Bob's Corner
From our weekly issue dated March 11, 2009
Radio waves, especially from AM stations, can be interesting because of the way they “bounce” around, often depending on the weather. When my family used to make the drive from San Diego to El Paso, I enjoyed hearing the preaching, Country Western and Mexican music stations as we rolled across Arizona and New Mexico on our way to Texas.
These days I get a kick out of picking up stations in the Smith River Canyon on Hwy. 199. It’s especially interesting to hear the traffic reports from the metro areas. Here we are, sometimes becoming impatient (OK, so it’s me being impatient) when I have to wait somewhere in Illinois Valley for a handful of cars before I can turn or pull out.
But listening to stations from the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Portland and Boise, Idaho -- well, they have traffic! One hears reports of long delays because of crashes, fires or construction. I remember taking it all in stride when we lived in San Diego. Didn’t enjoy it, but there’s not much to do but live through it.
My only complaint about the AM stations I pick up now is that they fade in and out. Usually they fade out just when I’m getting interested in a discussion, a professional sport or am enjoying a piece of music. But there’s really not much I can do about it unless I want to pull over (sometimes impossible in the canyon). And I’m certainly not going to back-track; that’s against my religion.
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