MW DXing with thrift store Sony Walkman headset radios

As I've mentioned before on this blog numerous times, one of my hobbies is Medium Wave radio long distance listening -- also known as 'MW DXing'. It's a hobby I discovered by accident as a child while tuning around the MW band (known as the "AM band" in the US) on my bedside radio.

The sounds of distant stations from other 'countries' like Oregon, Idaho, and California was very exciting (at that time I didn't realise that there is a difference between countries and U.S. States -- I was very young at the time. In fact, the first time my parents took me to Oregon when I was 5 years old, I was expecting border customs!).

Sony Walkmen can make great MW distance-listening and disaster radios. Some Walkmen, like the Sports Walkman on the lower left of this picture, can be found at thrift stores for decent prices.

The distant signals in the speakers or headphones just sounded like they were coming from far away. To a young child, it was a fascinating sound, almost like traveling without leaving your bedroom. Sometimes I'd pull out the road atlas to figure out where the stations I was hearing were located -- this led to an interest in geography, and navigation. GPS? Who needs GPS when you have the map ingrained in your memory?

But I digress.

THRIFT STORE SONY GEMS

My dentist is located in Black Diamond, Washington -- a small city about 11 miles south of Renton, where I live. And near the dentist's is a Goodwill -- a thrift store. Over the past four or five years I've been able to buy numerous good books there, as well as a few radios: a Panasonic clock radio that works well, as well as several Walkmen. Cheap. Less than five bucks.

If you have read my previous MW DXing articles here on my blog, you already know I like to DX on the cheap!

I like to see what one can hear with a radio that is more or less consumer grade (as opposed to a Drake R8 or Icom R-75), with decent sound.

Although I use my GE Superadios and other DX portables a lot, I also use my Walkmen and DX-350's, usually with an external loop. DXing with such radios has a certain charm about it. I think it's the fuller sound you get through headphones. Then again, it's fun to DX on the cheap. And the fact that the Walkmen are so portable helps -- I also use them to listen to FM music in stereo, or AM sports talk, at work or when I'm out in the yard.

As most are probably aware, "Walkmen" radios / cassette players were a Sony invention in the late 1970's, and they became popular in the 80's when everybody had one. Sony wasn't the only manufacturer: nearly every popular Japanese and American radio maker had a "walkman" style player. I have an old Sanyo from the 1980's I got used at a thrift store years ago -- it has excellent FM and AM reception. AM is even DXable. I didn't get an actual Sony Walkman (with the actual "Walkman" logo on it) until I found that Goodwill thrift store -- which I previously mentioned -- several years ago.

This 1990's-era thrift store Sports Walkman works great. The only 'damage' was a missing battery cover. The "battery cover" is now a cut piece of Duct Tape.

USED 1990's and 1980's era SONY WALKMEN -- CHEAP

The Walkmen radios I got at Goodwill are mostly Sonys. I have one Panasonic that probably works great on cassette, and the radio works well on FM. It is useless on AM. Somehow the tuner mechanism was damaged, perhaps through heat. So far, even though I was able to get it apart, I haven't been able to fix it.

The Sonys, however, work great.

I had previously bought a couple Sony headset radios new -- an SRF-59 and SRF-42 -- and I also have them pictured here, for reference, as they are better known. The SRF-59 is famous for AM and FM reception, and the Sony SRF-42 is well known as a good performer, and it also has AM Stereo, which is useless for stereo AM listening but useful for IDing stations on a crowded channel because the stations are in different places in the stereo spectrum.

This short article will concentrate on the three Walkmen I bought at Goodwill used: the Sony SRF-M78 Sports Walkman ($3 at Goodwill), the Sony WM-FX101 Walkman ($1 at Goodwill) and the Sony WM-FX241 Walkman ($2 at Goodwill).

All three of these are not 'DX machines', per se. But they are excellent performers considering the cost ($2-$3) and the fact that you couple them with a loop, you can hear DX on them quite well. Even without an external loop, you can hear DX stations and regional stations -- vital during emergencies.

Being able to hear regional AM radio stations is a good thing, especially during large emergencies, like a huge power outage or an earthquake. Walkman radios are vital for anyone's emergency kit, as most of them will bring in strong regional AM stations, when the local stations may not have power.

I'm sure similar radios to the one pictured in this blog post are still available at some thrift stores in the US and maybe overseas.

(I also found a Panasonic walkman and a GE walkman for sale at the thrift store. Both were good bargains -- the GE the better of those two. For the sake of simplicity, I'm concentrating more on the Sonys in this blog article.)

The Sony SRF-M78 Sports Walkman I found at a thrift store for $2.99 US. The arm band clips into the back of the radio.

SONY SRF-M78 Digitally Tuned SPORTS WALKMAN

The Sony SRF-M78, the Sports Walkman, is handiest of the three radios to use (on most of the AM band) without a loop. I often take it to work with me with a set of earbuds because the radio is handy, small, built like a tank, and has a clock, which is also helpful. It came with an armband. It clips into the back of the radio and works well.

The Battery cover was also missing -- now it's Duct Tape. The radio is bright yellow like most 'sports' Walkmen, and it's water resistant, which means if you take it out in the rain it should still work without damage to the radio.

I don't know when it was first introduced. At first guess, I thought it came out during the 1990's some time, as it has the AM X-band on it (520-1700 khz on MW). According to the Sony manual, the SRF-M78 came out in 1996.

The SRF-M78 will DX reasonably well at night on the AM band -- I've taken it on night bike rides when I didn't have to worry about other traffic on the trail and have heard KFBK 1530 Sacramento with a readable signal. I also have heard KFBK at work in Seattle on this Sony.

The selectivity is decent enough that you can hear adjacent channel DX stations with a certain amount of splatter.

There is only bleedover on the strongest locals -- on a couple 50 KW stations and a closer 1 KW station. I'm guessing the reception is a bit similar to the SRF-M37W that a lot of MW DXers talk about online -- perhaps a bit less.

Where the SRF-M78 falters is above 1600 khz. Although the radio has the Top Band (or "X-band"), performance isn't good. It's almost like it was an afterthought. Even with an external loop it isn't that great on the X-band.

The Sony SRF-M78 has five presets on each band, AM and FM. They are very easy to program. Use the up or down tuning button, and tune in your station. Then press the 'Enter/Clock' button, then press the preset button where you want to store the station, and hold it until it beeps. That's it.

SWITCHING THE SONY SRF-M78's MW CHANNEL SPACING

If you live in areas of the world outside the Americas, you can switch the MW channel step from 10 khz to 9 khz in three easy steps:

1) turn the radio OFF.

2) press and hold the "Enter/Clock" button.

3) press and hold the "Power" button for more than 5 seconds.

That's it. This procedure toggles the radio between 9 khz and 10 khz steps on the MW band. It will erase all five memories, and you'll have to reset the clock.

With the armband and a pair of earbuds, the Sony SRF-M78 Sports Walkman is pretty handy to take out and about. In this picture, I'm listening to an NFL football game on KJR 950.

I use my Sony Sports Walkman sometimes while working in the yard, and sometimes while biking -- either at night, or on the local Trail. I keep the volume down while on my bike, and listen to AM only. Stereo FM seems to interfere with hearing nearby traffic and I want to stay safe. AM, being in mono only, doesn't limit what I hear that much.

Some online reviews mention that the volume control moves around on its own through contact with the armband. I haven't had that problem at all. Maybe the online reviewer was wearing the radio upside down.

SONY WM-FX101 Analog Tuned WALKMAN

The all-black, subtly marked Sony WM-FX101 looks like it came out in 1990 or so, although the info on the internet I've found says it was introduced in 1995. The all-black color is a dead giveaway that it's a 90's radio -- black radios were popular during that decade.

The WM-FX101 is an analog tuned Walkman with a switchable automatic volume control (you can switch it on to cut the Decibel level if you want) -- I've used that feature only once. I DX'ed with it in 2012 and 2013 -- for a while it was my main DX radio. Without a loop it's fair for distance listening -- definitely not a high performance DX radio, but it will pull in regional stations well enough for listening, and some DX, too.

This black Walkman is probably the best overall performer of my AM-FM-cassette Sony Walkmen.

A Sony WM-FX101 Walkman I got at a thrift store for $.99 US. It's a decent DXer and a set of AA's lasts a long time if you just use the radio. For a while this was my main MW DX radio -- I used it with a loop.

You add a loop and it works very well. The selectivity is wide enough that the fidelity is terrific -- listen to an NFL football game you almost think you are there. There is more splatter on this radio than you'll get on the famous SRF-59 -- but you can add to the selectivity by moving this Walkman away from the loop. I heard maybe 15-20 new stations on this radio when I was DXing with it in 2012-13.

Unlike the SRF-M78, the WM-FX101 works well on the X-band.

But you won't get a ton of DX on it up there without a loop. I was able to receive a very weak XEPE 1700 (in Tecate, Mexico) the other night, and 1640 KDZR from Portland (200 km away) comes in without a loop when conditions are fair to good.

But overall on the X-band, signals are just mostly too weak to get readable DX, as they can be on any portable AM radio.

Compared to the famous Sony SRF-59, this Walkman is slightly less sensitive, but it will hear every station my SRF-59 hears -- just at slightly reduced quality. The selectivity is a bit wider, and the AGC isn't as tight, which is refreshing as the SRF-59's AGC is very tight. Overall, the sound of the WM-FX101 makes for a more pleasant listening experience while monitoring or DXing.

