PADJASJOKI, FINLAND (WTAQ) — Wanna know what WTAQ sounds like from 4,235 miles away? The answer is: not super great…but in the right conditions and with a little luck, AM radio signals can travel extremely far.
That’s what happened last week in the small town of Padasjoki, Finland. Radio hobbyist Jari Lehtinen picked up a snippet from WTAQ’s top of the hour intro using a 2460 foot tall radio antenna.
Lehtinen listens to long-distance radio signals frequently, a hobby he told WTAQ he picked up as a teenager in the early 1980s.
“There [were] two tv channels and three radio channels in Finland,” Lehtinen told WTAQ. “No internet in sight. No satellite TV. [My] interest and hobby remained in my case, and it sort of became lifestyle.”
The farthest signal Lehtinen has found? A shortwave broadcast station in the Argentine-controlled section of Antartica.
