House Passes AM Radio Mandate for New Vehicles

[Boombox]

All you need is an AM receiver with Bluetooth and an outside antenna mount it somewhere in the vehicle. When I got XM radio installed in the early days of satellite radio that is all that was needed to be done, no need to replace the original radio, used an FM transmitter or the option to hardwire the audio.



They can and mandate what you have, and how you keep it your own home “for your own good” some states mandate how to store your firearms, mandate what type of appliances you have. In your own examples you pointed out incandescent light bulbs, no gas ovens, some states even regulate when you can use your fire places, others are trying to ban wood burning stoves in your own home. My point was why the mandate in cars only? It won’t do any good of you are not driving.



I agree with you on that, if anything the government needs to make laws that protect our privacy, but what do they do? Install flock cameras all around the country to track everywhere you go. Install cameras and sensors to monitor your every move while you drive, use your cell phone to track were you been, all without any warrant. “For your own good”.


That is a decision made by a private company. Personal I don’t care because I don’t listen to FM. Why should the government get involved? Leave it up to the government they could very easily mandate no radios in cars because it leads to distracted driving. “For your own good”.

The cost comes from all the shielding and EMI that needs to be address. As more local governments mandate EV they need more shielding and mitigation to deal with it. It is estimated to cost auto makers 3.8 billion by 2030 if AM radios are mandated to be installed.


Where does their regulatory power end? If they are really worried about the big civil emergency and being informed mandate NOAA radio in all vehicles. This is all about lobbyist giving money to their politicians to get why they want.

And again aftermarket products work great. I just installed a CarPlay radio in my older vehicle in 5 minutes. No need to remove the OEM radio. Don’t subscribe to their service. AM radio in vehicles are not going to save anyone’s life or keep anyone “informed” AM radio is being replaced with new technology. Were you ever in a public place when an emergency alert went out? Everyone’s cell phone stating go off at once. If I was listening to AM radio I would have had no idea what was happening. People are 1000 times more informed even in rural areas, which is were I live, with a cell phone rather than AM. Heck I think I can only get one maybe two AM channels that I can barely hear. Yea cell phone towers can go down and you can lose the network, so can AM broadcast towers although they are more robust, well people need to be self reliant and prepare a little before the big emergency. Instead everyone waits around for FEMA to come. The government will save me.

Aftermarket radio products no longer are installable in new vehicles. As I said previously, the system is integrated -- the dash system not only controls the sound system and video screen but also controls heating, seat positioning, and other things. The days of going to the local stereo shop to have a new auto stereo put in your car went the way of the dodo about 5 years ago.

Sure, you can do it on older cars. You can also do a lot of things on older cars you can't do to newer ones. It's the newer cars we're talking about.

Some say "I don't want to be forced to spend the 5 bucks to have AM radio in my car." I say "I don't want to spend $30,000 for a car that has FM radio, all sorts of unnecessary bloatware apps on the dash system, but I can't listen to my local news or sports station on the AM band."

The AM radio regulation maybe costs the car companies 5 bucks to turn on the AM and install the minimum RFI-proofing needed. As one radio industry expert stated on another forum, the proposed law doesn't insist that the AM sound terrific, it just has to work and be able to be heard.

Most ethnic broadcasters are on AM. The car companies don't care if they can't be heard in cars anymore once AM radio is removed from cars. African Americans, Punjabis, Koreans, Spanish language speakers -- they don't count I guess. But those stations' audiences count as much as FM or any other audiences count.

You may have a point on cell alerts, although they didn't do much to save lives in Hawaii, and cell sites literally lit on fire in the LA fires that happened over a year ago. The people had to depend on FM and AM radio (and all news station KNX is AM-only).

As for your dislike of government regulation, all I can say is live with it. It's everywhere. And it's never going to stop, and it's never going to be reduced. Whether it's your car, your business, or your home, the government is going to regulate. That's the reality.

