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A Cold, Harsh Reality For Radio (No AM, FM for cars?)
Radio Ink ^ | 3/8/13 | B. Eric Rhoads

Posted on 03/08/2013 1:00:24 PM PST by raccoonradio

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To: mylife

I work in a building that interferes with AM.


21 posted on 03/08/2013 1:24:50 PM PST by ican'tbelieveit
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To: raccoonradio
AM, great distances at night

That's contingent on the transmitting power of the station. Growing up in northern Michigan, at night I used to listen to WLS out of Chicago as well as WJR in Detroit for it's Tiger games. Any stations in between would be non existant or static filled.

There's a station here in the Detroit area that fades out after the sun goes down and you can't listen to it........

22 posted on 03/08/2013 1:25:16 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
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To: raccoonradio
AM and FM are needed for emergency broadcasts. Internet and satellite radio just don't cut it and both may be down in an emergency. I depend on getting local information especially during weather emergencies and AM and FM are great for that.

The one item that has become next to useless is a CD player. More of us are using digital music players and it is very convenient to just plug in your MP3 player or use a Bluetooth sync with your smart phone. My wife's Ford does have a single disk CD player, but it is really an input for storing your music in a digital jukebox. Once the music is loaded you play the digital copy recorded on a hard drive in your car and have no need for CDs.

I am very disappointed with satellite radio. Aside from the Patriot conservative talk channel, I find very little in musical content that appeals to my taste. Having a service like Pandora available in my car would be great, but what kinds of costs would be incurred for using a cellular data plan for access and how reliable would the signal be in rural as well as congested urban areas?

23 posted on 03/08/2013 1:25:47 PM PST by The Great RJ
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To: raccoonradio

Most cars currently produced have an Aux. audio input, by which you can run an ipod thru the Aux function in the radio.

If this function is still available in the new radioless audio system, you could basically do the same with a simple AM/FM radio as long as it has a headphone jack.


24 posted on 03/08/2013 1:28:09 PM PST by Doghunter
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To: raccoonradio
It would be a shame if radio disappeared from car radios, but honestly, I do not think I can remember the last time I turned my radio on, given the choices of:

The two rap/hip hop stations

The political talk station with 55% commercials, 45% talk

The three "generic boy band/girl singer/American Idol pop" stations

The two syndicated sports talk stations endlessly yammering about teams on the other side of the nation

The two "classic rock" stations playing the same old same old indefinitely

The three country stations playing the same formulaic Nashville pop/rock "country"

25 posted on 03/08/2013 1:30:27 PM PST by Notary Sojac (Ut veniant omnes)
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To: mylife

It was important to put the cuss word in there, or we would not have known what you were saying.


26 posted on 03/08/2013 1:33:07 PM PST by ansel12 (Romney is a longtime supporter of homosexualizing the Boy Scouts (and the military).)
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To: mylife

If you’ve got a wire for your final connection internet works better than AM in a steel building or fallout shelter.


27 posted on 03/08/2013 1:36:55 PM PST by discostu (Not just another moon faced assassin of joy.)
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To: raccoonradio

So this guy thinks that no one can buy an after-market head unit with AM and FM and have it installed in their new vehicle?


28 posted on 03/08/2013 1:37:12 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Here once the embattled farmers stood... And fired the shot heard round the world.)
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To: Hot Tabasco
That's contingent on the transmitting power of the station.

More often than not, it depends on the ionosphere and solar activity of the previous daylight hours.

If they are optimum and you are in the right location, you will receive the signal from an AM station from far away because the signal 'skips' from transmitter, to ionosphere, to Earth and so on. If you are in a location where the signal hits Earth then you get the ballgame as if it were transmitted from across town.

I use the same phenomenon to talk to Alaska and even Australia at times from my own radio shack...when conditions are right and I have enough power.

29 posted on 03/08/2013 1:51:34 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Here once the embattled farmers stood... And fired the shot heard round the world.)
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To: Notary Sojac
I drove 8 hours to Canada 3 weeks ago for business. I rented a car with satellite radio. The trip was fantastic. Listened to the comedy stations all the way.

