I’m sitting here in my cube at work and listening to the radio. In order to get decent reception, my small radio shack $10 radio is on a high shelf above my head. I have headphones on to listen to music while I try and get through another boring day at the computer.
With a crash, my radio just fell down on to my desk next to me. A couple of co-workers ask if I’m ok. I tell them that I am. However, something very odd has happened.
I’ve put my radio back on it’s shelf and plugged my headphones back in. But, my radio stations aren’t there. The radio changes station by using the old style wheel which scrolls across the usual FM frequencies. But now the stations are all shifted to the right! 104.1 FM, a rock station in the Boston market, has become more like 106 FM. Rock 101 is now more like rock 103! Just for shits and giggles I checked and KISS 108 FM (the farthest station to the right of the dial, a useless dance mix station) is now broadcasting at 111 FM or so!
How is this possible? Could the collision of my radio with my desk have caused the frequencies at which these stations are broadcasting? Has the radio harmonic balance of the universe been somehow offset? I need a control for this experiment. Can somebody in the Boston area check to confirm that the stations have changed the same amount where they are?
Somebody ought to notify the goverment so that they don’t raise the terror alert level because of this.
If the tuning wheel got a knock in the fall, it’ll have pulled the display bar out of alignment (they’re often just a simple pulley-and-nylon-cord assembly). The frequencies aren’t now wrong, just the display.
I’ll second GorillaMan. Once, in my younger days, I ripped apart a CD/AM/FM boom box in curiosity, only to see that the tuner had a pulley and cable to show the station on the indicator.
Armed with said knowledge, I “tweaked” my younger sisters’ radios, solely for their irritation and my own personal bemusement.
The bemusement ended however, once I was caught red-handed in the “tweaking” process. Damned garage door locks. :smack:
Tripler
Now that I’ve gotten my B.S.E.E., I have far more imaginative ways to wreak electronic havoc.
I like to add words to the dictionary in MS Word. You know, as you type a commonly mis-spelled word like “th” rather than “the” the program will automatically correct for you.
You can add words to this list. So, whenever someone types “the” the program will ‘correct’ this and change it automatically to say “donkey”. Hilarity insues.
What mayhem can you cause with that EE degree, Tripler?
So, in other words, Debaser, I can fix it so my manager’s MS Word will automatically “correct” our big bosses’ name to <firstname> “Penis Breath” <lastname>?
Mayhem? Well your AM radio ain’t gonna work right ever again if you torque me off.
See, I use my powers for good. Airplanes were able to land at certain airfields in the Middle East because I recognized problems in certain circuits on things. Their glide slope will never be more accurate.
I’ve got my moments. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time.
Tripler
I hope to take my degree to the explosive ordnance disposal field in a year or so.
So let me get this straight Debaser you worked for an internationally known stereo manufacturer (as did I) and you can’t quite figure out how what makes a $10 Radio Shack radio tick. Well well well.
I imagine it would be child’s play for you to tell me how to jerry-rig the antenna I broke the prong off of, at the base, in frustration, for my second TV–the one that’s in a room that’s not wired for outside antenna, cable, or anything! Seems I’ve heard of using a clothes hanger or something sophisticated like that, but I have no idea where to stick it. The thing is a Radio Shack get-up that cost about $35, if I remember correctly.
The biggest word in antenna theory [sub]as far as the layman is concerned[/sub] is “altitude”. The higher you get, the better. I could teach you the intricacies of helical antennas for a gain of 5 dB, but you’d hate me at the end of the lesson, and I’m not sure yoy have that much copper wire laying about the house.
Take your clothes hanger (yep, that one), post it outside on your deck, and run a cable (I’m assuming RG58) between the two. Get it outside, but get it some altitude.
Tripler
Get your antenna high. Not yourself–that’s a different story.
Yeahbut . . . that darn thing never did work well–which is why I had to get cable in the living room just to get a signal. I’m on the ground floor and there’s another apartment above, so …
Thanks, Tripler, for saying exactly what would work. Life is easier when there’s someone around who knows all those things!
I sometimes do. The network weenies here at work really love it when you stream internet radio all day! [/sarcasm]
I listen to a state college, PA radio station called “the Buzz” and Krock-Echo.com. They are both pretty good. I also have MP3’s on CD. But, I like the good ole fashioned FM and AM too! Especially since that’s the only way I can get my beloved talk radio.
Just to make up for my wise-ass answer, I will also share some helpful radio knowledge I picked up somewhere along the way:
If you want to listen to a radio when camping way up in the woods you can tie a metal slinky to the antenna. Then toss the slinky up into a tree! This will give good reception.