I'm certain all of these thrift-store Sony radios have the same Sony CXA1019 chip, which is a hot chip, and was very popular in Sony Walkmen and Dream Machine clock radios during the 1990's and 2000's. The main reducing factor in these Walkmen for AM reception is the loopstick antenna. I haven't been able to get any of these apart yet to see what the inside looks like. I'm guessing the loopsticks are equally small on all of these radios. But considering they are small, they have decent reception.

SONY WM-FX241 Digitally Tuned WALKMAN

The Sony WM-FX241 is similar to the WM-FX101, except it's digitally tuned. It looks a lot like a 1990's Walkman radio -- from the model number, I thought it came out in the late 1990's. But -- according to Sony -- it actually came out in 2002.

It works surprisingly well on the AM band, considering it's just a Walkman. It doesn't perform up to SRF-59 standards, but it is still a decent listening radio. Its X-band performance is as good as the rest of the AM band. It's slightly less sensitive than the analog tuned WM-FX101.

A Sony WM-241 Walkman, which I got at a thrift store for $1.99 US. Works great. I sometimes DX with it, just for fun. Here I have it tuned to KBRE 1660 The Bear, a rock station from California.

It has 40 presets -- I haven't used them all. There are 30 memory presets for FM, and 10 for AM. I have maybe 8 of the FM presets used -- all three rock stations I listen to (KVRQ, KFOO, and KISW) and the three pop stations in Seattle (KBKS, KPWR and KQMV), a news station and an NPR station. From the factory the presets are already set to various spots on the dial, which could be handy if you don't fill them all -- it would be sort of like jumping randomly to another part of the band.

The memories are easy to program: you press the "Enter" button once, scroll up and down the memory locations using the + or - key (plus or minus "Preset" keys, big grey ones just below the readout), and press the "Enter" key again.

The WM-FX241 will DX with an external loop, even on the X-band. It's slightly weaker than the FX101 on the X-band without the external loop, but it's miles better than the SRF-M78.

Compared to the WM-FX241, the earlier model WM-FX101 seems a bit more sensitive, and it has tighter AGC. But the WM-FX241 seems to have more usable selectivity. It's a toss up between the two. Both work well with my loops. Of course, the digital tuning on the 241 is handier to use.

Unfortunately, this radio doesn't have a way to adjust the MW channel step from 10 khz to 9 khz steps, or vice versa. If there is a method, it's either not documented or I just haven't been able to find the button sequence. For most Walkman users, this wouldn't be an issue. If you're traveling overseas a lot, you probably already have a radio capable of MW 10khz / 9 khz channel steps.

The WM-FX241's sound -- like the other two used Walkmen -- is excellent. This means it undoubtedly has a single ceramic filter, which is adequate for MW DXing if you pull the Walkman away from the loop a bit, but it also sounds good. And with a little wider response, it's easier to catch ID's. On FM, it sounds better than the SRF-M78, and a little clearer on fringe FM stations than the WM-FX101.

This radio has "mega bass", which scoops the sound on both FM and AM and is like a loudness boost. I haven't found it useful with regular Sony headphones, but I have a cheap pair of earbuds that are a bit on the thin side, sound-wise. The WM-FX241's "Mega-bass" button makes them sound better.

ADEQUATE ON FM -- REALLY NICE STEREO SOUND

On FM none of these are probably FM DX radios. But they are adequate for local FM listening. They are probably as good as your average 1980's / 1990's boombox or clock radio. The sound is similar on all three Sonys: overall, they deliver good quality stereo.

Online I've read mixed reviews about all three of these radios on their indoor FM reception. The problem seems to be when the user is inside a gym or an office building, and the headphone cable acting as an antenna can apparently alter FM reception if you move around. I haven't had any such problem, but most of my listening on these radios has been at home, at work, or outside.

I did a quick FM test using all three of these thrift store Walkmen. I used KFOO Tacoma, 102.9 Mhz (classic and alternative rock) as a target station, as it is a 'fringe' station here and some of my radios bring it in only in mono. Some of the cheaper clock radios don't bring it in at all.

The WM-FX241 had the edge in overall FM performance. It brought in 102.9 in clear stereo with slight fuzziness depending on how the headset cable was moved. But it was the best overall. The SRF-M78 brought it in in mono only, and a bit dicey at times. The WM-FX101 brought 102.9 in stereo, roughly equal to the 241. It took a bit to center it using the analog tuning. Like with the other two Walkmen, moving the headset cable altered the reception a bit, but both the 101 and 241 kept KFOO in stereo.

On a stronger station, 98.9 KVRQ (the rock station I wrote about several blog posts ago), the SRF-M78 has a bit wider stereo than the other two radios, with the WM-FX241 having a bit tighter bass response.

None of these three Walkmen are probably FM-DXer's, which is no big deal to me as I don't DX the FM band. The best sounding FM Walkman I have is the digitally tuned WM-FX241.

My Panasonic 'Walkman'. I got this Walkman style radio at Goodwill for $1.99. This particular one is virtually useless on the MW/AM band, because the tuner mechanism is misaligned or damaged -- usually, Panasonic makes good AM radios, so if this were working correctly I'd expect better performance. However, FM reception is still good. Most local FM stations occur in stereo. As most people listen to FM, a cheap $2 radio like this would still be handy. A lot of people listen to FM radio on their smart phones. The problem with doing that is the data usage, plus -- if my own smart phone is any indication -- the FM chip inside a smart phone (that is, if it is activated) isn't very robust. My own smart phone gets marginal FM in mono only.

A GE 3-5468A I bought at the Black Diamond Goodwill store recently (only $5), in the package. It looks like a 1994 model, from the shadowy black look popular in the 90's, and its GE date code. It has the AM X-band (520-1710 khz). As soon as I took it out of the package and loaded it with batteries, I was pleasantly surprised: it brings in KOH 780 from Reno, which is right next to a local station on 770. On a marginal DX night it brought in KBRE 1660 The Bear -- about 800 miles / 1000 km away -- although it wasn't very readable without a loop. The loop brought it in fine. Still, it passed the "Bear test". GE's have a good reputation for AM and FM radio reception and this 1990's era GE walkman is no exception! It would undoubtedly be an good emergency radio.

SONY WALKMEN ARE GOOD PREPAREDNESS RADIOS

As I live in Earthquake country, preparedness is always in the back of my mind somewhere when I consider radios, flashlights, etc.

When the big one hits, we'll be on our own for a while. And in Seattle it's not just one 'big one' we need to worry about, it's both big ones: Seattle has its own fault which bisects the city, and it is supposedly set to go off sometime soon; and the Cascadia / Juan De Fuca subduction zone which is off the BC-Washington-Oregon coast is also set to go off any time now. 

If either quake hits, chances are fairly high that local radio will be marginal or off the air for at least a while. Powerlines would go down, numerous bridges would be damaged or outright destroyed, fuel supplies would dwindle, highways would have damage, rail lines could be damaged, communications and broadcast antennas may not survive the shaking, etc.  Some cell sites have generators but if the power's out for longer than a couple days charging your phone would be a challenging proposition.

The internet could be down in places, as it runs on buried fiber cable that -- in many places around here -- runs through valleys that would shake severely. There have been cases in the past of cables being damaged or severed during an earthquake.

The fact is we don't really know all of what will happen when the big one hits.

It's at times like this that the long distance capabilities of AM radio are important. There are at least 8 or 9 strong AM stations (KGO, KSL, CBR, KFBK, KOH, KUMA, KONA, CFFR, KIT and a handful of other S-4 or stronger signals) from Eastern Washington and Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and two provinces in Canada which put a steady signal into the Seattle and Portland areas on any given evening. Stations east of the Cascade Mountains and further south in California would be less affected by an offshore 9 point earthquake.

This is one reason the US government is concerned about AM radio's survival. In a severe emergency (like a Cascadia Earthquake), AM radio is one of the most dependable regional emergency broadcast tools.

This isn't just the opinion of a long distance AM radio aficionado. A recent Oregon and Washington government document called "Cascadia Rising" concluded that in event of a Cascadia Earthquake, AM radio may be the only emergency broadcast media available to hard hit Coastal and other areas:

"With AM radio's longer broadcast range, survivors with power, or those who attempt to listen in their vehicles, may be able to receive AM radio signals."

The Walkmen I've featured here in this article are all probably good for preparedness. The Sports Walkman, as I said, works on two AAA's, and they seem to last a long time. I've never used it daily or nightly, so I don't really know how long the batteries will last under heavy use. So far, with weekly use, the present set of AAA's has lasted several months.

With the WM-FX101, the two AA's last a long, long time. It's probably because of the analog tuning. The WM-FX241 digitally tuned radio, which runs on two AA's, is somewhere in between.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- MY OLD SANYO!

I got this Sanyo Walkman, Model MG-27, in 1985 at a thrift store for maybe two or three dollars. I think it's a 1982 model -- it probably came out the same year as my favorite boombox, my Sanyo M9926. 

The Sanyo had a bit of wear and tear, but it worked great on both AM and FM. I used to take it to the University with me, storing it in my bookpack. I would listen to the local FM rock and pop stations while drinking coffee and doing some in-between class reading out on the UW's Red Square.