This past Monday, the satellite radio subscription expired so all I get are XM/Sirius previews on all channels. Blech.

I have to drive back tomorrow and listen to nothing but various crappy FM stations and their inane commercials. The car radio has NO Aux audio input so I can't use my MP3 player. Feh.

30 posted on 03/08/2013 1:55:27 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Here once the embattled farmers stood... And fired the shot heard round the world.)
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To: mylife

“AM works everywhere and works damn well.
That is why Emergency broadcasts are on AM.”

AM vs FM?

Modulation technique and frequency of spectrum.

The modulation method is not what makes AM long range, it is the radio frequency. The AM Broadcast spectrum reflects off the atmosphere during some portion of the day. The range extends greatly at night, but the range varies some.

The FM signals are broadcast over a RF spectrum that is much higher in frequency and is much more local. BUT it is less prone to noise on the signal because of the modulation technique.

But the point of the article is correct. We need “always reliable” mobile communication systems. The web can be turned on and off. The radio spectrum cannot. (It can be temporarily disrupted with artificial ionization. A military technique.)


31 posted on 03/08/2013 1:57:16 PM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: Notary Sojac

Sounds almost like the lineup here.

I use music stored on the DROID a lot.


32 posted on 03/08/2013 2:01:44 PM PST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: raccoonradio

I remember having to buy an FM adaptor back in the seventie because my Dodge Dart didn’t have it. Worked pretty good. If automakers decide to build cars with no radio, I’d say it’s at least twenty years or more from now. If in the next five years I ask some auto dealer if his cars have radio, and he says no, I’ll say goodbye and see another autodealer.


33 posted on 03/08/2013 2:18:40 PM PST by driftless2
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To: raccoonradio

“The only thing I listen to in my car is
satellite radio,”

Is satellite radio FREE? Or do you have to pay for it? And how much do you pay?

I went without a radio in my car for a couple of weeks and thought I would go crazy driving to and from work, listening to radio in the car cuts down on the monotony. And I have a short commute. Not sure I would want to pay to listen to radio while driving my car, it seems like nonsense to me.


34 posted on 03/08/2013 2:18:54 PM PST by This I Wonder32460
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To: raccoonradio

This nothing more than a frontal attack on conservative talk radio. There is no liberal talk radio other than NPR.


35 posted on 03/08/2013 2:23:13 PM PST by shove_it (Long ago Huxley, Orwell and Rand warned us about 0banana's USA.)
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To: raccoonradio
I can't say about whether or not AM & FM units will survive or not. I do know that I can barely listen to talk radio any more because there are too many ##@$#$%@##@@!! commercials. It's almost not worth the effort. I recently calculated that Rush actually provides commentary for about 35 minutes an hour, maybe less.

It's hard to justify spending an hour of my life to hear 35 minutes of intermittently interesting commentary. I have to listen to commercials for legal firms that help people in trouble with the IRS; commercials urging me to "BUY GOLD!" (no doubt at $1.50 to the dollar of its actual value); mattress commercials; "charitable organizations" begging for money; yada, yada, yada.

TV is every bit as bad.

36 posted on 03/08/2013 2:23:13 PM PST by Hardastarboard (Buck Off, Bronco Bama)
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To: KarlInOhio
Adding an AM & FM receiver to a sound system is cheap compared to the cost of the amps and speakers. Which is why many smartphones and mp3 players include an FM tuner (both my last and my current phone have FM).
37 posted on 03/08/2013 2:24:18 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: shove_it

Excellent observation.


38 posted on 03/08/2013 2:26:38 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: raccoonradio

I’ll buy a radio to keep in my car—and extra batteries.


39 posted on 03/08/2013 2:30:21 PM PST by DallasDeb
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To: wally_bert; Notary Sojac

I’m fortunate enough to have a classical station in my town. Their daytime programming is on the lame side (lots of movie themes and “popera”) but their evening and overnight programming is excellent.


40 posted on 03/08/2013 2:32:18 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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