AM Radio Reception?

[Oaktree]

I think some of the old antennas, may have had a loading coil built into the base. You replacement was likely a 31 inch whip without a load coil. That may have been the difference.

Maybe some did, but mind didn't. Just a 3-section antenna that threaded into the fender-mount base. New one threaded in it's place.

I doubt that AM radio will disappear in the near future. Several years ago the FCC allowed AM stereo without specifying a standard system. Then they expanded the band an extra 100 Kcs, and it filled up. They've also changed the power specifications and allowed more 24 hour operations. It seems that the FCC is making the AM band a little more of a free for all much like the CB band.

There are hundreds of stations on the band, and no other commercial service wants the band. As long as a bunch of owners can make a few bucks, AM radio will be with us. Personally, I think they should have kept the 24 clear channel non-directional 50KW stations.

AM stereo has been around since the early 80s, never caught on. The expanded band (1610-1700) has a handful of stations in it, but I'd hardly say it's "filled up". Even that's been around for 30-odd years. Both were too little too late.
Yeah, AM will still be around for a while, but every year its audience share drops a little more. Almost no one under 55 listens, and even among us old guys there's more than enough right wing talk, paid religion and foreign language program to go around. Probably 90% of these stations aren't billing enough to pay the electric bill.

The 50,000 Watt clear channel stations are still there, the channels just aren't clear anymore.

 

[Diggin It]

Personally, I think they should have kept the 24 clear channel non-directional 50KW stations.

I remember picking up a Boston station several hundred miles away. Clear a s a bell, but only for a few hours ion the evening.

AM stereo has been around since the early 80s, never caught on.

Well, maybe 1963, or 1924 even: AM stereo - Wikipedia

 

[bunyip]

I remember the pioneer dual AM tuners from the 60's, a few dual transmissions but not regular.

 

[MossRoad]

This is what I miss most about AM radio...
WLS Chicago
Larry Lujack
Tommy Edwards
Animal Stories

 

[Jstpssng]

Funny thing, I've been asking the same thing about FM radios. It seems like every time that I get a new truck the reception is a bit worse... there was definitely an improvement in my 2004 Ranger vs the newer company trucks. I actually thought about putting my old Supertuner III in my new Colorado but it wouldn't be a very good crossover. (Plus I'd miss the Bluetooth.)
Radio programming all seems like mindless drivel after a while anyways... how many times can you listen to "Stairway to Heaven" or "He stopped loving her today" before it gets old? Even XM gets tiring fast... some stations will play the same song at the same time several days in a row. It's hard to believe that in all of the decades of recorded music; there are only about 97 songs which all of the stations are allowed to play.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, keep in mind that in the 50s & 60s (1) AM was the only game in town and (2) there were far fewer stations on the air, so radios needed to be more sensitive. Car radios today don't even have decent FM reception, let alone AM. GM vehicles, as recently as the early 00s had some of the best factory car radios around, but the radio in my wife's '15 Buick is deaf as a stump on both bands.
Not sure the static you hear is necessarily the fault of the radio...the last 15 years or so have seen an explosion of devices that create RF hash, most notably switching power supplies used in cell chargers/wall warts, LED lights, etc. The noise floor today is MUCH higher than it was in the past.

Dunno if you're looking for a solution, but the company truck I had at my last job (07 turdra) had a terrible radio in it. I ended up taking a 1990s vintage GM or Chrysler (forget which) radio, built a case for it and would plug it in the factory radio's aux jack. I had a mag-mount antenna for it. Worked great.



Meh. Right wing talk (Rush, Hannity, Beck, etc.) was big in the 90s/early 00s, but none of those guys have had anything fresh to say in 15+ years, just preaching to a shrinking choir. Rush might have had 60 million listeners in his heyday (a bit of a stretch IMHO), but that's way in the rearview mirror.

As far as your MF goes, I'm not sure AM radio (they call it MW over there) is even still around in much of Europe...everything's migrated to FM. Some European countries have, or are at least in the process of doing away with FM as well, migrating to digital broadcasting.
If I'm not mistaken, Europe used different channel spacing on AM too (9kHz there vs 10 here), so even if your radio had AM, the tuning steps wouldn't have lined up properly.

Ummmm, you better go back and check your facts. Rushs audience is the biggest it has ever been. With the election season peaking, he has been hitting up to 60 million.
His audience dwarfs anything on TV :laughing:
Meh this! :laughing:



EIB Audience Models Project 43 Million Listeners | iHeartRadio | Rush Limbaugh

 

[MossRoad]

Folks. No politics. No Rush. No. No. No..... NOooooooooo..........

Or the thread will be closed.

 

[ultrarunner]

Traffic and Weather on the "8's" KCBS.

Think about tube receivers bouncing down the road subject to blistering heat and cold. Of course the cost could have been 10% or more of the car price. We really did build to last.

Maybe the c.crane company has offerings?

 

[Diggin It]

Radio programming all seems like mindless drivel after a while anyways... how many times can you listen to "Stairway to Heaven" or "He stopped loving her today" before it gets old? Even XM gets tiring fast... some stations will play the same song at the same time several days in a row. It's hard to believe that in all of the decades of recorded music; there are only about 97 songs which all of the stations are allowed to play.

I haven't had a radio turned on in my cars in close to 20 years for just that reason. What wasn't commercials or blathering was repetition.

