I have not had a vehicle with radio that had decent AM reception since my 2002 Chevy Avalanche with its Delphi radio. My 2004 Avalanche Delphi radio was crap.
The 2000 Saab had a fantastic AM radio. At night I could pick up New York or Chicago or Cincinnatti from northern Georgia! I think it was a Blaupunkt, but not sure.
So let’s see a link to some credible third party to back up this claim…?
Here’s one that doesn’t:
" FM signals were originally horizontally polarized (Hpol), but now, circular polarization (Cpol) is used almost exclusively."
I will concede here about the FM broadcast radio. I did a little research and found out that FM went Cpol primarily for FM reception in automobiles. Automobile antennas are mostly whip antennas which are Vpol. Window antennas are mostly both but early windshield antennas were Hpol. Newer (back) window antennas are often fractal designs, like the antenna in your cell phone.
Cpol has little benefit outside of automotive applications as the biggest benefit comes when the receiver has a Cpol antenna, which very few do.
Another reason for AM’s vertical polarization is that AM, being lower frequency, has a longer wavelength. The transmitting antenna has to be sized on the order of the wavelength. It is structurally easier to build the transmitting antenna upright rather than horizontal.
Don’t know that I agree with you on that. Commercial radio in the early days went vertical, but among amature radio enthusiasts, most went horizontal because it was easier and cheaper to string a wire between two poles than build a tower.
I would surely miss the local AM Stations, there are at least 4-different genres that I listen to and I would miss them greatly. The DJs are entertaining, they are versed on local topics, and they take local call-ins. The FM stations’ DJ seem more interested in the music and barely hit the news and in most cases, the news is national or international. I like FM’s NPR, but can only take so much punishment for being my race and ethnicity. This morning, I took a drive just so I could listen to “A Way with Words” and "Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, both NPR Saturday Morning shows… It’s for these type of shows I contribute to NPR. M contribution to the AM stations are all the endless hours listening to their commercials and advertisements…
I didn’t read every post here but no one seems to be saddened by the current absence of the old kings of AM like Russ L. He always said he was only broadcasting as an entertainer. For at least my first year listening on the road I believed him and thought he was one of the best satirists ever. I STILL suspect it. I liked listening to the UFO shows and Dr. Joy on AM late at night. All N/A now on FM. (Small tear.) You don’t know what you’ve got till t’s gone. It’s like LPs. Maybe the AM mystique will come back. Probably not.
I guess you will be SOL if you travel on the NY state thruway in the winter . They advertise weather updates on their LED signs for AM stations they run .
I think AM faded after AM stereo never caught on because we already had FM stereo . I am surprised they dont push HD FM more as it has more FM stations. A lot of stations broadcast other stations right around their primary frequency that you cannot get on standard FM . It sounds noticeably better also .
I just listen to Pandora… problem solved for me… lol
A local odd lots was closing out a table full of Chrysler am/fm radios for $5 back in the 70s. I bought 6 of them and configures my radio box I rolled from truck to truck to fit one. I frequently listened all night to Cincinnati and Richmond am stationsd riving across NY state and sometimes could pick up New Orleans.
The reason I bought 6 was that everything gets beat up pretty bad in a cheap freight truck, including the driver.
I walk with a permantly bent forward head from trying to stop it from bouncing off the roof or back window.
Surely there are streaming stations and podcasts covering your subjects of interest (better than ever before, most likely).
I’m not going to read 50 comments before spouting off, so relevant or not, am and fm are still pretty active around here. The programming is what has become a problem. I don’t listen to music much and prefer intelligent discussions like what we used to get with greats like Bruce Williams and others. I suspect federal media regulations that allowed wholesale consolidation of the media has had a lot to do with it. Bruce warned of this maybe 20 years ago.
You pretty much need to subscribe to serrius or something for any broad programming. When we bought our last car and the sales girl was explaining the nav and radio features, I asked where the radar weather information was? No longer there because everyone uses their smart phone instead. But you can’t look at your phone anymore while driving even if you could see the tiny screen. So I guess I pay maybe $5 less a month to not have weather. It was quite useful driving cross country to be able to see radar weather and what was ahead of us.
So yeah there is a work around for everything but really who needs to use a phone to unlock a door instead of a fob? I suspect a lot of kids with phones hanging on their belts are making these decisions.
Even though I live in San Jose, I sometimes listen to an LA station at night, KFI-AM. Tends to be quite a bit of static, but for the most part still listenable. We had a big storm last month, knocked the power out to the entire neighborhood all night. I listened to KFI that night using a battery operated radio. Reception was nearly perfect, very little static. Electrically powered home gadgets are causing the AM static. LED and florescent light bulbs I expect are the biggest culprit.
I used to listen to all the Saturday morning am programs on home and garden,money, cars, building etc., in my shop which is part of my garage. Then all of a sudden I couldn’t get any am reception. I thought they might have changed tiers or cut power or something, or maybe the cell tower they put up not far away. Or maybe my tv antenna in the attic is acting like a faraday cage. I dunno. I suspect I’ll never know, but the programming has gone away anyway.
Your car doesn’t have Android Auto or CarPlay, then?
Got nav screen and Sirius sat for radio. No radar for weather though.
Go to your local marine electronics store, get a radar dome on the roof of your car🤪
AM is the new FM. In the heyday of AM radio, AM was mostly network stations that played a narrow selection of top-40 hits or C&W while the FM band had small independent stations that played album cuts and adventurous new stuff. Today it’s FM that features interchangeable network stations that play a narrow selection of songs to death while there are independent AM stations that play stuff you’ll hear nowhere else.
If I have passengers, it’s 80s on 8 on XM radio, if it’s just me, I have my iphone that has my favorite songs on it.