From the southern terminus of Highway 3 all the way up to Taichung including the Tunnels, I was given a clear signal for most of my journey. Actually the signal remained perfect except for some places where it sounded a bit “scratchy”.
A big question is how is this accomplished?
I’m a ham radio operator and radio dxer so I have some knowledge and can understand technical explanations.
I live by a full service station so that’s how I hear it every day. But here are my questions.
The terrain is pretty mountainous. I loose other stations quite a lot My guess is that they have transmitters at regular intervals along the highway.
But I thought this would not be possible with FM on the same frequency because the “capture effect” would have the two stations fighting each other where they would overlap.
On AM, I believed this would be no problem as illustrated by the fact I could hear the time stations, WWV in Colorado and WWVH in Hawaii simultaneously. Their signals mixed perfectly except that the man’s voice was a bit louder than the woman’s voice due to the fact I was closer to Colorado.
Maybe I misunderstand the idea of the capture effect. Maybe that scratchy period I mentioned was the area I was transitioning between transmitters.
I know, I could probably find all this info on line but it would mean a lot of searching and translation work.
Right now, I’m interested in the sharing of your theories and hearing your radio listening experiences.
I still prefer radio to internet and in my opinion, Highway Radio is better than icrt.
It’s nice to have one decent station for long haul driving.
The “capture effect” is precisely what allows it to work. It’s also the reason FM is mostly immune to multi-path effects.
It only gets messy where the two signals from different transmitters are of nearly equal strength.
But yeah, there’s a lot of mileage left in audio-only radio and I think people don’t realise how much they listen to it while driving. You’d notice if it disappeared.
104.9 is owned by the highway authority with a rich history. It used to only come on and broadcast hihway/ road conditions in the old days, but then decided to include music and other stuff.
As for icrt … Yeah it broadcasts on different frequencies. So, even if two stations overlap, they won’t interfere with each other.
That’s my point…
WWVH and WWV… To monster AM stations broadcasting on the same channel, their signals mix perfectly. That’s why the voice and data signals are slightly staggered in time so the messages don’t interfere with each other. But the time beeps are simultaneous and they mix just fine.
FM has a capture effect. How can you have one channel give you a great signal along the highway, including tunnels without interference from the multiple transmitters using the same frequency. To my knowledge, AM mixes signals, FM only captured the strongest signal. My guess is the point in between would be pretty messy.
How about the tunnels. No other station works in the tunnels.
Well, anyway…
Yeah, it’s really great to have one channel I could jump into the car and hear it on most major highways.
It sure beats ICRT on family values content.
"Hey daddy, what’s a and why does she want to ride it? " asked by my 1st grade daughter in a car with her siblings and classmates put an end to ICRT in my car and home.
ICRT was something special from when I got here until just after the big earthquake where it performed great disseminating info and music of good taste. 24 hours of live programming and the peacock stuff was left until after the kid’s bedtime with a weird but funny guy named Hot Chocolate and some muscle man party DJ whose name escapes me.
Anymore technical comments on how this one channel throughout the entire length of the highway or comments about radio in general are welcome. I’m looking for a low priced halfway decent shortwave radio.
I
and why does she want to ride it? " asked by my 1st grade daughter in a car with her siblings and classmates put an end to ICRT in my car and home.