Horrible reception in Cleveland, OH.

[dr*audio]

For several days I have been having simply horrible reception problems, both at home and in the car. On my 2 favorite stations, other stations, from Canada have been interfering with the local signal. Usually this happens during periods of sunspot activity, but I just checked and the sun is pretty quiet right now. Has anyone else been having this problem in the Ohio / Michigan / PA area? Weather related perhaps? Even some strong local stations are being interfered with. Just curious if anyone else has noticed it.

[Punker X]

Been pretty good here in Michigan. Was a having some issues about a month a go. Mainly around sunrise when the layers change.

[maxsmart]

I've experienced a few reception issues with 88 - 90 MHz but I don't know if the "offending" stations have been out of Canada. It does seem that I didn't have to fiddle with FM settings as much as I have been recently on several stations I listen to often, and the problem is more noticable in the morning.

[Holst]

This is the season for thermal inversions, in the 80's I worked for a 100k FM in Davenport, Iowa and every fall we'd get phone calls about our signal coming in to Pittsburg in stereo.

[Fedallah]

I have problems here in Ann Arbor all the time, but that's mainly because the 107.1 transmitter is about a quarter-mile away. It drowns out nearly every other station on the FM band. I was thinking the FCC might be interested in the issue, but I wouldn't know either way.

[Drybasement]

Yes.

The 104.5 out of Flint is completely masked by another 104.5 from a location I haven't figured out yet. Some hip hop station. I don't remember the call letters but it was clearly different from my normal listening station. This started within the last couple of days.

[KeninDC]

So it's either thermal inversions or our Canadian friends.

[electroking]

So it's either thermal inversions or our Canadian friends.

Do you mean Canadian stations are operating outside the laws of physics?
Or outside the proper international agreements regarding interference?

[day67]

So it's a border problem, damn, another one!.....let's build a wall....

[Ozzy357]

Yes I have also noticed somthing funky..... Toledo here.

[wajobu]

Sometimes microwave re-transmitters or translators (or something like that) interfere with nearby stations. Sometimes I'm listening to a local FM station and then all of a sudden fuzz, static and then a completely different station will fade in and out. I contacted our FM station and they were aware of the problem and contacted the other radio station and the problem went away.

It still happens from time to time and I understand from the engineer at the FM station that they have applied for a different microwave frequency to avoid the interference in the future.

Could be? Try calling the station engineer and describe the problem, they might know about it...or not (and appreciate knowing of it). I have the engineering phone number of our local station on my mobile phone speed dial (NPR station) :naughty:

[dr*audio]

Well, this afternoon I did some checking and what it was was interfering stations from out of the listening area. The CBC was interfering with 89.7, and a rock station in Toledo was interfering with 104.9. Seems better tonight. Putting the tuner in narrow IF band helps, but not all of my tuners have that.

[Fedallah]

The CBC was interfering with 89.7
Yeah, CBC is 89.9 out of Windsor at 100,000 watts. The CBC station probably gets enough multipath on the signal to interfere with the signal at 89.7 FM, which is just 12,000 watts. It probably varies with the weather, too.

Directional antenna might do the trick, unless, of course, you're already using one...

[Manos]

I'm glad you reminded me. Yesterday in Ann Arbor I was listening to 93.1 from Detroit, which normally has a moderate signal here. While driving I heard blips from another station with a decent signal. I maneuvered around a parking lot until I isolated the blips. It was WZAK, a Cleveland station I had never heard. I tuned to another frequency I knew from the area, and heard WMMS on 100.7. These were first time catches for me in Ann Arbor.

This site (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html) might be helpful.

[Red Stick]

Yesterday, while driving in Cheboygan County and listening to a quite powerful "local" FM station, it got buried by a station on the same frequency (105.1) from Royal Oak. Farther down the dial, I was picking up stations from Saginaw and Windsor.

[dr*audio]

I'm glad you reminded me. Yesterday in Ann Arbor I was listening to 93.1 from Detroit, which normally has a moderate signal here. While driving I heard blips from another station with a decent signal. I maneuvered around a parking lot until I isolated the blips. It was WZAK, a Cleveland station I had never heard. I tuned to another frequency I knew from the area, and heard WMMS on 100.7. These were first time catches for me in Ann Arbor.

This site (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html) might be helpful.

Great site, thanks! Well, that explains it. Looks like it will clear up at the end of the week. Unfortunately the 2 main stations I listen to are 35+ miles away, so it's easy to get interference. My TX-9800 tuner seems to be the best at rejecting the unwanted stations. My antenna is a folded dipole in the attic, oriented North / South, so that's why the Canadian stations are bleeding through. I'm not about to move it for one week. The reception in the cars sucks too.

[KeninDC]

Do you mean Canadian stations are operating outside the laws of physics?
Or outside the proper international agreements regarding interference?

Nah. I'm just taking a cheap shot at our friends from up north. I've had awful reception as the weather changed from summer to fall with a big front.

All is well now.

[fiddlefye]

Well, this afternoon I did some checking and what it was was interfering stations from out of the listening area. The CBC was interfering with 89.7, and a rock station in Toledo was interfering with 104.9. Seems better tonight. Putting the tuner in narrow IF band helps, but not all of my tuners have that.
CBC should be at 89.9

[wajobu]

You might also report this to Glenn Hauser at World of Radio. This is the kind of stuff that he reports on: http://www.worldofradio.com/

[dr*audio]

Seems to be dedicated to shortwave. I just turned the stereo on for the first time today (had a headache) and the reception is back to normal. Yay! Some of my fellow Clevelanders will not have noticed these anomalies, if they don't listen to Classical Music (WCLV and WKSU) as I do. I am sure the Clear Channel stations were roaring through as usual this week. I have been home on vacation and wanted to listen to the radio and had been sorely disappointed.

[stuartk]

Well, this afternoon I did some checking and what it was was interfering stations from out of the listening area. The CBC was interfering with 89.7, and a rock station in Toledo was interfering with 104.9. Seems better tonight. Putting the tuner in narrow IF band helps, but not all of my tuners have that.

I've been having problems getting a clean signal out of WCLV too.

I got a new Sony tuner a couple of months ago and WCLV sounded quite good (better than it had in years). Then within the last couple of weeks I haven't had any luck getting good reception. :(

[stuartk]

Seems to be dedicated to shortwave. I just turned the stereo on for the first time today (had a headache) and the reception is back to normal. Yay! Some of my fellow Clevelanders will not have noticed these anomalies, if they don't listen to Classical Music (WCLV and WKSU) as I do. I am sure the Clear Channel stations were roaring through as usual this week. I have been home on vacation and wanted to listen to the radio and had been sorely disappointed.

I haven't really noticed any problems with WKSU. I'll have to check tonight when I get home.

I listen to WCPN a lot too, and reception has been good.

[wajobu]

Yes Warren, Glenn Hauser's focus is shortwave, but his broadcast/podcast does also deal with AM, FM, digital and other forms of communication and clandestine broadcasters :naughty: . Any broadcast interference or anomoly is something on which to groove :nerd:

[stuartk]

Cleveland station I had never heard. I tuned to another frequency I knew from the area, and heard WMMS on 100.7. These were first time catches for me in Ann Arbor.

We won't tell anyone you listened to WMMS.

It's amazing how such a good radio station could become so crappy.

Nah, it's not amazing. I've met some of their more recent staff and it's no wonder at all that the station has gone to the dogs.