Radio reception along the AT

[Fletchlives1234]

Howdy.

Random and unlikely I know. But is there any radio reception anywhere along the AT? I am thinking about getting an ipod nano 6th generation v's an ipod shuffle. The former will allow me to preview the tracks I am listening too (which is nice) and has a radio.

To be honest I doubt there will be any radio reception, but thought it could be an opportunity to check out some local hill billy blues etc. No offence intended, it's just as an Englishman it would be good to check out some other music / culture.


Fletchlives

[kofritz]

depends on where you are. closer to towns, etc. there is satelite radio

[Hill Ape]

lol, a brit gave me my trail name. all pissed off, tried to call me a hill billy and got it wrong. i'd been saying g'day mate, top o the morning, to him all day. when he finally popped and said he's british, with a perfectly straight face i said i thought you were from new zealand

yeah, you'll have reception, no promises on what sorts of music it will be. blues is low country stuff though, hillbillys ALL play banjo.

[Foresight]

iHeart Radio is not an option?

[Fletchlives1234]

Just checked and it seems like the nano has an FM tuner. Will this be any good? Or is it worth bothering as I wont be able to pick up AM etc.

[peakbagger]

Plenty of radio down south but the selection in the evenings is pretty poor, mostly rural evangelical or country. When I was sectioning several years ago, the "left behind series" on radio was popular. I expect I could listen to it 24 hours a day on half the channels. As you get closer to Baxter the number of stations goes way down but WTOS transmits from the top of sugarloaf so if you want heavy metal you should be good. Driving from Millinocket to baxter, there are spots where using the scan function on the radio goes round the entire FM bad an it never stops.

[kayak karl]

i had a cheap ($20) MP3 and FM thingy. it got stations every now and then. worked off 1 AA battery.

[flemdawg1]

You can usually get some kind of radio signal (AM or FM) on the trail. Our earliest section hikes were on fall weekends and we could almost always pickup something to listen to at camp. Generally we were looking to get sports broadcast (college football, Baseball World Series,) and weather updates. Since the radio transmitters are generally on mountain peaks or towns (that the mountains overlook) its usually rare that you would be in a isolated valley without any signals.

[ChinMusic]

At night you will almost always have radio options. Down south 90% of those options seemed to be religious programming, not so much of that up north.

[Slo-go'en]

You can usually find a NPR station or two. I remember a suprising number of heavy metal stations in the south too, but the C+W stations are predominate. Listening while hiking can be fustrating, stations tend to fade in and out as you go from one side of a ridge to the other or turn a corner and of course always during a song you really like.

[ChinMusic]

Listening while hiking can be fustrating, stations tend to fade in and out as you go from one side of a ridge to the other or turn a corner and of course always during a song you really like.

I never listened while moving. It was funny how the station you had clear as a bell one night would be non-existent after hiking just 15 miles.

[adamkrz]

I used a small am/fm radio with an antenna and got radio stations almost every night on my hike from Ct to N.H., Don't know about or use IPODS.

[Different Socks]

Did the AT in 1992 and carried a radio about the thickness of a 1/2 deck of cards and the size of a credit card. Had no problems picking up radio stations along entire length of the AT in 92, nor the PCT in 96, nor the CDT in 97.

[Different Socks]

And BTW, the stations I picked up were not primarily NPR, religious or country. In fact 75% of them were rock and/or pop.

[HooKooDooKu]

Much of the AT is along mountain ridges, and the signals from FM radio stations are much more powerful than cell phones. Given all the radio "noise" in the U.S., I would be surprised if there were any section along the AT where you couldn't pickup some sort of radio station. It might not be a format you want to listen to, but there should be a listenable radio station.

Oh, but I forgot about the National Radio Quiet Zone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone), you shouldn't get any reception between about Roanoke, VA and Charlottesville, VA.

[moytoy]

Much has been said about the availability of stations but in order to maximize what you can receive the quality of radio is extremely important. The CCrane pocket radio is probably the best and it has a NOAA weather tuner built in that when activated blocks out both AM and FM reception. The Ear buds can act as an external antenna as well. It also has filters that allow you to tune to hard to reach stations. It's about as good as you can get in a pocket radio. Sells for about $60.

[Nooga]

I carried a small am/fm radio and listened to it at night. I would say there were only 4 - 5 nights with no reception.