



August 20, 2025:
This article recalls the summer evening I caught PJB
under the headphones on a Sony SRF-A100 AM stereo radio forced
into its Magnavox/Motorola/Harris mode. That superb and now long
defunct little portable radio does not need to see a stereo
pilot to decode phase-dependent AM stereo. PJB from Bonaire,
CKLW(AM) Windsor, Ontario, and WLAD(AM) Danbury, Conn., were all
coming in at about equal strength here in Wilton, Conn. Because
their frequencies differed by fractions of a cycle, the radio
decoded the constantly shifting phase differences. Imagine
yourself under the headphones as the nucleus of a lithium atom,
atomic number 3. Swirling around your head in orbit are the
three electrons. That is the effect created by the
phase-dependent AM stereo decoder. Under headphones, it creates
an image in three-dimensions of the three stations orbiting
around in your head in psychoacoustic space. This makes it
possible to follow and copy any one of the stations by
anticipating and focusing on its location in space to the
exclusion of the others at any given instant.
It’s a wild and crazy but
interesting effect that could be used to enhance an AM DXer’s
ability to pick out and highlight one given station in a jumble
of several. Dennis
Jackson, Wilton, Conn.
August 19, 2025 email:
Amazing story. Great reporting. Take one’s breath away
to know that operations like this still exist in the world.
Robert Richer.
August 15, 2025, email:
Hi Mark!
Great story on PJB3! Back in the early 70's I was living in
Detroit where I grew up. CKLW Windsor was the dominant rock and
roll station in the market and their 50 kw transmitter with a
directional array threw a heck of a signal into Michigan. But
as with all good directional stations it had a sharp pattern. I
used to drive between Detroit and Jackson MI (90 miles due west)
and on most evenings the big 500 kw signal of PJB quickly
overtook them. Greg Surma, K8GL, interlochen, MI.
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August 13, 2025,
emaii:
I just read with
interest you “Radio World” article on your visit
to TWR in Bonaire.
I recall in the
mid 1960s-1973 when I lived in South Central
Michigan, at night I was able to tune the AM car
radio to 800 and actually hear the station. The
church I attended supported a TWR missionary who
worked at the station when I was in high school
and encouraged me to try to pick up the station.
And there were many nights that the signal was
pretty clear for being so far away.
Thanks for sharing, Bill
Harrier, Radio Training Network, Peachtree
Corners, GA.
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Also find the article at:
https://www.radioworld.com/global/a-visit-to-shine-800-am
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