My music is all digital now, downloaded or recorded from various sources including albums or cassettes from many years ago. With several thousand tracks, I can play music continuously 24 hours a day for at least 30 days and not hear the same song twice (except for a few I have duplicates of). And no commercials news, weather, DJs yammering ....

 

[rhunt]

Oh the days of the OZ4's going bad. Miss those days. Tube radio's did have a better sound quality. Bob

 

[ray66v]

If they ever finally decide to quit playing around with 1920 technology, and digitize the AM band, it will be as good as, or better than FM in sound quality. And, it can have many more channels.

There have been proposals and discussions concerning this, but so far no real progress.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Of the few CDs I own, I think there is one song per disk I like. I have a lifetime subscription to XM. Not sure I would pay for it at this point. Mostly listen to Patriot Radio, but you do get kind of sick of them preaching to the choir. What's the point? We have a local community radio station that plays better music thean XM, but they have limited range.

What kind of music do you like that's not on XM?? I listen to XM6 mostly, sometimes XM18 and sometimes XM5 or 7...

There's every kind of music on XM, and I listen to it more than any other stations...

SR

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Folks. No politics. No Rush. No. No. No..... NOooooooooo..........

Or the thread will be closed.

You mean, just mentioning how many listeners Rush has, will get a thread closed???

Why would that be??

SR

 

[Fuddy1952]

You can't mention anyone who receives The Presidential Medal of Freedom is why.

 

[JethroB]

What kind of music do you like that's not on XM?? I listen to XM6 mostly, sometimes XM18 and sometimes XM5 or 7...

There's every kind of music on XM, and I listen to it more than any other stations...

SR

I signed up for XM radio a few years ago for my company car set and my pickup. Quite nice for the variety and commercial free aspect. I had read about their automatic renewal tactics so I always paid by check, not credit card. They REALLY wanted that credit card number, ha. That turned out to a very be wise move. Every year at renewal time it was a fight to keep the fees from more than doubling. I held firm with keep it under $100 or cancel. And they made canceling difficult too. Four years later and I still get renewal offers.

 

[forestcreature1]

total lack of FREE music is why I don't use XM [I also don't have cable tv, etc.]
There is nothing happening on XM that is worth money to me.

 

[flyerdan]

I've got a pretty good testbed that illustrates how dirty AM has got over the years. It's a 30 some odd year old clock radio, set to 1190 KEX, never moves, never changes. When you hit the sleep button, you get an hour of audio, at night it's crystal clear and unwavering. During pauses there is no background noise at all. When the alarm goes off in the morning, you can hear the static bed, and sometimes during the summer the interference was so great you could barely make out what was said. Nothing in the house or shop electric draw changes during that time, except the coffee maker, and that has been eliminated as an interference source.

 

[bunyip]

am is susceptible to interference from the sun which is why it is quiet at night, just can't recall which radiation spectrum but thinking uv.

 

[k0ua]

am is susceptible to interference from the sun which is why it is quiet at night, just can't recall which radiation spectrum but thinking uv.

Well, it is a VERY complicated subject. But the gist of it is that the ionosphere consist of so called Layers that are formed by solar radiation. During the day, the formation of the D layer(I am simplifying here) acts as an absorption medium for frequencies below the MUF or Maximum Usable Frequency. This D layer absorption is what prevents these lower frequency waves from getting thru the D layer(s) to hit the F layers which are much higher up in the ionosphere that would allow these frequencies to refract back down and be propagated long distances. As soon as the sun stops illuminating this area then the D layer disappears, and long range propagation is again available. Now all that said there are MANY other factors at work here, but the formation of the D layer during the daytime is why you have to rely on the short range of ground wave propagation for these lower frequencies.

Night time propagation of AM broadcast band signals are not necessarily quiet, as local and regional thunderstorms static crashes can severally impact reception. Keep in mind that these lightning crashes themselves are propagated by ionospheric diffraction. So depending on where these storms are located they may or may not be heard regionally or even worldwide. Of course depending which hemisphere you are in, you may be going into a more noisy period, like you are down under with your summer time and more storm season coming on, and we up here in the northern hemisphere are coming into a more quiet time with our winter coming on.

As said, all of this is an extreme simplification of a complicated subject. One could study radio wave propagation all of their life and still not have a complete understanding of all of it.

 

[k0ua]

I've got a pretty good testbed that illustrates how dirty AM has got over the years. It's a 30 some odd year old clock radio, set to 1190 KEX, never moves, never changes. When you hit the sleep button, you get an hour of audio, at night it's crystal clear and unwavering. During pauses there is no background noise at all. When the alarm goes off in the morning, you can hear the static bed, and sometimes during the summer the interference was so great you could barely make out what was said. Nothing in the house or shop electric draw changes during that time, except the coffee maker, and that has been eliminated as an interference source.

As you may have noticed the noise floor has been slowly and in the last few years not so slowly rising worldwide. This is a pollution problem that very few are taking seriously. When our air quality degrades from particulate pollution or our water is filled with chemicals a lot of people get interested very quickly. When we continue to pollute the RF spectrum with cheap Chinese electrical devices, no one seems to notice or just shrugs their shoulders. Even Governmental agencies that are charged with setting and enforcing standards seem to let a lot of things slip thru and under the wire without comment or much action.