AM is it really dead?

[mmckenna]

Yeah, that's definitely true. I have no cell coverage where I live, and agree the West, especially the mountains, have huge holes. I can drive more than an hour without cell coverage frequently. Also ATT sucks lol.

They all suck somewhere.

In my opinion, the vast majority of people want more cell towers to fix that. That is where they want the money to go. Not to keep analog radio going, and certainly not to expand analog radio coverage. Maybe the carriers don't want to do it, but we subsidize them with $billions to supposedly encourage them to do it... somehow they seem to find ways to just keep the money and not put up the towers though.

And as public safety utilizes LTE more and more, the needs increase. I agree, that's where things are going. Not quite the glamor or nostalgia of listening to an AM station, but it gets the job done.

But honestly, after 10 pages of this subject, AM isn't going anywhere any time soon, and I'm not concerned that in my lifetime that my AM radio will ever become useless.

 

[MUTNAV]

And there's still quite a few that prefer local programming. As the larger stations have been gobbled up and networked, the smaller community stations have picked up quite a bit of listeners. I've got a few small local FM stations that serve pretty small areas, but have a pretty good listener base.

I really agree with the local station idea... During one of our more recent power outages, I found quite a few OTA TV stations that had very good local programming and were not available on cable.

For some reason I always found the Pork belly futures and prices entaining from the Chicago area.

Thanks
Joel

 

[mmckenna]

For some reason I always found the Pork belly futures and prices entaining from the Chicago area.

Les Nesman doing the news again?

 

[Boombox]

ETA: last thought. All the new AM/FM/SW receivers are DSP. Takes all the joy out of scanning the dial, looking for new stations.

DSP is fine, just depends on the radio used. DSP cuts out static better than analog IF chip radios. They're starting to sound good, too. My Sangean PR-D4W works as well as my Superadio and sounds just as good, and it's easy enough to tune on the AM band at night.

That said, I hear plenty of varied programming at night on the AM band, from Classic hits, to oldies, to classic R&B, to Classic Country, to South Asian movie music and Sikh prayer chants / singing. FM radio as a whole isn't much different from what it was in the 1980s, when it was still 5-6 formats and lots of commercials. The dominant music has obviously changed. I haven't listened to FM since the local AAA/Alternative station flipped to current country. I just don't find a lot of the current music all that fun to listen to, and the local rockers play the same stuff I heard 30 years ago, with banal afternoon talk shows they repeat overnight. There really is no compelling reason to listen to FM.

The local FM classical station has a couple HD channels that are good, but who knows how long they will last? The local FM rocker had a metal HD2 that was excellent and they pulled the plug on it 2 years ago.

The problem with SW is that it is indeed dying, both the broadcast side and the ham radio side. The HF ham bands are mostly empty, even if propagation is favorable, when compared to 12 years ago or 22 years ago. Even when prop is up, 20 meters has swaths where there aren't any QSO's, and that wouldn't have been the case in 2012 or in the 1990's. Hams just aren't as active as they were in the past, unless it's FT8.

So for the SWL, there's less alternatives on the HF bands to tune to. Less SW stations, and less hams. It is discouraging. Where I live in the morning the SW band is active with Asian stations, but who knows how long that will last.

As for internet streaming, I get my music off YT. Yeah, there's commercials, but not as many as on the radio and at least the music I choose to listen to is good.

RE: Telecom '96: It slashed radio jobs, that's for sure. Homogenized the media. Might have saved some stations that would have otherwise gone off the air sooner (as part of a cluster, they could be used for cluster-wide commercial buys). The internet killed off radio more than Telecom '96, although Telecom '96 (and other consolidation -- like the consolidation in both the music and advertising industries) did its part to mess up radio as well.

 

[MikeinDestin]

I wanna go back, and do it all over but I can't go back I know.....

 

[aston4]

This interesting video popped up. German created a MW receiver kit. Also included a MW transmitter kit, to hook to cell phone, to broadcast streaming from the phone, to the MW receiver, because in Germany, there are no more MW stations.

So for Germany, AM is a specialized hobby. I wonder what it's like in the rest of Europe. I haven't been to Europe in over a decade, but last time I was there, there was still some MW broadcasting. Is it all just gone now?

I also note when the reviewer is tuning, his place is full of RF noise too, like everywhere.

 

[kc2asb]

So for Germany, AM is a specialized hobby. I wonder what it's like in the rest of Europe. I haven't been to Europe in over a decade, but last time I was there, there was still some MW broadcasting. Is it all just gone now?

I've used online SDR's in the UK and continental Europe to tune the MW band as recently as earlier this year. There are still a fair amount MW stations on the air. I did not know that Germany has no MW stations.

 

[MUTNAV]

They used to have LW stations in Germany... I don't know if they still do... There cars even had AM/FM/LW receivers.

Thanks
Joel

 

[kc2asb]

They used to have LW stations in Germany... I don't know if they still do... There cars even had AM/FM/LW receivers.

Thanks
Joel

There used to be scores of LW broadcast stations throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. Most LW stations in Europe have gone dark. It appears that only 198kHz in the UK (BBC Radio 4), 153kHz in Romania and 225kHz in Poland remain on the air. BBC Radio 4 198kHz will likely go dark this year.

171kHz in Morocco and 252kHz in Algeria are still active, and possibly two or three remain in Mongolia.

 

[aston4]

They used to have LW stations in Germany... I don't know if they still do... There cars even had AM/FM/LW receivers.

