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(pocket) AM Radio in car - AM Antenna outside car

kfbkfb

kfbkfb



My parents 3rd car - a 1965 Ford Custom 500 didn't have a radio and one was never put in, once, I bought a cheap battery powered AM radio to try inside the car while traveling through KS on I-70 in 1976.

I found that if the AM radio was placed on the shelf behind the back seat near the back window, reception was fairly good.

It occurred to me a little while ago that a battery powered pocket AM radio with an antenna input and an AM antenna that has a very thin portion that could go from inside the car to outside the car with the window fully rolled up [above link indicates that this tech exists and could probably be adapted to work for the AM frequency band] could be a way to offer AM reception in cars that don't not have an AM radio.


Kirk Bayne
 
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kfbkfb said:


My parents 3rd car - a 1965 Ford Custom 500 didn't have a radio and one was never put in, once, I bought a cheap battery powered AM radio to try inside the car while traveling through KS on I-70 in 1976.

I found that if the AM radio was placed on the shelf behind the back seat near the back window, reception was fairly good.

It occurred to me a little while ago that a battery powered pocket AM radio with an antenna input and an AM antenna that has a very thin portion that could go from inside the car to outside the car with the window fully rolled up [above link indicates that this tech exists and could probably be adapted to work for the AM frequency band] could be a way to offer AM reception in cars that don't not have an AM radio.
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Good Lord, here we go again. The reason AM is being eliminated from newer models, mainly EV's, is because of noise caused by the motor speed controllers.
 
In the 70’s I held up a radio up to a car window a lot. It was better than what my parents were playing up front! AM reception was pretty good that way but would totally disappear if I moved it away from the window. FM would work without being close to the window.
 
Retspin said:
In the 70’s I held up a radio up to a car window a lot. It was better than what my parents were playing up front! AM reception was pretty good that way but would totally disappear if I moved it away from the window. FM would work without being close to the window.
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And I used to ride a tricycle. Now I drive a Jaguar.
 
Congress needs to force all automakers to stop making electric cars until this threat to every American's right to immediate information on local emergencies via amplitude modulated, medium wave radio is defeated! While engineers work on a solution, the automakers also need to force all automakers to provide a portable AM radio to every licensed electric car owner, along with a side-window mounting kit, free of charge until an internal solution to the AM problem is found and implemented! Only then can production of these information-blocking vehicles be allowed to resume. Come on, NAB, put your money where it will do the most good -- into the offshore savings accounts of the most powerful US senators and representatives!
 
The folks at Tesla recommend to stream your favorite AM station. That way, there's no issue with an antenna, no static in the audio, and no need to obtain a pocket AM receiver.
 
CTListener said:
Congress needs to force all automakers to stop making electric cars until this threat to every American's right to immediate information on local emergencies via amplitude modulated, medium wave radio is defeated! While engineers work on a solution, the automakers also need to force all automakers to provide a portable AM radio to every licensed electric car owner, along with a side-window mounting kit, free of charge until an internal solution to the AM problem is found and implemented! Only then can production of these information-blocking vehicles be allowed to resume. Come on, NAB, put your money where it will do the most good -- into the offshore savings accounts of the most powerful US senators and representatives!
Click to expand...
A portable AM radio with an external window antenna will not solve the noise problem. The issue is the noise generated by the motor controller. Any AM receiver in the vicinity of the car is subject to the same noise issue. The solution is to reduce the noise by filtering and/or shielding of the electronics and motor wiring.
 
TheBigA said:
The folks at Tesla recommend to stream your favorite AM station. That way, there's no issue with an antenna, no static in the audio, and no need to obtain a pocket AM receiver.
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But, but ... what about the Luddites and the people who just don't get the technology? How are they going to know a tornado is heading right for their zippy little Musk-mobile without AM in the dash? (I've left the poor out of this because one needs to be at a certain income level to afford an EV.) Of course, we all know that 100 percent of American adults have an AM receiver at home, right? So those folks will all live to hear another day of preaching, medical quackery and political ranting on good old AM.

Oh, I forgot those Americans who need that emergency info in a language other than English, didn't I? Sounds like more work for Congress!
 
CTListener said:
Congress needs to force all automakers to stop making electric cars until this threat to every American's right to immediate information on local emergencies via amplitude modulated, medium wave radio is defeated!
Click to expand...
Wait, you're kidding, right?
CTListener said:
While engineers work on a solution, the automakers also need to force all automakers to provide a portable AM radio to every licensed electric car owner, along with a side-window mounting kit, free of charge until an internal solution to the AM problem is found and implemented! Only then can production of these information-blocking vehicles be allowed to resume. Come on, NAB, put your money where it will do the most good -- into the offshore savings accounts of the most powerful US senators and representatives!
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Satire, whew! Got it.
 