A few years later I dropped the radio by accident -- hence the black electrical tape holding in its four AA batteries.

This Sanyo Walkman is a really good radio on AM, and DX'es quite well, as it has a very good IF chip and the loopstick is fairly thick. Sanyo made great radio and stereo products.

I even used this MG-27 to log AM DX that I posted on the IRCA radio club's log pages.

Of course, now these 80's marvels are as rare as hen's teeth.

Chances of you finding an 80's Walkman of any brand are probably slim to none -- most people either have tossed them, broken them, or they are otherwise holding onto them for old times' sake. But if you come across one, and have the money, they are well worth the expense -- providing they work.

In the 1980's the Japanese manufacturers like Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, Aiwa and the like made very good radios, and this Sanyo MG-27 is no exception.

NOT ALL NEW WALKMEN ARE AS GOOD AS THE OLD SONYS and SANYOs

Last week I saw a walkman style AM-FM-cassette player in a local box store for $17. I decided to try it out. It was nothing like my old Sonys and older Sanyo. The AM band was full of mostly whistles, with only strong local stations coming through. With an external loop, I could pull in KFBK Sacramento very weakly. It was apparent the radio has a DSP IF chip, from the way it tuned across the band, but it had very low performance.

I'm sure some newer, off-brand headset radios work O.K. But not all are good for DXing or emergency situations. Of the newer headset and small, personal portables available, Sony and Sangean seem to offer the best quality for radios that are readily available today. In my view, you can't lose with a Sony or a Sangean.

SO -- DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT SECOND HAND AND THRIFT STORES

In closing, for those MW DXers out there, don't forget to check out the electronics aisle when you go to a thrift store or second-hand store. You never know what gems you'll find.

Add a loop -- you're in business for MW DXing. And you can't beat the price -- either for a cheap DX radio, or for a preparedness radio you can sock away in an out-of-the-way, safe place with a couple spare sets of AA's or AAA's. Used Walkmen radios can't be beat for that!


I originally penned this blog post in 2016, and then I completely forgot about it. 

It needed a couple photos of headset radios to finish it, and somehow it went overlooked for almost five years. Finally, this article gets published. A lot of the info is still valuable, although over the last couple years anytime I've been in a thrift store there haven't been many Walkmen radios for sale. Mostly a few alarm clock radios, and other stuff that's mostly junk, really... My last great find was my Sony XDR AM-FM HD radio boombox, and that was in 2017.

As 2021 hits us, MW conditions are still poor overall but seem to be improving slightly as the sunspots increase (or the sunspots TRY to increase). As DX conditions get better, these Walkmen radios will be even more useful for hearing distant stations, as a loop antenna and good propagation conditions are the great equalizers. :-)

Right now Christmas has passed; New Year's is upon us (and yes, here in WA state we add the 's at the end of the term, typically). I didn't really celebrate Christmas, and won't really celebrate New Year's either. I'll ride my ten speed tonight down the trail, and practice slide guitar. Perhaps I'll drive down to get a hamburger or latte. Maybe around midnight I'll fire up my bagpipes, although I haven't touched them in a couple months.

Most of my non-working hours lately have been (aside from the usual chores) playing slide guitar several hours a day and watching music videos on YouTube, really. I also work a lot on my fiction writing. With corona messing with society in general, there really isn't much else to do.

Hopefully 2021 will have a bit more positive to offer than 2020 did. Once can always hope.

Happy New Year's, everyone, wherever you are in the world.

Peace,

C.C. 12-31-2020 

SO LONG, RADIO DISNEY. You had a good run.

Radio Disney, a pop music radio network that was aimed towards young people and children, recently announced that it will end all of its broadcasting at the end of this year. The Radio Disney network, which started out on a large network of AM radio stations across the US -- and stayed on the AM band for almost 20 years -- will be completely eliminated. Being online-only for about four years, their stream will be dumped. People will be fired. 

Radio Disney will be no more. Mickey Mouse is kissing radio goodbye.

The news, of course -- pandemic or no pandemic -- came as a shock to many, if not most of us who enjoy radio and otherwise follow the industry.

After all, Disney is a well heeled, gigantic entertainment company. And it openly embraced, and touted online streaming as the future of radio. That was just over four and a half years ago, when the last of its over-the-air radio stations was sold. One would think that if anyone can make streaming radio work, it would be one of the largest entertainment corporations in the world.

ALL DIGITAL DIDN'T APPARENTLY DELIVER

But some of us got the feeling Disney was having second thoughts about broadcasting in general when they got rid of their AM stations in the latter part of the last decade.

In 2014, Disney announced they would be selling all their Radio Disney radio stations, and effectively taking Radio Disney off the air, except for some FM HD2 channels in various metros across the US, where the network would remain. For all intents and purposes, Radio Disney would be an all-digital operation -- concentrating on their streaming website, with the HD2's providing token support to over the air radio broadcasting.

But, obviously, the new improved model didn't last.

It's an interesting example of a broadcast operation supposedly embracing the online future, only to find that the online 'future' does not deliver on its promises.

To explain the irony of this news, a bit of background about Radio Disney is necessary.

RE-DISCOVERING MY RADIOS, AND DISCOVERING RADIO DISNEY

To start out with -- the subject of Radio Disney is a complex one when MW / AM fans talk about it. Some guys say the station was pointless -- they'll say the music was for kids, it was stupid, a waste of airwaves, etc.

Others, like myself, found it fun to listen to at times, if only because they played pop music over the MW band. The first time I got into listening to Radio Disney was in the Fall and early Winter of 2011, when I got back into the radio hobby after a long pause (maybe 10 years).

I had pulled a lot of radios out of the closet -- older transistor radios, several boomboxes, and even a CB radio I hadn't used since 1990 -- including some radios which I'd forgotten I had. I then cleaned them all up, including my Yaesu FRG-7, which is an excellent MW receiver. I put out a 150 ft. low wire, out in the yard, stringing it over a hedge, and through this antenna, the FRG-7 was a MW DXing monster. Yes, even through a low wire.

My Yaesu FRG-7 communications receiver after cleaning it up, spraying air in the tuner controls, etc. Soon I was DXing the MW/AM band with it, through a 150 ft. low wire, and heard Phoenix, Arizona's Radio Disney station wafting over the atmosphere.

It was one night, probably in September or October 2011, I fired up my FRG-7. With a good set of headphones plugged into the headphone jack on the front of the radio, I tuned across the MW band. I was taking notes, of course, because I was re-discovering forgotten territory. In my years of not DXing the MW band, the band sounded different. The band itself hadn't changed much, but the stations had.

Anyway, this one particular night in 2011 I just tuned in to 1580 khz, which by now I knew was the territory of a talk station in Oregon, KGAL. Suddenly I heard the pop music coming into my FRG-7's headphones like a distant wave.

To my surprise, instead of hearing the usual conservative talk that KGAL played, there was this upbeat 'thump, thump, thump!' of dance pop, and the cheery vocals of pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen. Looking up my DX records, there was a station in Phoenix, Arizona which I'd heard on that channel in the past, if only rarely -- in the 80's it was called KNIX, and it was a country station. A quick peek at the internet showed me that the station had now changed their call letters to KMIK -- for Mickey Mouse.

Soon enough, I heard the cheery, female voice of the DJ in my headphones: I had just tuned into Radio Disney.

Being up here in Rain-land and hearing a station from warm and dry weather Phoenix, Arizona was cool enough. But what made it cooler was this distant station from the land of non-stop sunshine played pop music.

I kept listening to KMIK after that, which, because of its 50 KW signal, often boomed up here from the Valley of the Sun. I also discovered several other Radio Disney stations at night, including the one in Portland on 1640, which often came in strong during the daytime as well.

RE-DISCOVERING GOOD POP -- INCLUDING DISNEY'S OWN POP MUSIC

And to my surprise, most of the pop music I heard on Radio Disney was very, very good -- much of it electronic dance music, by artists as diverse as Taio Cruz ("Dynamite"), Owl City ("Good Time"), Selena Gomez ("A Year Without Rain"), 3OH!3 ("Follow Me Down"), Cobra Starship ("You Make Me Feel"), Pitbull ("Back In Time"), Calvin Harris ("Feel So Close"), Rihanna ("Love in a Hopeless Place") and numerous others, including a bunch of Disney artists whose songs were also surprisingly quite good (Shane Harper's "Dancin' In The Rain" being one of them; "Guardian Angel" by a couple Disney singing stars, Tyler James Williams and Coco Jones being another).

Here is the video for "Guardian Angel", which got heavy airplay on Radio Disney in 2012. I was impressed with the song, and its performance. To my knowledge, this song didn't get much airplay on regular CHR / Pop Hit radio.

Up until 2011 and 2012 I had never enjoyed pop music, actually, especially after the mid 1980's, when I lost interest in it completely. Now it seemed a lot of the pop music was really creative and worth hearing.

All that aside, I managed to log most, if not all, the Radio Disney stations in the Western US, and I'd listen to the local Disney outlet (KKDZ 1250, now South Asian programming) from time to time as well. 

Fast forward two years. As most radio aficionados know, the AM band is slowly dying. It's hurting because radio revenues industry wide (both AM and FM) have been dropping since 2005. The core audience for the AM band is older GenXers and Boomers, people over age 45-50. It's difficult for many AM stations to find good advertisers.

