FCC authorizes digital on AM

[GB46]

Thanks to my laptop I can't do any AM DXing at all here

I agree, although for the purist isn't that cheating (of sorts, at least) if we use something other than a radio to listen to broadcasts with?

I do some of that by using web streams as a substitute, but only because the broadcasts are too weak to make out over the air, or they're fading in and out too much, or they're not coming in at all. Many broadcast stations have migrated to the internet and are actually no longer on the air. For those that have disappeared altogether I've found the occasional European FM station online that makes a good substitute.

I'm not exactly a purist, but I'd still prefer to hear broadcasts over the air on my receiver and not someone else's, like those web-based SDRs, for example. Web migration, combined with RFI and poor propagation make that wishful thinking, however!

 

[K9DWB]

FWIW: My old car, a 1991 Ford Thunderbird, has the old style 31" whip antenna, AM/FM and auto-reverse cassette. I can receive AM stations in Washington, D.C. and the suburbs or Harrisburg, PA, both of which are 70 air miles away. This is in the daytime.

My feeling is the FCC messing with AM like this is probably "show me the money".

 

[WB9YBM]

I do some of that by using web streams as a substitute, but only because the broadcasts are too weak to make out over the air, or they're fading in and out too much, or they're not coming in at all. Many broadcast stations have migrated to the internet and are actually no longer on the air. For those that have disappeared altogether I've found the occasional European FM station online that makes a good substitute.

I'm not exactly a purist, but I'd still prefer to hear broadcasts over the air on my receiver and not someone else's, like those web-based SDRs, for example. Web migration, combined with RFI and poor propagation make that wishful thinking, however!

I've had the same problem with SWL stations: because of budget constraints many of them have gone off the air and are available only on the Internet. Yeah, I could still get their programming on the internet but I don't feel like lugging a computer around with me, and especially for the more casual listening I don't have the enthusiasm to click here, click there, click someplace else, etc etc etc just to get to what I'm looking for.

 

[WB9YBM]

Listening for "pleasure" is very different to listening for DXing...

Oh? Speaking for myself (and at least a few others may agree) I get pleasure from listening for DX! (learning about other cultures, finding new music styles, getting a different perspective...)

 

[prcguy]

Try finding someone that knows how to tune up that engine with three two barrel carbs. They are all dead.

All this talk makes me want to go out and find a 60s Pontiac with "3 deuces and a 4-speed and a 389"
and enjoy motoring again. Oh, and with a good AM radio that was a real DX machine.

 

[GB46]

I've had the same problem with SWL stations: because of budget constraints many of them have gone off the air and are available only on the Internet. Yeah, I could still get their programming on the internet but I don't feel like lugging a computer around with me, and especially for the more casual listening I don't have the enthusiasm to click here, click there, click someplace else, etc etc etc just to get to what I'm looking for.

Well, I don't actually listen to them on their websites. Instead, I find the stream URLs, put them into a playlist (extension .M3U), and listen to them with my media player. Otherwise their websites would subject me to too many ads and other annoyances. To avoid the websites altogether, I Google "radio streams m3u URL", which usually brings up lists of those stream URLs. If I add a country's name to the search term I can refine the search.

As for DX, I'm not focused as much on that as on music from around the world. When I'm in a DX-chasing mood I go to HF and decode some amateur FT8 transmissions; plenty of DX stations there, and the software can easily decode the weakest of them.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Try finding someone that knows how to tune up that engine with three two barrel carbs. They are all dead.

The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I used to enjoy AM BCB DX when I was a kid with a CONELRAD marked radio. Every station was different, the large market stations had formats and the little rural stations had farm reports, with garage sale items listed for sale as well. Now, effectively all the stations have been bought up and they all sound the same. Oldies from the 1980s, Spanish language, talk-radio heads spewing political discord, and endless Taylor Swift and the Florida Georgia Line on the country stations.

Albuquerque sounds like Boulder, which sounds like Casper, which sounds like Spokane, which sounds like Des Moines, and they all sound like Terre Haute, etc. AM radio died when Art Bell left the air.

 

[NowhereMan66]

At least partly thanks to modern tech, a lot of cars have their antennas imbedded in the front or rear windshield. I've also seen cars with what looks like a miniature "shark fin" looking device on their roofs (presumably antennas?).

I still enjoy AM broadcast band DXing out of the car--even with modern cars--so the car manufacturers must be doing something right...

I like what GM did in the 1970's, out 1973 Pontiac Catalina had a dipole radio antenna embedded in the front windshield and my first car, a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix had one too with AM/FM/8-Track. Digital AM, if I may opine, will fall flat on it's face. AM is doing fine in some places and programming but I think the problem is lack of imagination and individuality of programs. Sure, I'm a talk radio junky, but there were a time stations were more individual and did things closer to the community. I remember during Christmas, KDKA-AM broadcasted from the various department stores in Pittsburgh for Children's Hospital donations from individuals, schools, groups etc. Well, the department stores in Pittsburgh are gone, so they would have to go out to the malls and such if they would do it again,

 

[MTS2000des]

Those front windshield antennas also sucked in every bit of engine noise and made the cost of replacement windshields expensive. My current Hyundai Elantra (2013) has a rear glass integrated antenna. It has an amplifier and works pretty well on AM, and FM at that. I am also amazed the front end on FM doesn't overload when I transmit on 2 m with an APX7500 (mid power 50 watts) about 3 inches away (trunk lid mount antenna).

That being said, I do notice quite a bit more music on a few AM stations, even WSB at night. The problem is, it sounds like a bag of smashed poop because of the NRSC curve. No one wants to hear music that sounds like it's piped through a telephone when you can get "high quality" sound from those Chinesium earbuds and a cell phone and get "every song, every album" ever played, for a low price of xxxxx per month.

