View Full Version : Radios/Music
joeyt1291
03-27-2010, 09:20
Do you like to listen to music or the radio while hiking? I'm going to bring a small radio to attempt to listen to the weather when im back at camp but nothing very loud or disturbing.
Also what are the best stations to listen to/ at certain parts/ for the weather. Ill be hiking south of harpers ferry to snickers gap.
garlic08
03-27-2010, 09:49
A fond memory on my first AT hike was listening to "Car Talk" on NPR on a rainy Saturday morning, lying in my shelter. I'm an NPR fan and was often able to find a station, for weather and entertainment. I considered bringing a weather radio, but it was a victim of my first weight purge. I used a small credit-card sized AM/FM radio.
I do not like to listen while hiking, though. I feel the hike demands my complete attention. For instance, I would not like to miss a snake's rattle. Or the jungle cry of a distant pileated woodpecker.
The small radio was a victim of a later weight purge. I no longer carry one. You can get pretty good 5 to 7 day forecasts from newspapers and internet in towns along the way.
Have a great hike. Welcome to Whiteblaze, too.
white_russian
03-27-2010, 10:59
As far as weather goes I try to get reports from text messaging with my phone. I can get a three day forecast and usually you can get enough signal to pull in a text message once every three days. Trying to pull in a weather report from the radio requires a lot of listening to stuff I am most likely not interested in.
A little Sony Fm receiver has been my constant companion on the Trail the last 10 years and I wouldn't hike without it. When the hiking day is done and the chores are finished it's a wonderful way to end the evening cocooned in the sleeping bag, no matter what you listen to. It's well worth the little extra weight.
Slo-go'en
03-27-2010, 13:32
FM stations have very little news and weather on them anymore. And if you do happen to catch a weather forcast, it is brief and probably doesn't apply to where you are. The chances of finding a local AM station are slim and at night your more likely to get the weather from some city a long way away.
If you want weather, get a radio with weather band, like the little sony Wal-mart sells. It is headphone only, so you won't disturb other hikers at night. Reception can be iffy, best bet is to use it during the day while your up on a ridge. Shelters are often down in a hole and on the wrong side of the mountian to get the signal.
Its too bad TV went digital and you can't hear thier audio anymore. I could often find a TV station to listen to the news on, if I remembered to turn the radio on at 6 pm. (I have the old Sony which did TV channels).
An if you want to listen to music you like, get a MP3 player!
A fond memory on my first AT hike was listening to "Car Talk" on NPR on a rainy Saturday morning, lying in my shelter. I'm an NPR fan and was often able to find a station, for weather and entertainment. I considered bringing a weather radio, but it was a victim of my first weight purge. I used a small credit-card sized AM/FM radio.
I do not like to listen while hiking, though. I feel the hike demands my complete attention. For instance, I would not like to miss a snake's rattle. Or the jungle cry of a distant pileated woodpecker.
The small radio was a victim of a later weight purge. I no longer carry one. You can get pretty good 5 to 7 day forecasts from newspapers and internet in towns along the way.
Have a great hike. Welcome to Whiteblaze, too.
I also enjoy listening to NPR; usually at night. Radio reception is pretty erratic as you're hiking up, down, and around the mtns. The comment about the rattlesnake is dead on. Last summer on the PCT, I was listening to my I-Pod, not too loudly, and I heard a loud rattling. It scared the s#@t out of me, as I
was able to hear the rattle, but with the headphones in, I wasn't able to determine the source/direction of the sound. I knew there was a rattlesnake, but had NO IDEA if it was next to/in front/behind/or right underneath me. As you can imagine, those headphones came out of my ears pretty quick, and I saw that a large rattlesnake was about 5 feet ahead of me right on the trail. Thankfully, I learned my lesson without injury. On the lighter side, I've heard a Willie Nelson song with a rattle in it that produced the same reaction. I used to enjoy some tunes on a particularly tough uphill to help take my mind off the grind, but that day with the snake opened my "ears" so to speak. I've noticed also that people listening to music often don't SEE things too; as if all of their sensory functions are effected. YMMV, just my thoughts.
Jonnycat
03-27-2010, 22:06
No radio, no book. I live the overwhelming majority of my life in a city surrounded by distractions.
When I am fortunate enough to be out in the real world, I want to experience the real world, with all of my senses during my stay.
http://www.rei.com/product/791977
7 channels of weather and weighs 7 oz
Father Dragon
03-27-2010, 23:32
http://www.rei.com/product/791977
7 channels of weather and weighs 7 oz
I have that one and I've been happy with it.
It gets good reception and it has a pretty decent light on it too.
I take my Ipod but I only listen to it on breaks and at night. Besides songs I have movies I can watch if bored or listen to ATHiking podcast by Toothless among others. Sometimes I can't sleep so it helps to set the timer and drift away.
Here is a helpful link (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=212319#post212319) listing radio stations on the trail. Look for the zip file on the top left side.
Tipi Walter
03-28-2010, 08:12
The main thing is to scan thru the stations when you get to a new camp and see what's available. I like to take a small radio and have used two in the past 10 years, and here they are:
The first is a small Coby thing which I finally dumped after figuring I was getting a daily dose of lead on my hands as the back of the package had a "lead warning".