Disney didn't have this problem. They used the radio stations to keep kids interested in their music stars, and for a while, the strategy worked. When Disney got into radio in 1996 they bought AM's in every major metro. It was a cheap way to get your in-house pop music played on the air. And a lot of kids apparently tuned in to hear their favorite Disney stars' songs play 24/7 on these stations.

Even in 2014, when Disney decided to pull the plug on their AM stations, almost a fifth of their audience was still listening to the AM stations (18%, according to their own data).

NO ADVERTISING REVENUE NECESSARY

The stations, and Disney, also didn't need to depend on advertising. Not only was Disney a multinational, corporate powerhouse with bottomless pockets, the Radio Disney stations WERE the advertising -- advertising for their brand, for their music machine that turned young TV and Disney movie stars into pop singers, and the network of Disney stations provided instant airplay, and free promotion for their singers.

Unlike most other music production and recording companies, which had to jostle for airplay on commercial radio, Disney already owned stations in every major metro in the US. And Disney stars got their airplay, lots of promotion, and it obviously drove sales of those artists' music. No payola needed!

And the quality of the programming, as I said previously, was excellent. Even the Disney actors' pop hits were good. There was one track I recall that was sung by a young Disney star -- I had to look up her name, it was Coco Jones -- but her voice was as powerful, as gritty and soulful as Amy Winehouse or any other, well-known, bluesy pop diva.  

When I finally found out who the singer was, it turned out that when she made that record, she wasn't even out of her teens.

The Disney machine definitely knew how to make quality music for quality airplay. Which stands to reason -- they had the recording facilities (including a high tech studio in Orlando, where the nu-metal band Skrape recorded their first album), and they had the personnel, the writers and musicians, to put it all together.

DIGITAL, HD, and Rose Tinted Glasses

So, what happened? According to Disney, by the end of 2014, it was time for a change. After all, streaming was the 'future'. They could afford to ditch the fifth of their listeners who listened via the AM radio, believing that they would easily pull them over to the internet stream.

To fill the over-the-air void, they contracted with a large, US radio company to have Radio Disney broadcast on FM HD2s in most major metros.

But there was a problem, Houston. :-)

A big problem, it apparently turned out.

Apparently not enough kids and pre-teens and 'tween's were using their phones to listen to Radio Disney's stream. As for the switch from AM radio to FM-HD2's, HD radios were still hard to find, especially for kids. After I finally got my HD radio, Radio Disney only remained on a local HD2 for a couple months, before Disney yanked it off the air.

One radio industry expert on a forum online thinks that Disney believed their own faulty data. They thought, like many, that no one was listening to the AM stations. They may have misinterpreted the streaming data as well. Perhaps not as many listeners were streaming as they thought. Maybe more of the kids and 'tweens' were listening to the AM stations than they originally thought. When the stations went dark, and switched to conservative talk, Asian, Punjabi, Spanish, religion, money talk, or sports, the kids apparently just gave up on Disney-broadcast music altogether.

After all, every city in the US already has a slick CHR, commercial pop station. Many have two or three of them.

A DECEMBER OF REMORSE

Either way, I have to admit I lament the loss of Radio Disney, even though they don't lament giving up on all broadcasting whatsoever. They certainly didn't lament losing those few AM listeners who were out of their demographic, and there were probably more than a few of them. Some of them might have been parents, or grandparents, of the kids who were the primary target audience.

I still have about an hour of recordings of the Radio Disney station in Portland, 1640 KDZR, when it was blasting Disney's flavor of pop up and down the I-5 corridor every night. The recordings were made in October 2015, a few months before the last five Disney AM stations went off the air. When I heard the tracks after downloading them off my Grundig G2 radio, the recordings were a nice glimpse of pop music as it was that year. It brought back a lot of memories of the mid-part of the 2010's.

KDZR in Portland were one of the last five Radio Disney holdouts, if only because they were one of the last stations to sell. Salem radio bought KDZR for about $250K in 2016, and before the end of that year, Disney left the AM band for good.

Now KDZR are "The Patriot", a conservative talk station. I sometimes tune past it, and maybe hang out on that channel for a minute or two, but it's definitely not the same.

RIP, Disney. You almost had a 25 year run -- 20 of those years being on the AM broadcast band. You don't miss radio, but part of it misses you.

I'll end this article on Radio Disney on an upbeat note -- a video of one of their better pop songs. Earlier in this article I mentioned Shane Harper, one of the Disney singing stars who had a 'hit' that got a lot of airplay on Radio Disney in 2012. The song was a catchy, infections and upbeat, and well put-together tune called "Dancin' In The Rain". Like the other track I mentioned -- "Guardian Angel", I don't think this song got regular Hit Radio airplay, but in my opinion, it should have. It was a good track.:

MICKEY MOUSE FINALLY LEAVES MY WINDOW :-)

Almost fitting -- just before starting on this blog article -- I took down the last of my electric Jack O' Lanterns, which I left up a couple months late this year -- well, because. The outdoor ones went into the closet first, and the last one was my Mickey Mouse electric pumpkin, which I bought in October 2016.

Mickey Mouse says goodbye to radio, 2016 -- Mickey Mouse says goodbye to Halloween, December 2020.

Christmas lights still have to go up on my Hawthorn tree. That will happen later tonight.

Right now it's around 45F / 8C outside. The terminal rain stopped for a while, but it's supposed to come back soon. Now it's time to put up a few Christmas lights for a holiday I'm not really celebrating in less than five days. :-)

...And there were Christmas lights.

And an extra string... 

In fact, the bigger lights in the upper right corner of the bottom pic were the last string of colored lights for sale at a local drugstore -- in fact, some of the last Christmas items in the sole aisle of holiday decorations this year. Whereas in earlier years, there were a lot more lights available as late as the 23rd of December, these past several years the Christmas decoration pickings -- especially when it comes to lights -- have been slim even a week or two before Christmas at most stores. 

Whether it's the trade war, or just the general state of brick-and-mortar retail, I have no idea. The drugstore in question used to be like Christmas-land in the 2000's. In 2004 I got my tree there on the 22nd or 23rd -- it was one of several trees that were on display near the window. Now the window of that store is bare.

Late last decade it began to have less and less Christmas stuff -- no trees, no ornaments, no bins of stuffed animals for kids and lovers -- just candy and a few boxes of lights and trinkets.

Very sad, really.

And with that, this finally gets posted Lille Julafton, December 23rd, 2020.

Until later, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. 12-19-2020, & 12-23-2020

Addendum: April 5th, 2022: I added the video of the song "Guardian Angel" by Tyler James Williams and Coco Jones, two of Disney's own stable of pop singers. I also added the video link to 'Dancin' In The Rain' by Shane Harper, another Disney pop singer. At the time I wrote this blog article in 2020, I didn't know how to add videos to an article, and these songs I think were worth including.

 

On GUITAR DISTORTION BOXES -- and the Discontinuation of EXCELLENT PRODUCTS

An old pic from 2015 or 2016 or so, taken right after Christmas. A frost covered yard, and lights and ornaments on my favorite Hawthorn tree -- it looks like Christmas, doesn't it. I may put the lights back up, but from the crappy, rainy weather we've been having lately I doubt it will look this Christmassy this year.

As many of my readers are probably aware, I write mostly about guitar and radio stuff -- sometimes veering into other things -- Holidays, weather, etc.

The past few months, especially since the coronavirus shutdowns and slowdowns, I've had a lot of time to play guitar, and tons of time to practice. Most of it has been working on my slide guitar proficiency, which has improved a lot since the beginning of the year. Daily practice for two hours or so a day really helps.

I also have been trying new things in my guitar's signal chain, to make it more consistent in any situation.

One of the few pictures I took this Summer. I call him Socks the Cat. I don't know who this cute little cat belongs to -- he showed up on my front porch one night, and my cats didn't seem to mind him being there. I next saw him about two blocks away, hunting mice in a grassy area near some neighbors' houses. A week later I was out on my bike at night and saw Socks about five or six blocks in the other direction, hanging out by a grassy area near the local Trail. I haven't seen Socks for a few weeks... I certainly hope nothing bad happened to him.

To explain this, I need to take us back to late last year, when I had the opportunity to participate in a local music project.

Although I had my small Marshall Valvestate amp in the car, they instead pointed me to a 20 watt model that was tilted back towards the wall where I couldn't really access the controls. The amp wasn't very loud. My performance was probably not up to snuff, because I simply could not hear myself.

THREE THINGS TO INSIST UPON WHEN PLAYING WITH OTHERS

I learned three basic things from that experience: first off -- never, ever play with others if you can not hear yourself. Get up and walk out if you can't fix the situation otherwise! Because if you can't really hear yourself, you're just wasting your time.

Another thing I learned was to always insist on using your own equipment. Unless it's absolutely necessary, or super inconvenient -- or unless you really know the equipment used -- never play through someone else's amp or signal chain when playing with other musicians, especially if you're playing with them for the first time. If you aren't allowed to sound like yourself, then you are probably wasting your time.

The third thing I learned was that it's a good idea to make sure your guitar's audio chain is already sounding as close to perfect as possible before it goes through ANY amp. Anywhere.