Thanks
Joel

Long ago my friend's dad had a '69 Mercedes sedan with a factory radio that had SW and AM. I think it was a Blaupunkt. It may have had FM or other bands, not sure, but I specifically remember the SW because I had never seen that in a car before. Come to think of it, never seen it since either. I couldn't find anything on the SW, just ignition static. I do not know whether the SW band of the radio was kaput, or if the spark plug wires or the plugs themselves were leaky, or that the implementation just did not work very well from the factory. Maybe car antenna isn't great for SW.

This was in the US.


Edit: this is similar to my memory:

Pardon Our Interruption...

ebay.us

 

[Zaratsu]

Meanwhile, Ford has recently announced that it will be halting production of its Lightning EV pickup for now.
Maybe AM radio will outlast the EV thing.

Just hit 180k miles in my 3.5 year old Tesla. At this rate, it will outlive the old farts that complain about them.

For the record, the car doesn’t get AM radio. But I still stream Howie Carr every day and 1010 WINS when I’m in the city. (Now AM band fade and interference is super annoying when I rarely drive my ancient gas-burner Toyota SUV). But ripping off 300 mile days, multiple days in a row, is really easy in a Tesla.

I hope that they don’t go anywhere. This is the easiest car to live with that I’ve ever owned. Wouldn’t bother with a ford EV though. They should stick to what they do best.

 

[RRR]

All depends on where you live & work too. Out in the more Country / rural parts, an electric vehicle would severely limit us. City folks can have all that.

And we still listen to AM radio as well.

 

[Token]

All depends on where you live & work too. Out in the more Country / rural parts, an electric vehicle would severely limit us. City folks can have all that.

And we still listen to AM radio as well.

Re EVs in rural areas, really, they can work there too. It does require you to change the way you think a little, but for most people EVs would absolutely work in rural / country environment, if they gave it a chance. With the caveat of, if you daily drive more than ~300 miles it might not apply, and of course in extreme weather (either very cold or very hot) you have to adjust your expectations.

With an EV you don't "fill up" when the tank gets low, you do it when it is convenient or when you can.

Driving an EV and home charging (something some city dwellers cannot do, but everyone in a rural setting probably can) means you start every day with a "full tank". Basically every night when I do a lap of the property to make sure the gate is closed, the trash is out, etc, I plug the car into my home charger. For various reasons I don't charge to 100%, so my displayed available mileage every morning is ~275 miles. Real world that works out to about ~250 miles. And if I have a trip planned for the next day I top it off to 100%, and get an indicated 310 miles (real world more like 290 miles at highway speeds, posted +5 to 10 over).

Typically I drive 70 - 90 miles a day, and once a week or so 130 miles a day. Since I charge each night, this means that my "tank" (state of charge) seldom drops below 50%, half a tank. However, if for some reason I cannot (or forget to) charge at night I can typically get 3 of my "average" days per charge.

And EVs at idle use far less energy (gas). You can leave the AC on and nothing else runs. You don't have to leave the engine idling to have the AC / Heat on.

And my EV has AM radio, and it works. Yes, when running down the road it does have a little RF noise, killing a few weak stations. But seriously, I have had traditional ICE vehicles that killed more AM stations with ignition or fuel pump EMI/EFI.

T!

 

[kc2asb]

And my EV has AM radio, and it works. Yes, when running down the road it does have a little RF noise, killing a few weak stations. But seriously, I have had traditional ICE vehicles that killed more AM stations with ignition or fuel pump EMI/EFI.

T!

This is interesting, thanks. So, you won't be able to DX for faint signals with it, but sounds like its perfectly fine for listening to broadcasts. The average car owner is likely not concerned about AM band DXing.

Even my 29 year-old Camry produces some RFI that affects weaker AM stations.

 

[Token]

This is interesting, thanks. So, you won't be able to DX for faint signals with it, but sounds like its perfectly fine for listening to broadcasts. The average car owner is likely not concerned about AM band DXing.

Even my 29 year-old Camry produces some RFI that affects weaker AM stations.

Keep in mind it is only when the car is moving, i.e. the traction motor is turning, that I have EMI/RFI that kills the weaker stations. Stopped, drive motor not turning but everything else on, the radio works fine (no or little electronics noise) even on weak stations. However, the antenna used is very sub-optimal, so while there may not be any EV noise while setting still, it is not a DX machine.

T!

 

[kc2asb]

Keep in mind it is only when the car is moving, i.e. the traction motor is turning, that I have EMI/RFI that kills the weaker stations. Stopped, drive motor not turning but everything else on, the radio works fine (no or little electronics noise) even on weak stations. However, the antenna used is very sub-optimal, so while there may not be any EV noise while setting still, it is not a DX machine.

T!

Understood. Autombile radio antennas are a compromise on the AM band anyway, which is why the radios were designed to be very sensitive. Older car radios might have been more sensitive than current ones.


My Camry has an outboard power antenna that seems to work very well for weaker stations on AM or FM. It's about 3feet tall, maybe a bit more.

 

[Omega-TI]

Just hit 180k miles in my 3.5 year old Tesla. At this rate, it will outlive the old farts that complain about them.

You drive roughly 51,000 miles a year with an EV? Just out of curiosity, how much time do you spend waiting on the charger?

 

[mmckenna]

I hope that they don’t go anywhere. This is the easiest car to live with that I’ve ever owned. Wouldn’t bother with a ford EV though. They should stick to what they do best.

They aren't going anywhere.

My sister had a Tesla for years and loved it. I helped my brother in law install a fast charger in their garage. She put about 150K on that thing and never had an issue.

The Ford's are fine. She traded her Tesla in on the Mach E and likes it more than the Tesla.

There's a PD north of me that has been running the F150 Lightning SSV's for a few years now and likes them. We're ordering one here in the next few months to replace one of the aged out PUI's.