In some regards, government doesn't regulate enough. In other areas, they regulate too much. This AM-in-cars bill is one of the lesser regulations. If enacted, it provides AM availability in cars. It doesn't make you have to listen. No one is forcing you to listen to your radio in the car. You don't like AM? Don't turn it on. Same thing with FM, or any other form of radio. Do you use every single app that came with your phone or computer? Do you use every single app on your car's dashboard system? Some of them probably cost more than having AM turned on in your car.

As for your question 'were you ever in a public place when an emergency alert went out?' the answer is no. That has never happened in my lifetime. I have heard EAS alerts on FM and AM radio, though, maybe twice in my life. Once was a flash flood warning in Utah. The other time was a tornado watch in my metro region that occurred 4 years or so ago.

I've had cell phones since 2008 and never in the 18 years since then have I seen or heard a cell alert go off. The only alerts were the Amber Alerts I turned off on my most recent phone that had them. As most know, the vast majority of Amber Alerts are custody battles. If a kid is missing from a city 100 miles away I don't need the alert waking me up at 3 in the morning.

Aside from that, no, I've never seen or heard cell alerts going off, anywhere. Then again, I don't live in tornado alley, where I would guess those alerts might be more useful. Although a lot of people in tornado alley seem to use NOAA weather alert radios.

I agree with you on that point -- NOAA should also be mandated in cars. It would cost more than having AM turned on, though. NXP chips used in a lot of cars don't have NOAA capability.

 

[Boombox]

Someone needs a better antenna, 160m is alive and well every single evening and morning.
(Or maybe stay up later and get up earlier).
And, AM is...still...for now doing fine.

I've got a 100+ foot outdoor antenna. 160M has been dead since the 2010's where I live. I even hear hams on 40 and 20 talking about it being dead where they live (most of those hams being in California, Nevada, the NW, and Western states in general).

In some areas of the US (like the SE and S Central region, where I would guess you're from) maybe it's still used, but the last time I heard 160 being used was 'Stew night' in 2011, some sort of CW event. Most of my DXing hours are night and early morning. 160M just isn't used around here. And whatever 160M signals there may be in the South Central and SE US just aren't making it out here.

 

[WB5UOM]

I hear folk from all over the Country on multiple frequencies on 160m nightly. I am using a 350 foot loop, and being in the country my noise level (minus lightning of course) is around S2.
They are out there, trust me.
It is not dead.

 

[CollinsURG]

I hear folk from all over the Country on multiple frequencies on 160m nightly. I am using a 350 foot loop, and being in the country my noise level (minus lightning of course) is around S2.
They are out there, trust me.
It is not dead.

Definately not dead. Unfortunately I don't have the real-estate for a decent antenna, so I just tune down there occasionally and listen.

 

[Boombox]

I hear folk from all over the Country on multiple frequencies on 160m nightly. I am using a 350 foot loop, and being in the country my noise level (minus lightning of course) is around S2.
They are out there, trust me.
It is not dead.

You're not in a relatively isolated, low ground conductivity area N of 47deg which is far from the regions of the US where most of the hams live.

Propagation doesn't work the same in Western WA as it does in 5 land. I know. I took my DX-390 to 5 land (Northern Louisiana) in the 1990's and I couldn't even use a 15 ft wire listening to 20M because it would overload the radio. Here where I live I needed a 100 ft. wire to hear the same amount of signals, and there was no overload with the 100 footer whatsoever, even during 20M contests.

That said, this a.m. I did hear two semi locals and one FT8 signal on 1875 kHz and lower (FT8 was around 1830-1840 or so -- didn't write that one down). The rest of the band was static.

So sure, maybe 160M isn't completely dead. But like I said, it's not a popular band and it's rare to hear anything on it. Even in the 80's I didn't hear much on 160M with various outdoor antennas and an FRG-7. Usually on a weekend night I'd hear, at best, one QSO on SSB and maybe a CW CQ now and then.

I'm sure your location and the 320 ft loop helps.