More adventures in FM
Between my recent discovery of Choice FM and brainstorming for season 01 of TODO MUNDO, I’ve been listening to a lot of FM. To facilitate this, I bought a few different dipole antennas today to try and improve reception amid my building’s extraordinarily noisy wiring.
I flip-flop between two tuners right now. The first is a beautiful Realistic TM-90 Solid State receiver housed in a solid wood case with rubber feet. Google is helpless in the face of this jewel of vintage gear. My Dad bought it and maintained it for more than two decades before handing it down to me.
The second is a Carver TX-2 AM/FM Synthesized Tuner. This has rack mount hardware and bright digital readout. Its buttons have obscure functions such as “Engage” and “Noise/Multipath”. I think I found it in 2003 on the top shelf of the closet of my room on Royal St in Allston. (Notably, cleaning out that apartment also yielded a dusty Playstation 1, Dreamcast, and 4-port Linksys hub!)
Right now, the Carver is locked on a strong signal on 93.7FM, a frequency that brings up melancholic nostalgia of Star 93.7 FM, Boston’s short-lived dance music station. (Now broadcasting in HD?) Star was displaced a couple years ago by the wackest, most bland shuffle station I’ve ever heard. With the slogan “We play everything!”, this very definition of blah monoculture actually advertised the absence of live DJs and on-air personality as a desirable quality!
Anyway, the Carver must be FM2.0 or something because, sensing my distaste, it is entirely obscuring the abhorrent mush of the aforementioned Mike FM. Presently, I am listening to a perfect blend of Harvard’s WHRB 95.3 FM and 96.9 FM Talk. The symphonic backdrop offers Jay Severin’s vitriol a novel sense of regality.
Despite my efforts, I still can’t pick up Choice at home. Can anyone recommend a good FM amplifier kit?
February 20th, 2007 at 14:27:47 (PST -04:00)
Don’t know about the good FM amplifier kit, but using a directional FM antenna instead of the dipoles will boost your signal reception much better than any amplifier. Look for a Yagi type antenna. Of course, with directional antennas there is a price to pay - you’ll have to rotate it unless all of the broadcasting stations are more or less in the same direction from your location.