AM Reception??

[JackStraw_1969]

Anybody else have bad AM reception? The head unit seems to be the same one that is in the wifes Grand Marquis, but the local station I listen to all the time is all static.....sounds like crap.

Anntenna problem maybe?

 

[BeauJ]

AM radio just isn't a very strong signal. Buildings, telephone lines, bridges all interfere with the signal. I mean I guess you could get a bigger antenna. Also, at sunset, FCC makes the AM stations lower their bandwidth so if you not within 30 miles your not gonna pick up much.

 

[JackStraw_1969]

Thaks for the reply ChopinOn22s.....I understand all about the AM frequencies, coverage and day vs night power.

What I'm hearing in my new (to me) Explorer is out of line. I'd (maybe) expect this poor of reception out of a non-mast antenna like my wifes car or my other car, but not a full-sized truck with a mast antenna.

Just curious if anybody else has seen this with their stock system.

 

[m6500]

jackstraw, my am reception in the 97X was also poor, fortunately, my son replaced his with an XM radio so i used his original one, much better.

 

[JackStraw_1969]

Thanks m65.....I wasn't sure if it was the head unit or antenna......I'm gonna guess head unit now......a guy at the dealership basically said as much as well......

 

[King Tut]

You are not alone...My 97 is squealing like a pig on AM. It started a few years ago. Other cars I ride are just fine.

 

[goobenet]

AM radio just isn't a very strong signal. Buildings, telephone lines, bridges all interfere with the signal. I mean I guess you could get a bigger antenna. Also, at sunset, FCC makes the AM stations lower their bandwidth so if you not within 30 miles your not gonna pick up much.

Holy wrong batman!

AM is very strong, to a point. It's very suseptible to interference however. (Keep in mind that AM starts in the sub-1Mhz region and goes to almost 2Mhz)

Bigger antenna? no. Correctly cut antenna, yes. Find the wavelength of the center of the frequency, in this case around 1100kHz. 5/8th's lamda gives best results since that's what most transmitting arrays are. (some are 1/4th or even 1/2 but they're silly and are wasting power.)

FCC does no such thing. AM has a 15khz bandwidth, no more no less. **MOST** AM stations are required to turn down in POWER at night, but afaik, no way to turn down bandwidth without some serious surgery. WOR Chicago is a grandfathered 100kW AM... Other than that, the max power in AM is 50 kilowatts. (KFAN-AM is a 50kW day 20kW night 9-tower array, VERY large for an AM) On the other hand, i have a 1kW any-time (day and night) that will go about 25 miles radius around the tower. Which isn't bad for 1450kHz.


Again, this is what i get for working in radio.
--
Alex Hartman
Engineer KCLD 104.7FM

 

[itstodd]

Actually, WOR is in New York City, 50kW on 710.

The last USA AM licensed for more than 50kW was WLW in Cincinnati, once licensed for a whopping 500kW. Currently, there are no US AMs licensed for more than 50kW.

While I work for the folks who own KFAN, I'm more admirous (from a technical standpoint) is KSTP, which BOOMS into Bismarck at night. And, of course, our own KFYR, which has the largest daytime coverage of any AM in North America. Only 5kW, but great ground conductivitry (and it's at 550, which helps)!

 

[Texan01]

the AM reception in my X depends on how rough the road is, I think there's a bad ground in the antenna.

Now on a good night at home with my cheapie walkman I can pull in Chicago stations on AM. I did modify one AM radio by adding a lead to the internal antenna and clipping it to my window frame (aluminum) and converted it to a shortwave reciever. that prompted me to get a proper reciever to listen to shortwave.