TheBigA said:
The folks at Tesla recommend to stream your favorite AM station. That way, there's no issue with an antenna, no static in the audio, and no need to obtain a pocket AM receiver.
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It just seems selfish and patronizing to just glibly tell people that when all they have to do is fix their cars with a little bit of shielding so an onboard AM radio will work. But instead, Tesla is being lazy and would rather eliminate, by brute force, the AM radios they're rendering useless with their uncontrolled EMIs (and undoubtedly violating the FCC's Part 15 rules in the process) instead of taking care to actually solve the EMI problem (this seems quite like Musk, with his blatant disregard for existing systems and the rule that regulate them). Other makers (at least those who are still including AM in their cars). have apparently managed to get AM working with their EVs (Ford is eliminating it, apparently not because it doesn't work, but because they're trying to "modernize" and reduce costs), so why can't Tesla?

c
 
cc333 said:
Other makers (at least those who are still including AM in their cars). have apparently managed to get AM working with their EVs (Ford is eliminating it, apparently not because it doesn't work, but because they're trying to "modernize" and reduce costs), so why can't Tesla?
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Or, it's called giving consumers what they want, and eliminating what they don't care about.
 
cc333 said:
Tesla is being lazy and would rather eliminate, by brute force, the AM radios they're rendering useless with their uncontrolled EMIs (and undoubtedly violating the FCC's Part 15 rules in the process) instead of taking care to actually solve the EMI problem
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Or Tesla as a company (and a handful of others) realize that the overwhelming majority of the people buying their cars aren't interested in AM radio, there are newer and better (in many respects) technologies available to receive the same content and programming that's heard on the AM band, so rather than bother with that antiquated tech at all, they've moved on. They don't need to bother "solving" the EMI issue, they don't need to be concerned with the cost of including AM (which, as was stated elsewhere may only cost a few dollars per vehicle, but multiply that by the number of vehicles they manufacture and it quickly adds up), and few actual Tesla drivers are actually complaining or miss AM radio... Most of the complaints and noise about this topic is coming from a bunch of older demographic politicians who will most likely never buy a Tesla, and some talk hosts who's target audience (older conservative white men) are also not likely in Tesla's target market.
 
All true. It just seems to me kind of smug to assume that the only people buying Teslas are younger people who stream everything from their phones and rarely, if ever stray outside of major metropolitan areas.

Why not do it this way:

Don't provide the AM radio (and necessary EMI mitigation) as standard equipment, but offer it as an option. It probably wouldn't be ordered much, if at all, but at least it would be there for those who want it.

Is that too much to ask?

c
 
cc333 said:
It just seems to me kind of smug to assume that the only people buying Teslas are younger people who stream everything from their phones and rarely, if ever stray outside of major metropolitan areas.
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Keep in mind that the owners of Teslas need to stay near areas where charging stations are available. So that alone limits how far they travel.

It sounds as though you're the one assuming that only younger people stream. It's pretty clear that streaming isn't limited to young people. Streaming of audio and video content has become a pretty common experience for people of all ages.
 
cc333 said:
All true. It just seems to me kind of smug to assume that the only people buying Teslas are younger people who stream everything from their phones and rarely, if ever stray outside of major metropolitan areas.

Why not do it this way:

Don't provide the AM radio (and necessary EMI mitigation) as standard equipment, but offer it as an option. It probably wouldn't be ordered much, if at all, but at least it would be there for those who want it.

Is that too much to ask?

c
Click to expand...
Yes. You don't waste money on fixing an inconvenience that involves a feature of the car's entertainment system that the Tesla-buying demographic, statistically, isn't likely to care about. That's not "smug." That's facing reality and not thinking like a radio geek or a paid shill for the broadcast industry. Would the NAB like to see AM in cars forever? Would the companies and individuals who own AM stations like to see AM in cars forever? Sure. But guess what? Not one of the manufactures motor vehicles. In the free enterprise system, the manufacturer gets to consider the benefits against the expense of any given feature and decide whether or not to include it in their product. Government mandates are for safety features that, if omitted, would directly threaten the physical safety of the user, not something like AM radio that most non-geek, under-55 car owners would never even think about if they were to see threatening clouds or lightning ahead.

Could the next of kin of such a geeky user driving a non-AM Tesla in the middle of nowhere and blown off the road and killed by a sudden windstorm he didn't know about sue Tesla or the FTC or some other government agency, claiming that the dearly departed would be alive today if that Tesla only had AM? They could try, but it's hard to even see such a suit reaching the trial stage.
 
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