AM Radio Reception?

[Oaktree]

Question for Radio Buffs...

Some of the worst AM radio reception experienced is with new vehicles and clock radios

My 1950 Plymouth and 1959 Rambler have tube AM radios and provide perfect reception along my work commute. Any late model BMW or similar has the worst to the point of total static at certain points along the way.

Inherited a 1940's radio and phono combination with excellent sound and reception yet a Sony click radio pales in comparison.

Looks like the pinnacle of AM mid century last century

Well, keep in mind that in the 50s & 60s (1) AM was the only game in town and (2) there were far fewer stations on the air, so radios needed to be more sensitive. Car radios today don't even have decent FM reception, let alone AM. GM vehicles, as recently as the early 00s had some of the best factory car radios around, but the radio in my wife's '15 Buick is deaf as a stump on both bands.
Not sure the static you hear is necessarily the fault of the radio...the last 15 years or so have seen an explosion of devices that create RF hash, most notably switching power supplies used in cell chargers/wall warts, LED lights, etc. The noise floor today is MUCH higher than it was in the past.

Dunno if you're looking for a solution, but the company truck I had at my last job (07 turdra) had a terrible radio in it. I ended up taking a 1990s vintage GM or Chrysler (forget which) radio, built a case for it and would plug it in the factory radio's aux jack. I had a mag-mount antenna for it. Worked great.

Tell Rush Limbaughs 60 million listeners that :laughing:

I brought my Massey Ferguson tractor in from Europe and unless its me and I cant find it, it doesnt even have an AM band in the tuner. Just FM, IPod, AUX and weather bands.

Meh. Right wing talk (Rush, Hannity, Beck, etc.) was big in the 90s/early 00s, but none of those guys have had anything fresh to say in 15+ years, just preaching to a shrinking choir. Rush might have had 60 million listeners in his heyday (a bit of a stretch IMHO), but that's way in the rearview mirror.

As far as your MF goes, I'm not sure AM radio (they call it MW over there) is even still around in much of Europe...everything's migrated to FM. Some European countries have, or are at least in the process of doing away with FM as well, migrating to digital broadcasting.
If I'm not mistaken, Europe used different channel spacing on AM too (9kHz there vs 10 here), so even if your radio had AM, the tuning steps wouldn't have lined up properly.

 

[ultrarunner]

The AM in the morning for traffic and weather...

The old cars have chrome or stainless masts... as does the 2001Toyota... 2002 BMW has sharkfin antenna.

Maybe the absence of mast antennas?

With the Home Depot kitchen T8 florescents on there is no AM... not static but the same as turning off the radio in the bathroom vanity.

 

[k0ua]

The AM in the morning for traffic and weather...

The old cars have chrome or stainless masts... as does the 2001Toyota... 2002 BMW has sharkfin antenna.

Maybe the absence of mast antennas?

it is the combination of many things as mentioned. A general rising of the noise floor. And certainly a rising noise floor internal to the auto's themselves. Cars are just a lot nosier than they used to be. The lousy sharkfin antennas certainly play a part, AND I don't think the AM receivers that are still included in autos of today, are of the quality of yesteryear. The double conversion superhetrodyn's with tuned RF stages in the front end have given way to the "radio on a chip" digital tuned devices. This is by design and cost savings and the fact that AM operation is an "afterthought" to the entertainment system which is focused around satellite radio and stored music on the systems hard drive fed by a USB stick. In other words, "no-one" cares about AM reception if it is even included at all. As far as I know you won't find an AM receiver in a Tesla at all.

Who knows how long AM broadcasting will even go forward? It may go the way of dialtone some day. "impossible to see, the future is" as Master Yoda would say.

 

[ultrarunner]

Still use the 8-track in the 68 Mustang Convertible with Beach Boys endless summer tape.... somehow it just seems fitting.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Oaktree]

The old cars have chrome or stainless masts... as does the 2001Toyota... 2002 BMW has sharkfin antenna.

Maybe the absence of mast antennas?

I'm sure that's a factor, but I had a rental car maybe 5 years ago on a business trip (Altima I think), and AM reception in it was just fine. It had either a sharkfin or windshield antenna.
Even the 36" stainless ones weren't ideal for AM compared to the old telescoping ones. Back in the 70s the telescoping antenna on a car I had got broken in a carwash, by then the mfgr had switched to the one-piece SS antennas, I noticed a difference with the replacement...same car, same radio.

 

[JethroB]

Anyone remember these? The tractor driver could not hear it well but the neighbors half mile away could.
This was the 60s and early 70s before the days of sissy cabs.

 

[bunyip]

Not many AM stations here, popular with talk back and horse racing but horrible when you are travelling next to a train line or tramway, traffic lights upsets it as do switching stations, last two cars we bought have AM but no CD player, just plug in a USB or connect via bluetooth to your phone.

 

[k0ua]

View attachment 672270

That is why I only operate Single Sideband for a voice mode.

 

[k0ua]

I'm sure that's a factor, but I had a rental car maybe 5 years ago on a business trip (Altima I think), and AM reception in it was just fine. It had either a sharkfin or windshield antenna.
Even the 36" stainless ones weren't ideal for AM compared to the old telescoping ones. Back in the 70s the telescoping antenna on a car I had got broken in a carwash, by then the mfgr had switched to the one-piece SS antennas, I noticed a difference with the replacement...same car, same radio.

I think some of the old antennas, may have had a loading coil built into the base. You replacement was likely a 31 inch whip without a load coil. That may have been the difference.