This includes not just your guitar, but any boxes in your signal chain. A lot of guys depend on their favorite amplifier's sound. Although this is fine if you're established in a group, there are other situations where you don't have that luxury. This means you have to make sure that the signal coming out of the end of your guitar cable already sounds like you want it to, regardless of the amplifier you are using. If you're a rock player, as I am, that means you have the right distortion or dirt box.

So, after the debacle I described above, I set about finding the right stompboxes to ensure my guitar's sound will sound good, and sound like ME, through ANY amp, through any clean or dirty channel. I already had stompboxes -- a Boss DS-1, a Marshall Guv'nor Plus, a Boss DD-3 delay and a couple chorus boxes, but aside from the delay and chorus I'd never bothered with dirt boxes at home. I just depended on either my Marshall Valvestate, or the gain channel in my Fender practice amp.

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, a recent acquisition here, and probably one of the best and most versatile distortion boxes ever made. I was pleasantly surprised at its sound and versatility. Even when you turn down the volume on your guitar's controls it has clarity. With the distortion level kicked up a notch, the chords blast out of your amplifier, with each string heard distinctly, and with picking dynamics clearly audible. The tone overall is what I would call Marshall and Vox-like, in other words it has a British edge to it. The box has six different clipping diodes distributed over two stages (4 in the gain stage, and 2 more in the final stage), and the amp transistors are all FET's, which probably account for its characteristics. At around $100, it's an excellent addition to any guitarists trove. I run mine in between the guitar and my Boss SD-1, which I use in place of a guitar pre-amp. The combination of the two boxes, which work well together, really gives blues and rock notes a great snarl, similar to Mick Ronson's, or a similar enough bite to Eric Clapton's tones in the Bluesbreakers and Cream.

The experience with the other guys showed me that I needed to change the way I viewed my signal chain. If I wanted to play with other people, I needed to take a closer look at it. The experience also gave me a new appreciation for having the right dirt box as part of your sound.

So, over the past several months I've added to my dirt box collection. I got a Boss SD-1, in early Spring, because it's an reasonably priced overdrive, and because schematically it was reasonably close to the gain channel on my favorite amp, a solid state Fender Tweed Bronco (made in the 1990's). I also bought a Boss Blues Driver BD-2, and a Joyo British Sound character pedal.

The SD-1 itself was a good idea. It had just enough compression to bring out the nuances of slide playing. The tone was also good. A little midrangy, but still useful. The Blues Driver is an excellent pedal, with distinct dynamics, and it works great with the SD-1. It's like having two gain channels in front of your amp's clean channel. The Joyo (around $35) sounds very Marshall-like, and makes the amp sound louder than it really is. At first, I got it as a backup for my Guv'nor, but it has different characteristics. It's a louder sounding dirt box, for one of them.

So, over the months I've put together a pretty good chain. It sounds good through the clean channels of both of my amps. I had never bothered with clean channels before, actually. Being a blues and hard rock player, I had no use for clean channels. But now I see their merit -- if you can get a good dirt tone through an amp's clean channel, you are pretty much set, anywhere.

CLEAN CHANNELS = USELESS to CLEAN CHANNELS = USEFUL

Which leads to the point of this blog post: both of my favorite distortion units -- my Fender Bronco, and my Marshall Guv'nor Plus, are no longer made.

Now, before you guitar nuts start laughing, read further first. :-)

There is something to be said for an amp or dirt box that puts out great sound. Marshall and Fender amps aren't consistent great sellers because they sound bad. You could say the same thing for some stomp boxes -- like the famous Ibanez Tube Screamer, or the ubiquitous Boss Overdrive and Distortion boxes. They sell all the time because they sound good.

So -- why do some of these manufacturers discontinue a good thing?

My standard guitar signal chain: a Boss DD-3 for just a bit of atmosphere, a Marshall-like dirt box in the middle for color and crunch, and my Boss SD-1 for a final push into whichever amp's clean channel I'm using. Often I'll substitute the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver in the middle position -- it has a bit less sharp high-midrange than the Joyo British Sound, but still provides a Marshall or Vox like crunch. The JOYO British Sound box is a new purchase: it has a Marshall-like roar, and individual notes have a distinct bite. The lower middle control, 'Voice', adjusts the way the midrange reacts with the distortion -- in fact, all three lower controls interact with each other. The pedal is a little bright for my tastes -- I still prefer the older Marshall Guv'nor Plus -- the Joyo probably sounds more like older Marshalls -- think Malcolm Young of AC/DC on the first US album "High Voltage", and you get the idea. As for any extra brightness, I just turn down the treble on the amp or guitar. It may not be so with other guitarists, who do not prefer a darker sound.

ADDENDUM: JOYO BRITISH SOUND and excess HISS:

After playing guitar with the Joyo for the past several months, I've noticed a couple things -- first, that it's a good pedal for older Marshall sounds. Second, that the LED will still remain bright when the battery is low.

Most Boss pedals and Boss style pedals (my old Ibanez pedals, for example) have the red power LED dimming significantly before the battery craps out. Not so with Mr. Joyo.

Earlier tonight (March 27) I was playing with my Joyo (Guitar > Joyo British Sound > Boss SD-1 > Fender Bronco clean channel) when I noticed I was getting a LOT of HISS. Now, most gain pedals, and some amps, put out hiss. But not so much that it's in the way of the music. But my Joyo was putting out more hiss than a pressure cooker blowing its top. It definitely wasn't doing that before. Something had obviously changed.

The red power LED was a little bit dim, but not considerably dimmer than it was the previous evening of playing guitar. However, the only variable was the 9V battery. So I changed it.

Instantly: problem solved! I was back in Malcolm Young territory again.

GOODBYE FENDER BRONCO, and GOODBYE SPEAKER JACKS

When discussing this tendency of a great item being curiously discontinued, the tweed Fender Bronco is a case in point. The amp puts out 20 watts. Its distortion channel appears modelled after the famous original Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, with similar layout in circuitry and the same op amps used (TL072's). It's a great sounding amp -- once you plug it into a speaker box.

See, the amp, although it's a practice amp -- has an EXTERNAL SPEAKER JACK.

None of the current Fender or Marshall practice amps have them. 

Why? They have all this useless shit -- digital modelling, which -- although it has its uses -- really doesn't make up for a great, regular distortion channel. And now most of them have Bluetooth. Really? It's a guitar amp, not a smartphone or MP3 player!

And even if they want to include those features -- which some people apparently want -- why do none of them have an External Speaker Jack?

When I bought my Fender Bronco in the late 1990's, I was just looking for a small amp that would sound decent, so I wouldn't burn out the tubes on my 50 Watt Marshall just practicing or song writing. When I went into Guitar Center to check out amps I noticed this tweed thing -- solid state, so no tubes would burn out -- and it seemed to sound OK through its speaker. The gain channel had plenty of crunch, which meant I could use my favorite single-coil guitar through it.

Then I noticed it had an external speaker jack.

I took the amp into Guitar Center's amp room and plugged the little Fender into a Marshall 4 X 12 box. I was astounded by the sound I was now getting! It sounded like a cross between a Vox and a Marshall, with a rich, full, and gnarly rock tone, not too different from what you hear on hard rock CD's.

I was instantly sold.

To my surprise, a few years later Fender not only discontinued the tweed, solid state Bronco, they never replaced it with another amp that had an external speaker jack. And that is crazy, as a speaker jack can't cost THAT much to install on an amplifier at the factory.

My Marshall Guv'nor Plus, sitting next to a newer Joyo British Sound pedal. The two pedals do indeed sound like Marshalls, with the Joyo being brighter, with more clarity in the notes and chords, and the Guv'nor Plus having a bit more of that Marshall-like roar.  Think JTM45/Plexi (Joyo) vs. JCM800 (Guv'Nor). The pedal on the left is available at most online stores for $35-45 new. The Guv'nor -- if you can find one -- goes for several hundred USD. In fact, the last time I saw one for sale, it was over $400!

GUV'NOR PLUS -- From $80 to $400

Another discontinued device that mystifies me is the Marshall Guv'nor Plus.

I got mine in 2000 or 2001. I was looking for a box that would give my single coils an extra boost, but also sound Marshall-like. I was pleasantly surprised. I think I got the thing for around 70-80 dollars US.

It makes any amp sound like a Marshall JCM800 or 900. It has that much gain. It also has a ton of versatility -- the tone controls are robust, and a battery lasts a long time. On top of that, the 2000's series of Marshall pedals -- the Guv'nor Plus, the Bluesbreaker, the Jackhammer, etc. -- all are built like tanks, with solid steel enclosures that are so tough a Mack Truck could probably run over them and they would still probably work.

A lot of guys online complain about a bleed capacitor inside the box, which cuts the highs down. I actually like the fact it's there -- it gives the Guv'nor Plus a darker sound. Marshall amps were fairly dark sounding amps when they started getting popular in the late 1960's. I think this is why they darkened the sound of the Guv'nor -- it was to match the 'dark' sound of an early Marshall amp through an even-more dark sounding Marshall speaker box.

From what I can tell, most guys loved their Guv'nor Pluses. Some, who didn't like the bleed capacitor, merely had them removed to get the extra highs. The boxes were big sellers. There still is a demand for them now.

But Marshall, to my amazement, discontinued them some time around 2008 or 2009.

You can't even find a Guv'nor Plus online, used for less than $400!

