Greetings

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Andy, I'm from England but I've lived in Kemmerer since June 2002 and found these boards via google. I've always been interested in the radio and I was wondering what you all think of the stations around this region? Here's my views on some, apologies if any comments seem harsh.

KAOX (107.3FM) has gone downhill rapidly since it changed to the "SAM" format (basically a rip off of Jack-FM) The automation on it is terrible, large periods of silence and adverts cutting over each other and no more hourly news from ABC. The selection of music is repetitive too and don't get me started on the guy who does the voiceovers. Having said that, I have the radio on throughout the night to help me sleep and it's permanently tuned into this station - mostly because I can't get much else with it so close to my desktop and laptop computers!

KDWY (105.1) Never listen because I hate country music (sorry!) I live about a quarter mile away from the transmitter and it bleeds all over the FM band.

KMER (940AM) Still an excellent local station with a live morning show and coverage of high school sports. Music selection is quite good but then I do like oldies!

KUWA (91.3FM) WY Pubic Radio. A credit to UW, the best place to find out what's going on in the world and for me it's great to be able listen to the BBC World Service without having to go online

Further away but I can pick up on my home hi-fi (despite living in an aparment... )

KYCS (95.1FM) Again, extremely repetitive and apart from jingles, weather reports and the odd news piece, it's all networked.

KNYN (99.1FM) I really like this station and can pick it up quite well in the car but for some reason not at home. I think it used to be a sister station of KMER/KAOX?

KJQN (103.1FM) The original Jack FM format. When this first went on air I loved it but again, hard to get a signal at home with the bleed over from The Diamond 105.1 Whenever I go to SLC I listen to three stations only; Magic 99, Jack FM and MY99.5.

I can't think of anymore at the moment but I'm considering buying a decent radio with shortwave and see what I can DX from here. It's too easy to listen online to streams!

Cheers
Andy.

[Milo_FM]

Hi Andy. Welcome to the board.

I've lived in Green River since 1999 so I know the area's stations pretty well.
I too miss the old KAOX, back when they did news at the top of the hour. I don't listen to KDWY either. KNYN is good, I only get it when I'm on the way home between the Utah border and about Lyman. KJQN meh, used to be better. I think they too have gone down hill.

The only stations I like in that area are
KUGR 1490
KRKK 1360 (if they would fix their audio)
KZWB 97.9 and KAOX (rarely).

KAOX has a moderate signal in the Green River area, but further east its gone. They used to be better coverage wise as well. Again, Michael can probably fill us in with more details.

Thanks again for the post!

[andy]

Thanks for the welcome Milo. I'll try and add new posts here often to help get the traffic up!

By the way, I've had a look at your AM & SW DX logs and they are superb, amazing to think you picked up all those signals in this rural area + SLC. Was most of that done with just the Grundig?

Yeah, KNYN gets stronger on highway 189 on the way to Evanston around the exit for Skull Point road. It's a bit fuzzy in town when I'm driving around. Also when you exit to I-80, and go over the Sisters, pretty much all stations disappear for a couple of minutes!

I can't remember 103.1 before Jack FM but that signal goes out quite a way over SW Wyoming. I drove back from Worland once and it was coming in clear somewhere between Lander and Farson I think.

Also I get Movin' 100 from Salt Lake quite strong too. That's a great station too!

[Milo_FM]

103.1 can be received nearly to Rawlins on a good day. I heard it coming back from Pinedale. I'd imagine all of the Salt Lake rimshots do the exact same. You probably can hear 97.5 "The Blaze" now as well.

The Green River side of the DXing was done with a number of radios, mostly an old Radioshack multi-band radio (that my brother in Flagstaff owns now). The Grundig is the sole catcher here in SLC. Most of the FM side is done while driving around.

I love the Grundig and would recommend it to anyone who wants to seriously DX. I believe they came up with an improved model, the S350 DL.

Do you get any Afton stations in Kemmerer?

[andy]

Sorry for the delay Milo - been away for a few days.

Regarding the Afton stations, it's difficult to get those clearly in my apartment due to 105.3 and 107.3 overpowering most frequencies on FM and also the interference of electronics and steel. I'll take a drive to the other side of town sometime and let you know what I can receive there.

One thing I did notice the other night on FM - I found the audio soundtrack for Wyoming PBS and some station coming out of Chicago (they were broadcasting news on at the time but I didn't catch their name) It was a strong and clear signal so it must be translated close to here. I think it was on 88.2 and PBS was right at the end of the band on 107.8 or thereabouts. Presumably they will disappear next month after the switch off.

Also you're correct, I can receive the Blaze and the Arrrow too from SLC.

One more question, I've been looking at the Kaito KA1103 on Amazon for a radio - it seems to have mostly positive reviews but do you know anything about them or anyone that uses one? I'm just wondering if it would be up to the job here in Kemmerer.

[Milo_FM]

I've always been fond of Grundig radios myself. Thats an odd catch as far as the PBS on the end of the band. Maybe you were hearing what is called E-Skip, which is a regularly occurring atmosphere thing that allows you to receive far stations you normally wouldn't on FM.

Don't worry about not being able to hear FM stations any more. FM is not shutting off and going to digital yet (if ever).

[andy]

I just checked for those two TV audio channels again and they have completely disappeared now. It must have been an atmospheric anomaly or someone could have been using a FM transmitter in a neighboring apartment. It certainly confused me!

I agree about FM or even AM not going away anytime soon in rural areas like the WY region. I haven't heard much about HD radio but I'd be surprised if it was widely available outside of the big cities yet. About the Kaito, I was wondering about whether it would pull in distant signals as good as the Grundigs. It goes without saying I'd love to get the G5 but the wife probably wouldn't appreciate me spending $150 to get it!

[Milo_FM]

You don't want to know what I think about HD radio .

[andy]

Is it something to do with causing massive interference on the analogue bands or have I got that wrong? Personally I think it's a waste of time, if people want digital, buy Sirius/XM lol

There is ongoing tests of digital radio that has been going on in Europe for a digital format: Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) that supposedly brings AM/SW transmissions close to FM quality but as with the HD format over here, most consumers consider it to be a failure.

This is the wikipedia entry for the technical stuff about it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale

[Milo_FM]

Yes, HD has a bad habit of causing interference on both AM and FM. On AM it totally disregards the FCC mandated 10khz spacing of stations. KSL here, which is audible in southwest Wyo, takes up about 40khz of the band during the day. Not to mention, the analog signal itself on 1160 has a nasty hiss that wasn't there before HD came along. Its just not worth it on AM, and I'm wondering about FM as well.