 

[WB9YBM]

Those front windshield antennas also sucked in every bit of engine noise and made the cost of replacement windshields expensive. My current Hyundai Elantra (2013) has a rear glass integrated antenna.

I've seen other car manufacturers finally catch on, too. It's about time!

 

[eyes00only]

Everyone here is a serious radio enthusiast. Now let me ask how many here will replace their car radio with a HD radio? I will not spend money on this for a vehicle. How many average listeners will replace their car or home radios? Most people who listen to AM do that in their cars during their drive time. If their favourite news station were to go all digital I bet that most would say the hell with that and just listen on their phones. It would be cheaper to stream rather than buy new radios.

My SUV came with HD radio and it's pretty cool. I do use Sirius most of the time however.

 

[Boombox]

One of the tricks she plays on my brother in law is to wait until he is driving it, then she can pull up an app on her phone and change HVAC settings, radio/music, etc. She can also track the car in real time. Usually when she messes with the HVAC/Radio, she can watch him pull over on the side of the road, then she gets a phone call….

Which implies that a hacker could conceivably do the same thing....

 

[Boombox]

Thanks to my laptop I can't do any AM DXing at all here unless I shut down the computer, otherwise it obliterates the entire MW band. AM DX is fine at night with the computer off, but so many stations are using network feeds that I never hear a proper station ID, so they could be anywhere in North America. There's only one AM station in my vicinity, and has nothing to offer aside from commercials and so-called oldies that only go back as far as the 80s. Considering all that, and lacking a radio with digital AM support, I might as well forget about AM radio altogether.

You must be waaaay up in the interior. I know the most populated part of inland BC (Kamloops to Penticton, roughly a 200 mile stretch) has several AM stations, including CKOR Penticton and CKNL Kamloops, which play a wide variety of music (pop/AC for CKOR, oldies for CKNL).

PS, I'm not trying to gain your actual location, but I think up the Cariboo corridor MW pickings are a bit less than the Okanagan region.

 

[GB46]

Try finding someone that knows how to tune up that engine with three two barrel carbs. They are all dead.

We had our old 1983 motorhome with the big Ford E350 engine serviced at a shop run by an old guy who said he loves working on those old engines; they were so easy to fix. About a week ago we learned that he has now sold his garage to some new owners who do customization work on the latest muscle cars. They're all young, and perhaps have never worked on engines as old as ours.

 

[GB46]

You must be waaaay up in the interior. I know the most populated part of inland BC (Kamloops to Penticton, roughly a 200 mile stretch) has several AM stations, including CKOR Penticton and CKNL Kamloops, which play a wide variety of music (pop/AC for CKOR, oldies for CKNL).

None of them play my kind of music -- largely traditional and folk music -- so I listen to my personal collection, instead, or find a station online that plays what I like. Admittedly, however, the online stations that play it are kind of rare these days, but I've got a few of them in my playlists.

 

[GB46]

Albuquerque sounds like Boulder, which sounds like Casper, which sounds like Spokane, which sounds like Des Moines, and they all sound like Terre Haute, etc.

Which probably sounds like New York and New Jersey, as well as lots of Canadian cities.

This is very much like today's car designs: I can no longer identify a car make or model by its style; they usually have that rounded, streamline appearance with raked-back windshields and tiny rear windows. There are more SUVs on the road these days than sedans or coupes, and they all look pretty much the same, as well. Last year we rented a Camry for a holiday trip. It looked nearly identical to a Chevy Malibu we had rented in 2017. In the parking lot across the street I've seen Malibus parked next to Nissans. They look like they were made by the same manufacturer.

If I happened to witness a hit-and-run and didn't get a chance to see the licence plate number, I'd be hard-pressed to tell the police what kind of car it was. In fact, some of them no longer advertise the make or model on the rear of the vehicle, as if they're ashamed of their own products. They may as well just show the word "Car" back there.

All of this reminds me of the song "Little Boxes" which Pete Seeger used to sing about the houses in bedroom communities ("They're all made out of of ticky-tacky ... and they all look just the same").

 

[a29zuk]

Some stations in my area will have local programming from 6am till noon. Other than that they sound like Des Moines, Atlanta, Cincinnati, etc. I'll tune in the local 24 hour news station for updates while driving. The news station doesn't need to be digital although I think it is HD.

Most SUVs look like tall cars. They are not very roomy like they used to be. They all look like a bunch of Pontiac Vibes riding around. Like Gerry says, each carmaker used to have its own look.

Jim

 

[K9DAK]

The bug would cost a lot less as well as being easier to work on and parts are not a problem

Yep! My new '66...

 

[GB46]

Yep! My new '66...
View attachment 93884

In '69 I bought a used '61 VW Beetle for $284, which was all I could afford back then. It was the first car I ever owned, and was a rust bucket from one end to the other. The handle at the front (for the trunk; the engine hood was at the rear) had fallen through, so that the trunk lid had to be tied down to the bumper to keep it shut. I eventually managed to fix the handle in place by surrounding it with an epoxy body filler.

Talk about minimalist: The windshield washer used pressure from the spare tire as a pump. The windshield could not be defrosted, as there was no fan to circulate the warm air, which was from the engine block. There was also no gas gauge! A lever on the floor could be flipped to a small reserve of gas at the bottom of the tank. I was never sure whether I was running on the reserve or the main supply, until I ran out of gas one day in the middle of a mountain highway with a logging truck bearing down on me. Fortunately I was able to coast to the side of the road just in time, and managed to complete the trip on the reserve.

That was the car in which I learned how to use a manual transmission, and the gear synchronization was way off, so that I had to learn the technique of double-clutching. I got stuck in neutral one day as I was about to turn a corner, and nearly lost control of the car.

Wish I still had a picture of that old wreck!