a track I heard on CJYM that I'd never heard before. It was another track by Honeymoon Suite, and it's actually very good. It has more of an 80's feel to it, though -- but that stands to reason, being that it was recorded and released in the 1980's. Here it is, everybody: Wave Babies. It made it to #59 on the Canadian charts. Should have gone higher. But in the 80's there was a lot of good music, a lot of competition.:

And with that, I shall close this article. For those who celebrate, I wish a Happy Easter, Glad Påsk, Frohliche Ostern, Xristos Voscress (XPISTOC BOCKPESS), etc.

Peace.

C.C. Easter, 2024.

April 1st, 2024: After actually looking at the date codes in both of my GE Superadio III's, they both were made in 1995, not 1996. I might have bought them in '96, though. 

Date codes for Superadios (and many other GE radios) are in the battery compartment. There will be a small label with the serial number, and another small label that says "Date Code". The second numeral is the last numeral of the year in which the radio was manufactured.