WLW 700 AM

Found another good night time listen on the medium wave band. It's WLW out of Cincinnati on 700 KHZ. When I listened in the wee AM this morning, it was coming in as all 5's on the SINPO rating. It the first time I heard the show, America's Trucking network. It's a talk radio show for trucker's and is both serious and entertaining. The host I heard today was Bubba Bo and he does good job dealing with the serious and fun topics. He has been asking to hear Christmas carols while talking about issues facign truckers. Check out both the radio station and the program here.

Solder Smoke

I have started to listen to a Ham Radio Program via MP3. It's focus is on home brew radios. I am a geeky guy although not the best when it comes to electronic projects. This show is interesting to listen to even though it leaves me behind on the technicals. It is showing me the build it yourself side of the hobby and I am learning. I at the listening to all I can phase of the hobby and really needing to learn where I want to go. I do know if I will make any radios but there is a part of me that want to learn how for no other reason than to say I can. That is part of the adventure of listening. That is why I am doing the blog. It is a place to record my adventure and what I learn.

The website for solder smoke is here.

Podcasts and mp3's

I have added some links to some dx podcast. I have not checked them out, just read them in the October Popular Communications. Yup, that's right. I am a little behind in my reading. No big surprise. I am behind on a lot of things including what I want to be doing with this blog. It will come in time. Just frustrating when there are not enough hours in the day. Have fun checking them out. I will be and will be reporting back here in time. I might be giving some serious listen time to these if propagation does not improve soon. There is more than one way to enjoy the hobby and if I can't participate, then I will try to take time to read, listen and ]learn elsewhere in the meantime.

Small Town Radio

If you have not figured it out from this blog so far, WAWK out of Kendallville is one of my favorite stations. I feel sorry for the DJ this morning. There are a ton of school delays and closings and he is alone trying to run the station and take the calls for updates. The challenges of small town radio. I do like how committed they are to storm response or at least severe weather response. I really hope they get approved for 24/7 transmission. They are the best for weather and they are are one of the closest stations to our house. A little west to they can tell us what it coming. A lot handy. So dear Mr FCC reviewer, do the people around here a favor and give us a 24/7 station. They have had a lot of support from alot of areas and weather reports were one of the reasons in favor. Just getting emphasized again today with the school closings.

Blog Content

One of the issues facing the dx hobby is the advent of the internet. So many of the stations that were only listened to by radio frequency can also be heard on the internet now. There are many shows that are going the podcast/mp3 route. Some hams are accessing relay towers via the internet. The hobby is being changed by technological realities.

This presents me with a little bit of a challenge for what I put into this blog. Do I do only what I hear over the airwaves or do I handle what is online as well. I think for now I will also present what I find online as well. There is too much good info to ignore. I will try to keep the focus on the airwaves but I will also give online information as it fits. Hopefully, I will get a good mix and a good balance. Maybe, as I get smarter, I can talk technology as well.

Here's to some good listening.

Terry's Bluegrass Corner

Terry's Bluegrass Corner is another local radio show on WAWK. Their website is here.


They can be heard on Sunday afternoons on WAWK. If you do not like bluegrass, don't bother. If you do like bluegrass, then it is a great hometown show. I enjoy bluegrass but not the biggest fan. I do like listening to the show this time of year. Hearing Christmas Carols in the bluegrass style just takes me by surprise and I really enjoy it. I enjoy it because I like bluegrass and I also enjoy it because I love hearing familiar music done in different ways. One song that took me by surprise was Jingle Bells done by a bluegrass band. So drop on in and sit a spell-you may just like it.

Winter Weather Alert!

I used to think that scanners were only small town nosy. I was so wrong. At least in small town Indiana, the best source for severe weather especially on the weekend is scanner and NOAA weather radio. It so hard to be up on what's happening on all the county roads. How do you really keep track of snow or flood conditions on the many miles there are around? Police scanner can help fill in a lot of that. In a lot of cases, the media around Fort Wayne isn't set up to break into programming and what if it is only in part of the outlaying area. Weather radios and scanners are a great way to track the very local happenings. It is not uncommon for me to have three radios going at once during bad weather. It's kinda neat to hear the over lapping reports. It is amusing to me to hear the same news (only delayed) on medium wave and wonder if they got the news from the same police frequency as I did.

It's all about getting good info to make good decisions on how to react. I also like being in the know. It's neat getting news and weather reports as they happen. I do not consider myself a survivalist but the boy scout ideal of being prepared always made sense to me. My radios serve that purpose and they are also interesting listening. What more can you ask?