WPEB Reception Tips

So, you're wondering if you can get WPEB, 88.1 FM. Well, if you're outside of Philadelphia, you should just listen on the web. But if you're local, please tune us in!

Unlike larger stations, our radio reception is "line of sight." We broadcast with a mere few watts, while they use tens of thousands of watts. One difference is that we broadcast in mono, while they generally broadcast in stereo. Broadcasting in stereo requires twice as much power. Other stations rely on their signal bouncing off of stuff (brick walls, etc.) and into your house. Our signal has one shot- if your antenna "sees " our antenna, you'll probably hear us fine- if it doesn't, it's just a question of luck. Here are a few suggestions:

Start with trying a few different receivers, in a few different rooms. Component stereos are the best, then boomboxes, then walkmen. A digital tuner is often a plus, though analog can be good too. And try one of those Radio Shack indoor FM reception doohickey antennas for around $20. They often make a world of difference, and you will not only be able to get WPEB but a number of other radio stations with relatively weak signals. There are several of them - any of them that fit the connection on the back of your stereo and say something like "amplified" or "directional" on the package should work. Some will work with TVs, too, make sure whatever you get specifically mentions that it works with FM radio. You can always return it if it doesn't help
Car radios do better-even crappy car stereos are often better at receiving weak signals than home equipment. This is because they are designed to receive in challenging reception environments, like when you are listening to one station, but driving away from it into another radio stations territory.
Some intrepid radio listeners take an old car stereo and bring it into their house- setting it up with an antenna and a twelve volt power supply. Instructions for this project can be found at www.kgnu.org.
If your stereo has no antenna, make one. Find the antenna inputs. Take any old piece of wire- say 5 or 10 feet- and strip 3/4 inch of insulation off the end with a utility knife, removing the coating, and connect this to the FM antenna connection on your radio. Extend the wire up your wall. Play around with the placement of the wire and your reception. Be aggressive and move it around. Try both vertical and horizontal angles. This might help a little. It will probably change when you let go, or move around the room.

Better yet, follow the directions at http://www.kgnu .org/howtohear/antenna.html and make a dipole antenna especially tuned for our station. Our frequency is 88.1, so our half wavelength is 5 feet, 3.75 inches. This costs about a dollar and a half hour of your time. Being close to a window facing 41st and powelton will probably help.
You may notice that your reception depends upon where you are standing in the room with the radio. This is because your body can interfere with radio waves. As with all kinds of waves, when radio waves meet an obstruction, they are either absorbed by the barrier, reflected off of the barrier, or manage to pass through it. In actuality, almost always some of each occurs. Your body is made mostly of water- water is a pretty good absorber of radio waves. If you are standing in the way of our signal, you will probably interfere a little bit. If the path to your antenna is clear for WPEB's waves, and you are standing in the way between another stations waves and the antenna, WPEB will probably sound better. WPEBs nearest competing signal is in Berlin New Jersey on 88.1, and WXPN in Germantown on 88.5. Holding the antenna might affect it too. If you have better things to do besides standing around, holding your antenna in order to receive our pearls of wisdom, you might try a big pot of water instead, or maybe a big piece of aluminum foil. Experiment with it's placement to shield your antenna from the evil, giant waves of the other stations and expose the antenna to the nice, perky little waves from WPEB.
For the hardcore radio addict- An antenna on your roof will give you a much better shot for receiving our signal. A directional antenna will make reception very likely, if you are within our range and there are no giant buildings directly between you and West Philly. If you have one of those old Yagi television antennas that look like giant clothing racks, that is excellent. Just hook the coaxial cable (the 75 ohm stuff that connects vcrs and tvs). If it is a screw connector, cut off the connector and attach the center to the antenna, and the outer conductor to the ground screw. Make sure that the small end of the antenna is pointing towards 40th and powelton, and away from Berlin New Jersey or Germantown.
If you don't catch us, try a few times. Occasionally, we are shut down during our broadcast time because a dj was unable to make their shift, we are having technical problems, etc. You may have just caught us at a bad time.

If this all seems a little involved to you- you're right. But if you catch us, I guarantee that you'll be listening to programming like you've never heard on the radio before. You'll love us, you'll hate us, you'll find us exciting and boring, sometimes phenomenally skillful and other times amateurish- but we are never bland and robotic, like most of the radio stations in town.