The second is my current radio and it's a Sangean DT-200X which has a nice option of an open built-in speaker when you get tired of headphone use. But of course, I never use the speaker when other people are around!!
WEATHER REPORTS
The weather pinhead pundits get their reports right about 5% of the time and so if you're camping on a mountaintop and a nearby town like Asheville or Knoxville says a big old storm is coming in from O Canada and will drop 3 feet of snow, well, they are usually wrong but it's nice to have some prior warning(the Blizzard of '93 comes to mind)just in case they get it right for once.
IDIOT NEOCONS
In my neck of the woods I like to listen to talk shows but there's really nothing on except the babblings of Hannity and Limbaugh and all the rest, so expect to be bombarded by the root-for-failure types on an hourly basis if you don't want to listen to music. I like to pull in the classical music stations and sometimes get surprised with Dvorak's 8th Symphony, Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, Orff's Carmina Burana or, as on my last trip, Allegri's Miserere sung by boy tenors.
mister krabs
03-28-2010, 08:41
I have that one and I've been happy with it.
It gets good reception and it has a pretty decent light on it too.
Wow, If you're willing to spend 7oz on a radio, the Grundig G8 (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3767071&CAWELAID=386867784) is the king.
New radios are coming out that are based on the same integrated DSP chip as the G8. This silicon labs DSP chip is basically a revolution in integration, selectivity and sensitivity and is going to lead to many new small radios of previously unreached capabilities. Because the SL DSP chip is all integrated, very small radios can be made from them, I look forward to them getting even smaller very soon.
Of course the Chinese are way ahead of us on this with our own technology. The small radio market is much larger in less developed countries and all the American companies that sell radios are sourcing there.
Wise Old Owl
03-28-2010, 23:33
There are a lot of problems getting good reception in the AT mountains. Part of the problem is the lack of important filters to increase sensitivity and knock out interference. Tipi Walters Sangean I believe has those filters. The Eton doesn't.
Don't expect a radio that works at home to perform in the woods. It can be very frustrating at times trying to listen to a show that drops out a lot with a cheap radio.
I love having my small, AM, FM, TV and NOAA weather band radio while hiking. I use headphones. However, I rarely wear them over my ears. Rather, I just place them around my neck and turn up the volume.
As stated, reception along the AT is sporadic to sensational depending on location. I discovered by accident that I could use my hiking poles as an antenna for better reception. I hold the headphone wire in my hand and grasp one or both poles. I have no idea why this works, but by twisting and turning the poles in the air, I am often able to listen to a station (especially the all-important weather band) that I couldn't hear with out the poles.
One night in the fall of '08 I was camped in Vermont, in between two groups of students from Princeton. I was standing in the dark, my poles crossed high in the air, listening to the weather on my radio. A group of 5 or 6 ladies came down the trail behind me to join the other group. I was wearing the headphones on my ears so I didn't hear them.Their flashlight beams hit me and startled me. I whirled around to shrieks and immediately realized that I'd scared the hell out of those ladies as much as they scared me. (What a site! Tall guy in a camo rain jacket holding two orange hiking poles in the air... In the dark!) I quickly introduced myself and told them I was listening to the weather and that my poles helped with reception. Once their hearts stopped racing, one of the ladies had the presence of mind to ask me about the weather forecast for that night.
Another thing I love about having a radio along is that I like to whistle to the oldies while hiking. I had 7 bear encounters in '06 and I'm sure I just missed about a half a dozen more (I could smell them... PU!) because of my musical ability (which others would describe as racket). Jump back to '08... I stopped along the side of then trail in Vermont to accompany Jimi Hendrix in a paricularly difficult but satisfying riff towards the end of "All Along the Watchtower." At the conclusion of our concert I turned to start back up the trail (NOBO). There was a SOBO woman hiker standing there looking at me. We exchanged the usual pleasantries for a few moments... Trail, hikers, weather. As we turned to leave, each in our own direction, she said, "Oh by the way... Nice Jimi!"
Take the radio and try it out. Especially if you have no other way to get weather reports. You can always send it home or give it away if it doesn't work our for you.
Father Dragon
03-29-2010, 16:21
I love having my small, AM, FM, TV and NOAA weather band radio while hiking. I use headphones. However, I rarely wear them over my ears. Rather, I just place them around my neck and turn up the volume.
As stated, reception along the AT is sporadic to sensational depending on location. I discovered by accident that I could use my hiking poles as an antenna for better reception. I hold the headphone wire in my hand and grasp one or both poles. I have no idea why this works, but by twisting and turning the poles in the air, I am often able to listen to a station (especially the all-important weather band) that I couldn't hear with out the poles.
I've noticed the hiking pole trick as well when I've use radios with spotty performance. I don't often use my radio while hiking but one trick I use in camp is using a bit of aluminum foil warped on the tip of the antenna. I recently was camping for the night in a pretty deep and narrow spot between two ridges. I was able to get okay reception with the Eton radio I have but when I used the foil (which doubles as a screen for my stove) I was able to get perfect reception. Normally the Eton I use has no problems getting reception on it's own though.