Why aren't they making them now?

PRODUCT = GOOD? PRODUCT OFTEN = DISCONTINUED.

It's one of those things that always puzzles me. A product works well, is probably easy to make, the factory already is tooled up for production, and they cancel the product after a few years and either replace it with other models that don't have the same positive features (Fender) or don't replace it at all (Marshall).

Over the years I've seen picks discontinued (Fender Delrin Red .50mm picks -- they were great picks), cables have been discontinued and replaced with other ones that are twice the price and don't work any better, and good luck trying to find green guitar straps!

I almost bought a $900 Gibson 'Topaz' Les Paul. Then I got this Lotus L520 for $360 instead.

Then you have the guitars that come and go. In 1996 I almost bought a Gibson Topaz Les Paul. For those of you who don't know what a Topaz is, it was part of Gibson's "Gem" series, where they gave the Les Paul different colored finishes, and installed the guitars with single coil P-90's, some of the best sounding pickups out there.

The Topaz was the red sunburst version. It played and sounded great. It was on sale, at a no-longer existent music store in Southcenter (a massive complex south of Seattle) for around $900, which was a good price for any Les Paul at the time. I passed on it, not being able to justify spending that much on a guitar. A couple months later I got my red, Lotus L-520 Les Paul copy at another no-longer existent music store on First Avenue in Seattle. The L-520 probably was a much better buy, as it sounds just as good as the Topaz did, and it has served me well over the years since 1996.

Here is a Gibson Topaz. It was an awesome playing and awesome sounding guitar. Why Gibson quit making them is a mystery. They were beautiful guitars, and sounded good. Perhaps this tendency of guitar manufacturers to change out designs and models like most of us change lightbulbs is a reason they are having some financial troubles lately.

Anyway, shortly after that year, the Topaz, and all of the Gibson 'Gem' models were discontinued. Good luck finding one, even used, now.

I suppose in the minds of the manufacturers it is a matter of keeping up demand with newer and more 'exciting' products. But it still is irritating when a great product becomes discontinued, and then the value of the used versions skyrocket, as happened with the Guv'nor Plus.

My Sony ICF-38, a terrific AM-FM radio. It pulls in nearly every station a Superadio will, and has terrific battery life. Bought new at Fry's Electronics for $34 in 2014, it is now a discontinued radio. The last time I saw one for sale online in the used marketplace, it was going for over $200.

This thing also happens with radios. One of my most useful DX and emergency radios, my Sony ICF-38, I bought at Fry's Electronics about eight years ago for $35. Now you can only find them used for around $200 or more. The prices for them now are INSANE.

A perfectly good product, discontinued.

I guess it's the way of the world, and I suppose one last lesson to be gained from all of this is if you come across a product that you really use or rely on -- make sure you get a backup, or make sure you take excellent care of the one you've got.

One of my three electric Jack O' Lanterns that's still outside, glowing in early December. I simply haven't gotten around to wanting to take them down. I presently prefer Halloween to Christmas, anyway.

IN OTHER LIFE.....

Overall, it's been a rainy, crappy Fall and Winter here in the Seattle region. I suppose that's better than freezing weather all the time, but the constant rain and grey is a real downer.

After finishing typing this blog post, I'm going to take the last few electric Jack O' Lanterns down (yes, I left a few of them up), and put out some Christmas lights and ornaments on my Hawthorn tree out front -- not too far from where I buried my cat just after Thanksgiving.

I don't really feel like putting up lights, though. Christmas hasn't been much of a celebratory Holiday to me in several years. But the colored lights are nice. In shitty weather you take all the bright and cheeriness you can get. :-)

I have no Christmas plans, really. The family cancelled theirs due to corona. Sometimes, even though I'm not Catholic, I have gone to Midnight Mass to be somewhere with other people on Christmas Eve, but some Catholic churches shut down before midnight now, and that was before coronavirus. Now, because of corona, they're shut down, period.

Aside from that, I continue with my usual... Work has slackened because of corona slowdowns, so I have been doing things around the house, fiction writing, and practicing on guitar. MW DX hasn't been on the front burner, as conditions have been fair to middling for the most part.

I did hear KNZZ Grand Junction, Colorado a few days back when I was finishing another blog post. KNZZ is a rare catch, and it's always nice to hear a station from Colorado that isn't KOA 850. I have nothing against KOA, but it's usually heard year-round here in Seattle -- all you have to do is turn your AM radio into KHHO Tacoma's null and 'poof!' Colorado!

Snow on the lights and ornaments on my Hawthorn tree, Lille Julafton (Dec. 23rd), 2016. The way the weather is looking this year, it will be continued rain. Oh well.

Until next time, I hope my readers are all doing well.

Peace,

C.C. 12-17-2020

The SANGEAN PR-D14 -- an excellent MW DX and Emergency Radio

The Sangean PR-D14 AM-FM Radio, a great performer and great emergency radio -- with FM Stereo through headphones.

Before the Coronavirus slammed us in February of this year, I rediscovered the local Fry's Electronics store, which in the 2010's was THE place to go for electronics, but in recent years has been struggling to survive in an increasingly online retail world. 

To explain this, I need to take you back a few years.

During the 2010's, I rediscovered my radio hobby after several years of not really listening to MW and SW much. In fact, for about a ten year period I didn't DX much at all.

In September of 2011, I finally pulled all of my radios out of their storage closet, and started fixing some of them -- or trying to fix some I didn't end up fixing. :-)  It's also when I modified my GE Superadios slightly -- something I talk about in this blog post:

Interrock Nation: Boosting the antenna circuit of a GE SUPERADIO 1 & 2

To get parts for these projects, I went to Fry's, as our local Radio Shack was closing and didn't have many parts.

I also bought a couple radios at Fry's: my Sangean PR-D5, my Grundig G2, and my Sony ICF-38 -- all of which got heavy use. I bought my now broken Sangean PR-D6 there on sale. I bought a few CDs, blank CDR's, USB drives, a printer for my old computer -- for these things, Fry's was THE place to go. They had a little bit of everything electronic, and they even had a coffeeshop in the middle of the store. Early in the 2010's -- even with the Recession on -- the store was full of shoppers, had loads of employees, and it was always a busy place with plenty of good deals on everything from USB drives to computer parts to phone chargers.

My PR-D14 with its back off -- the radio comes apart very easily -- it's built well, like boomboxes in the 1980s used to be built. There are five main screws, and two tiny ones near the top, that come out fairly easy. There are no user serviceable parts, except maybe the volume control might need a shot of De-oxit in a few years. It would probably be easier to shoot some down the side of the shaft, as I do with my GE Superadios when they need it. I don't like taking apart radios unless absolutely necessary. Too easy to break something.

For a while after 2015 or so, I didn't go to Fry's much. But just before the corona shutdowns in February, I went into the store, and it wasn't the same place. A lot of the shelves were partially empty of goods. It didn't have the same festive, upbeat atmosphere, and wasn't as busy. It was very sad, to the point that it depressed me. It seemed to reflect the general state of brick-and-mortar retail in the US today -- on the brink. They still had a few Sangean and Sony radios for sale, and a few computers for sale here and there in the computer section, and a few TV's in the TV department, but Fry's seemed to have taken a hit -- probably by online purchasing, which has hurt a lot of brick-and-mortar retail.

Along with online shopping hurting Fry's, the trade war with China, of course, didn't help, as they apparently had special arrangements with Chinese suppliers. And the recent Coronavirus shutdowns naturally didn't help their situation any.

ENTER THE PR-D14 -- Like I Needed Another Radio....

All that said, right before the first corona shutdown in my state, Washington, I made a couple trips to Fry's to get some electronics -- USB drives, batteries, and the like. I also checked out their dwindling radio shelf, looking over the few Sangean and Sony models still on display.

The one that caught my eye was the Sangean PR-D14, which looks like a mono version of the famous DXer, the PR-D5.

Now, I probably needed another radio like I need another hole in my head, but I went ahead and got one of the PR-D14's right before the shutdown. It was a way to try to keep myself out of the Corona doldrums, and also give Fry's just a little customer support, because I like the store, and -- after all -- there are people who work there who need jobs, too.

The Sangean PR-D14 runs off a 6-Volt NOISE-FREE AC Adapter or 4 D-Cell batteries. The batteries fit securely in the back of the radio. The top one is a tight fit because Sangean outfitted it with a large, strong spring. Consequently, the batteries don't jiggle around inside the radio at all.

 

D CELLS = GOOD!

When I got the PR-D14 home and I took it out of the box, the first thing that impressed me was that the radio takes D CELLS. When I was younger, during boombox and GE Superadio days, D Cells were pretty standard in radio portables. Now, to see a radio that takes D Cells is a rarity -- probably because the industry is going more towards rechargeables, or they think that radios with D Cells are too heavy.

I found the D Cells to be a great idea. D Cells last longer than AA's in the same radio, which is a plus in emergencies if and when the power is off for any length of time (see my previous posts on power outages and radio).:

Interrock Nation: WRITING IN THE DARK -- thoughts about the power grid

Interrock Nation: A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS -- 30 Hours Without Power, and a Sony Radio.

