In the most recent edition of ARRL’s On the Air, C. Crane CEO Jessica Crotty underscores the importance of being fully familiar with your equipment long before a disaster occurs. She also highlights the essential role radio plays during emergencies, offering reliable communication when other systems fail and helping communities stay informed and prepared.
The new C. Crane 2025 catalog has arrived. Did you get your copy yet?
If your AM radio reception seems worse in the summer, you’re not imagining things. Between long daylight hours, more interference, and changing atmospheric conditions, summer can throw a wrench into even the best listening setups.
Whether you’re parked at a rest stop trying to catch your favorite talk show, listening in bed at home, or sitting in your garage workshop with the radio on, those familiar fades and static bursts might be showing up more often.
Here’s why that happens – and what you can do about it.
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We’ve noticed some questions and concerns about increased static on our radios compared to others. This feedback is common with radios as sensitive and selective as ours. While this sensitivity allows them to pick up weaker, distant signals, it can also mean they’re more affected by unwanted interference, including static from electronic devices in your home or environment.
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On Thursday, December 5th, 2024, just off the coast, our little area in the Pacific Northwest (of California), was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, along with hundreds of aftershocks. We’re beginning to associate December with earthquakes, as we had another large earthquake in December of 2022 that caused a tremendous amount of damage.
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C. Crane started in 1983 selling AM antennas. After starting to gain momentum selling mostly antennas and radio accessories, we received our first real technological challenge when customers started asking for recommendations on the best radio. It was easy to select the Sangean 803A as the first radio we offered to our customers. Tuning was precise and voice audio was sharper and more legible than most other radios on the market. With the Select-A-Tenna that we sold, it turned into one of the best radios made for reception. It was a little complex to use as a regular daily radio, but it met many customer’s needs. We also carried the GE Super Radio which was much easier to use but lacked some of the functionality customers wanted and supply was erratic. It seemed that there wasn’t a good blend of features, performance, and ease of use.
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A little slice of Bob’s heaven
I learned how to grow crops by taking a Master Gardner class and by looking online for information available from the great people and organization of the Cooperative Extension Services. If you like audio, search for “farmers podcast” and I am sure you will find something you like. I have made at least two failures for every gardening success I’ve had.
All my vegetables are in raised beds. I don’t make a living at farming so my focus is definitely not as intense or as well skilled as a full-time farmer. I do raise 90% of the vegetables, fruit, nuts, and eggs we eat and share the extra with friends.
What is the Cooperative Extension? In 1914, the U.S. Department of Agriculture partnered with a nationwide network of “land grant” universities to create a system of “extension” services. The goal of these services is to improve life across the country with advice from local experts regarding all things agriculture and farming and much more. A wonderful Master Gardener program class is available to gain knowledge and increase your ability to raise food. To get some idea of what is available online simply search your state.edu and your interest. There are usually tips and information about your county where you live. Example: “iowa.edu growing peaches”. Pests are a big problem if you go organic and they have lots of research and tips on how to do it. Here is an easy way to find the nearest Cooperative Extension office near you: http://npic.orst.edu/mlr.html
We’ve had some questions around our FM Transmitter and how exactly it works, especially for use for church services, a parking lot concert, or other events. Below we’re going to give you some ideas on how it might work for you. Scroll to the bottom of the blog post if you’d like to watch a video detailing the information below.
A couple of things to keep in mind, FM is line of sight, if you have walls or obstructions, it will limit the reception. If you live in a populous area with a lot of FM stations, this solution may not work well for you because there are no vacant frequencies or too much interference.
The transmitter doesn’t “care” what the source of the audio signal is, it just uses the FM frequency band to send that signal to other devices on that same frequency. It will accept a source of audio from about any line-out or headphone jack.
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