And the use of D Cells in the PR-D14 is indeed one of is pluses: a set of batteries in a PR-D14 will last a long time. As my readers probably know, I like to promote emergency radios, being that I live in an earthquake prone area, where they say the power grid may some day be vulnerable when an 8.0 or 9.0 earthquake hits. Such a shaker could take the grid down for weeks, if not months in places. In such areas prone to grid failures, emergency radios -- particularly ones with an AM band in them -- are a good idea.

A couple years ago, I posted an article on why AM / MW radio is important during disasters and emergencies, and it illustrates why a radio with good performance and good battery life would be essential.:

Interrock Nation: AM/MW RADIO AND THE CASCADIA 'BIG ONE' -- The Importance of a Dying Broadcast Band During Major Earthquakes & Other National Disasters

Sangean's decision to power the PR-D14 with D-Cells makes it an excellent choice, not just for emergencies and disasters, but it would be a great camping radio for the same reason, as campers don't always have boxes of batteries handy when out in the bush. The PR-D14's ability to hear distant AM and FM stations also makes it a great camping and travel radio.

For home, plug-in use, the Sangean PR-D14 comes with an interference free AC adapter. Sangean has been able to develop switching power supplies that do not interfere with AM radio reception. I am listening to my PR-D14 on its AC adapter as I write this: there is no RFI interference whatsoever.

HOW DOES IT PERFORM? VERY WELL

After noticing the fact the radio uses D-Cells, the next thing I noticed about the PR-D14 was its relative simplicity of use. The power button is not recessed, like some other Sangean models -- making it more positive to the touch. The tuning is done via an up and down button on the front of the radio -- making for less parts to break. The sole non-button control is the volume knob on the side of the radio, which is easy to find even in the dark.

The PR-D14 will play music off AM, FM, AUX IN, or even a USB stick (the USB port is in the top of the radio). Although most users probably wouldn't play music through a mono speaker (although it's still stereo in headphones) from a USB stick, it's still a cool feature.

The main question many of my readers may be asking is how does the PR-D14 perform on FM and AM? The answer is very well. The PR-D14 is obviously DSP equipped, as nearly all new Sangeans are -- in fact, the radio will put out RF 'chirps' on other, nearby radios when you tune it across the band -- just like every other DSP radio I have does (it's an artifact, not a defect in the radio -- DSP tuners will chirp on other nearby radios).

The Sangean PR-D14 with its back off, where the main PCB, speaker, and controls are located. The MW / AM loopstick antenna is clearly visible at top -- it has a single sense-coil, and is 100mm long (it measures out about 100mm on my ruler). The speaker is capable of handling 3 watts of power -- more than the 1 watt that the radio's audio chip puts out.

100 millimeter MW LOOPSTICK INSIDE

The AM side of the PR-D14 appears to be almost identical with that in the well known Sangean PR-D5 -- the limitation being the antenna length inside the radio. The size of the case indicates that the loopstick is shorter than the PR-D5's 200mm loopstick. From the outside of the radio, of course, it's impossible to tell if the PR-D14's loopstick is a twin coil or single coil (the PR-D5's loopsticks since 2012 are twin coil). 

Taking off the back of the radio reveals that the PR-D14's MW loopstick is about 9mm thick, and measures out to be 100 mm long. It's obviously enough for the radio to pull in DX on the MW band -- largely because of the DSP chip (probably a SiLabs chip) that the radio uses. DSP chips usually make a radio perform very well on both AM and FM.

Either way, my PR-D14 will pull in anything my PR-D5 hears, although the weakest stations are noticeably weaker by a dB or so -- if that.

Still, it's a handy DX radio on MW. Using an external loop with the PR-D14 is a bit easier than it is with a PR-D5. Why this is, I don't really know. It may have something to do with the dual coils in the PR-D5, or some other factor. I use my Select-A-Tenna with the PR-D14 and it responds very similarly to the way an analog IF-chipped radio responds.

The PR-D14's MW Loop antenna with my ruler next to it -- the loopstick measures out to 100mm. I use metric when measuring antennas and other smaller items, as it makes more sense than fractions of an inch. For bigger stuff, like bicycle parts and car parts, I use both systems. Temperature is always Fahrenheit although I post it here in Centigrade for my overseas friends. :-)

Right now, as I finish typing this blog article in my den, I have the PR-D14 playing in the corner of the room. For no particular reason, I tuned it to 1100 KHz, which often is covered in splash on some radios, because we have a local 50 KW station here in Seattle on 1090.

I am able to clearly hear KFAX San Francisco, a religious station, as well as the audio of a station behind it, coming from the East -- the news-talk station in Grand Junction, Colorado, KNZZ, which is about 900 or more miles (1000 km) away. I am hearing the stations with minimal splash.

I also have my PR-D5 fired up, and the two radios are practically pulling the stations in the same. KNZZ isn't a common catch here. And the fact it's coming in on my PR-D14 is an indication it works very well.

One last thing about DXing with the radio -- the headphones work well with DXing. I haven't had the issue with this radio where nearly empty DX channels do not have enough headphone volume, as I got with the PR-D5. If the PR-D14 has drop-down resistors on the headphone circuit, they must have adjusted them a little.

For more on low headphone volume, I posted an article on the PR-D5's peculiarities here, and a possible fix, if your own PR-D5 has low headphone volume on quiet MWDX channels:

Interrock Nation: Fixing the SANGEAN PR-D5's low headphone volume

No such mod is needed on the PR-D14.

CHANGING MW / AM CHANNEL SPACING

Those of us here in the US and most of the Western Hemisphere listen to MW with 10 kHz spacing between channels. I.e., my local stations' frequencies are 10 kHz apart. In Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world, MW is in 9 kHz spacing.

The PR-D14 comes to your country generally programmed to receive MW with the channel spacing in your region. But you can change it fairly easily.

You press the MENU button and hold it. You will hear a soft 'beep'. Then you use the TUNE up or down button to reach "AM 10 Khz" (or "AM 9 Khz" if you're outside the Western Hemisphere). Press the SCAN button. The "10 Khz" or "9 Khz" will flash. Use the tuner buttons to toggle to 9 or 10 khz. Press the SCAN button. This sets the channel spacing. Press the MENU button again. You're set.

Here in North America a lot of guys switch their radios to 9 khz spacing to DX stations from across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. If your radio doesn't tune in 1 Khz increments, switching to 9 Khz spacing is a cheap way to DX the overseas channels. You might get splash, or heterodynes from local stations, but you'd get those anyway. I switched my PR-D5 to 9 KHz once to hear the Korean station that sometimes makes it here on 1566 khz.

The changing of spacing on MW is also described in the PR-D14 User Manual, which I have linked later in this article.

FM PULLS IN FRINGE STATIONS EXCELLENTLY

On FM, the PR-D14 pulls in fringe and distant FM stations better than my best analog FM radios, but slightly less than my Grundig G2 (which is also DSP). Why there is a difference between the two radios' reception on FM I do not know. Still, I was able to hear a classic rock station from Vancouver, B.C., Canada (about 130 miles / 200 km away) on my PR-D14 off the whip antenna, and I'd never heard that station before in my life. 

I am not an FM DXer, but sometimes Victoria, B.C. stations come in when tropospheric conditions exist. On rarer occasions, stations from farther away can be heard, but due to local terrain, FM DX is almost impossible. The fact the PR-D14 pulled in a station from 120 air miles away, with a hill in the way, says a lot. The only other time I heard a Vancouver, B.C. station was in the late 1980's when I took my boombox to a distant hillside facing north, where the back of that hill blocked out all the local FM interference, and I was able to hear CBUF, the French CBC station from Vancouver, which was very cool to hear!

Vancouver, B.C. stations are exceedingly rare at my home location, as there is a big hill in the way.

Maybe tropospheric conditions were exceptional when I heard the Vancouver rocker, but the fact I heard a Vancouver, B.C. station at all is an example of the PR-D14's ability to pull in FM.

Although the PR-D14 is a mono radio with just one speaker, through headphones FM is in crisp, clear stereo.

EMERGENCY RADIO? YES

As I noted before, in case of emergencies, a good AM radio is a must. During grid failures, cell systems can even lose power, as some hams noted during the recent wildfires in Oregon. Local FM and AM stations could be off the air. However, not only will AM stations be heard from 100-200 miles away during the daytime, at night skywave reception will bring in numerous stations from other regions, which may be vital for news and information if there is a widespread power outage, as would be expected during a major earthquake -- especially here in the PNW (the Pacific Northwest, for those of you not in the United States), where we have several major faults expected to slip at any time.

So far, I've had my PR-D14 for over eight months and I'm still on the first set of D Cells, and I use the radio for at least 15-20 minutes nearly every day, at least half of that time listening on headphones. There have been a few nights where I left it on while sleeping, and the radio, several months later, is still on one bar for battery power -- the PR-D14 will indeed last a while on a set of D-Cells.

The fact I use headphones a lot is probably why my batteries have lasted so long.

OPERATION IS A SNAP -- INCLUDING LISTENING TO MUSIC FROM A USB DRIVE

Operating the PR-D14 is very easy. The on-off button is not recessed, so it is easy to turn on and off, unlike the PR-D5's concave, somewhat recessed button. The only rotary control is a volume control on the side of the radio. The FM sounds good through headphones (in stereo) and pretty good through the large (4 inch?) speaker. AM sounds good through the speaker, and OK through headphones -- the bandwidth on MW/AM seems to be similar to the PR-D5, maybe 4-5 Khz, which is great for selectivity, but the highs are a little muffled, but not quite as much as my PR-D5.

TEN STATION PRE-SETS -- 5 AM & 5 FM

There are five station preset buttons on the front of the radio which are easy to set, or re-set: you just tune to the station you want, and press a button for a second or two until you hear a beep. That's it.

There are five pre-sets for the AM band, and five for the FM band. When you fire the radio up after taking it out of the box, there are five factory pre-sets for each band, interspersed across the band, although not all the way. On the AM band, for example, the factory pre-sets are 520, 1710, 600, 1000, and 1400. On FM they're 87.5, 108.0, 90.0, 98.0, and 106.0. They're probably set up that way for test purposes. I usually program mine for several favorite stations or channels across each band: my favorite DX and regional channels on AM, and rock, pop, and news stations on FM.

When you take out the batteries with the AC adapter unplugged it will re-set the radio. This also deletes your presets, which isn't that big a deal, being that there are only 5 on each band.

USB JACK on top for MUSIC

There is a USB music play capability I haven't yet used. There is a USB port on the top of the radio, and one of the play options is USB -- you access the USB by hitting the bandswitch button in the top row -- it toggles between AM / AUX / USB / FM. Other buttons on the front select your music folder, and then the music file you want to play.

'POWER FAIL' - Don't Panic -- SHOWS WHEN BATTERIES ARE GETTING VERY WEAK

If you have low batteries, like mine are right now (I'm still on the first set, and they're finally down to zero bars -- the radio still is working, though...), when you hit the bandswitch, it will go to USB and then you may get a "POWER FAIL" warning on the radio's display. The radio then powers off. Then, if you hit the power button, it will toggle to USB, AUX, and FM as per usual. Apparently the switching function requires a little more power, causing the "POWER FAIL" warning to show up whenever your batteries are low enough, or it's just a software glitch that occurs when batteries are low.

It doesn't disable the radio, however. The radio will still operate normally. In these cases, when you see the "POWER FAIL" occur when toggling from band to band, just hit the main Power button and you're on your way to FM. Or use the AC power adapter.... Or, change the batteries. :-)

All the radio is doing is letting you know that the batteries are low for some functions. Although it hasn't happened to me yet, I'm sure that the POWER FAIL warning comes on when the batteries are too low to operate the radio, and it probably cuts the radio off.

AUX IN for MUSIC and RDS

The PR-D14, just like the PR-D5 and other Sangean radios, has an AUX IN function, which uses the mini jack on the side of the radio for playing music off of a tablet computer, MP3 player, or cell phone.

LCD PECULIARITIES; FM-RDS 

The only negative in this radio is that the LCD display turns into a clock after a few seconds when you have tuned in a station. They do this because a lot of people apparently like their radios to double as clocks... and also it's to save power in some way. With the PR-D14, if you have been DXing and listening to a frequency, and temporarily forget which channel it was, you glance at the dial and you'll just see the clock.

But all you have to do in such cases is just press the "INFO" button near the tuner button, and the LCD lights up and the frequency reappears for about 7-8 seconds.

Also, although the PR-D14 has RDS, the RDS doesn't stay up long enough to scroll to ID song titles. :-( This is unusual, because the PR-D5, which also has FM-RDS, keeps the RDS scrolling for as long as you are tuned to the FM station.

The LCD light is helpful, and has two separate delay times: if the radio is running off of batteries, the light stays on for about 2-3 seconds; if it is plugged into the AC adapter, the light stays on for 7-8 seconds.

DIFFERENT VERSIONS? OIRT / JAPANESE channel capability on FM

According to the Sangean website, the PR-D14 is capable of OIRT / Eastern European FM reception, and also reception of the Japanese FM band, which goes lower in frequency than the FM band in the rest of the world.

The PR-D14 User Manual (which is available on Sangean's website here: UM_20121106_3A81VU100000A_PR-D14USB_GB_R1.pdf (sangean.com), shows how to switch the FM band to 64-108 MHz if you want. It's fairly easy, by using the INFO button, SCAN button (a small button next to the tuner button) and Tuner button.

I have mine set for 64-108 MHz just for the fun of it -- it's useless, of course, as not even the best of FM conditions are going to bring Japanese or OIRT / Eastern European FM stations here. It might be a useful function if you have a PR-D14 and either live in those areas, or travel there.

You can also switch the FM channel spacing, something I've never done. And, finally, you can force the PR-D14 to receive FM in Mono, something I've also never done. The way to do this is in the User Manual linked above.

A GOOD OVERALL DX AND EMERGENCY RADIO

But, overall, for a carry-around AM/FM radio with stereo headphone and DX capability, and good battery life, the PR-D14 is hard to beat. There aren't a lot of portables available today with good reception and good battery life combined -- and increasing numbers of portable radios have rechargeable batteries, which is a wash if there is an extended power outage. I know there are battery packs one can buy that will recharge rechargeables -- but in my view it's much cheaper and easier to buy a few spare sets of D cells (or AA's if you radio uses AA's) and keep them in a drawer somewhere.

I know as the years progress the idea of listening to radio on an actual radio seems more and more passe, and I understand that. Still, radios have their uses, and many of us who are GenX and older (I'm in Generation Jones) still think of "radio" as something you get from a plastic box with a dial and speakers on it. And for such people, the PR-D14 is a worthy addition -- for hearing music or sports when out in the yard, camping, travelling, or otherwise when the power is off and your cell service and internet is dead.

The PR-D14 is moderately priced, easy on batteries, sounds good, and is easy to use. If you're into radios, it's well worth it to check the PR-D14 out. You probably won't be disappointed.

AS FOR NON-RADIO TOPICS....

In other news, life is carrying on in 2020. I have been loaded with work at my job, and have recently been taking care of a family member full time. I have been practicing my slide guitar playing, which takes my mind off of a) politics, which we are inundated with here in the US, and b) life in general, which really has had few bright spots as of late.

I'm looking forwards to Halloween, although I still have to clean up and decorate my front yard, and wonder if we'll have any trick-or-treaters this year because of coronavirus.

Here is hoping that those of you who are reading this are coming through the Pandemic OK and your year is at least passably palatable.

Until next time, Peace.

C.C. 10-9-2020

Naturally, it took me a while to get this article published on my blog. In December I added the photos of the outside and inside of the radio, and accompanying text.

Right now it appears we are headed for another corona lockdown, even though a vaccine may be available later this month, and more available in January. Work has slowed down at my job, so I've been doing a lot more things at home, and concentrating on my writing hobby. 

The weather here has been dreary -- cold, generally, and rain. The past couple nights have been warmer, though, which is nice.

I probably won't put up Christmas lights or decorations this year. I'm just not enthused about the holiday. My hawthorn tree might get some lights, and that's about it. Right now a glowing Halloween pumpkin still sits in the tree. :-) 

I'll end this post with a pic of my two grey kittens which I got in late September, 2011 -- about the time I rediscovered my radio hobby. The one on the left is Pudge, who died on November 15th. The kitten on the right I named Fluffy. She is doing OK.

Peace.

C.C 12-10-2020

ADDENDUM, April 2022 -- POWER BUTTON ISSUE:

I have been using my Sangean PR-D14 as a kitchen radio for the past year or so, usually leaving it on 24/7. I started noticing an issue when turning it off -- instead of the radio turning off, the radio would tune down a frequency. I'd press the POWER button again, and it would, once again, tune downwards one channel.

After a couple months of this happening fairly frequently, I pulled the battery and pulled the AC plug, and re-set the radio. The first time I did it, I didn't allow the radio enough time without power for the re-set to work. The second time, it reset fine, and the power button glitch disappeared, and all was normal again. :-)

The key to knowing if the radio re-sets properly is when you plug the radio back in, all the characters on the LCD readout will light up and you my hear a 'beep'.

This is very similar to the POWER Button issue I encountered with my Sangean PR-D5, and I would bet that this issue sometimes occurs on other Sangean radios.

Sangean's radio operating firmware seems to have periodic button glitches. Even my PR-D18 (a small, almost pocket sized, decent DX-er, grey radio) has exhibited this issue at least twice, as when I hit one of the volume buttons once to turn down the radio, and it sent me to the alarm-setting function instead. A second press of the volume-down button worked properly. This has happened twice, actually. No big deal, but...

Sometimes the button scan function on these Sangean radios glitches. Usually a reset will clear it all up if it persists.

I have a blog article on the Sangean PR-D5 Power Button issue here.:

Interrock Nation: How to quickly fix a SANGEAN PR-D5 Power Button malfunction -- and other easy fixes

ADDENDUM, March 2023 -- more on the Power Button Glitch:

I still have the issue at least every other time I power off my PR-D14, only it will tune UP one channel instead of down one channel. No big deal. Radio works fine otherwise. It's my 24/7 kitchen radio, and sometimes I'll check DX on it. 

It's powered up all the time, via the AC adaptor that came with the radio, so that's probably one of the reasons it can glitch.... as I explained in the linked article up above, it seems that having the radio powered up all the time can cause the microprocessor to glitch eventually, and the solution is to remove all power, let the radio sit for 20-30 seconds, and then power it back up. I still think PR-D14's are well worth the money. PR-D14's are good DXers and work well as kitchen radios and the like.