The Car Industry Wants to Kill AM Radio Just to Cut Costs

[Bikeman315]

The article mentions the new Mustang not having AM radio but I thought that changed.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-car-industry-wants-to-kill-am-radio-just-to-cut-costs

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[Zig]

The interference argument only goes so far before it becomes a warning signal of exposure.

 

[Illini4]

Does today's S650 have AM radio?

 

[MGHTYDX]

Does today's S650 have AM radio?

Mine does

 

[Dena]

Does today's S650 have AM radio?

My car has an AM radio as well as previous cars that they turned it off on. It was a simple software change to reenable it.
Electrical noise is difficult to deal with and removing AM radio was a cheap way to do it. It's more expensive to design better EV motor controllers, install filters and shield noisy equipment. We went through this once when resistance spark wiring was introduced to eliminate interference in aircraft electronics. The first wires were junk and they tended to be use once and then discard. Latter nichrome wires were far better and with better rubber could last the life of the car.
Modern radios seem to be software control radios and could tune far more than they do. I suspect one reciver handles AM, FM and Sirius XM radio. It could tune Ham Police and emergency bands along with many others with just a software change.
AM has the one advantage of incredible range. Years ago when I was making my trip from Los Angles to Phoenix in the evening, I would set my radio to a local clear channel radio station. I could receive that station almost to the point were I was in phoenix, A distance of about 300 miles. During the day when I was looking for something to listen to, The overpowered Mexican stations would come in loud and clear. My Dad loved AM radio because he installed septic tanks and he could tune between stations and listen for lighting. If he heard it, he knew he needed to get his crew safe. Many people will be much less informed if we lose AM radio because it can get the word out when nothing else can. That is why the Civil defense stations are located at 640 and 1240 on your AM band. They are normally clear station and able to run the maximum transmission power permitted by the FCC.

 

[Dena]

AM Life ….

You either have recordings, XM radio or don't do much driving away from civilization. Granted the rumble of a V8 is entertaining but after a few hours, it gets old. Truckers listen to it all the time and you can tell by what they talk about when they get back. Either politics or Dave Ramsey, both which are interesting topics but we have other things we need to tend to at work.

 

[Zig]

You either have recordings, XM radio or don't do much driving away from civilization. Granted the rumble of a V8 is entertaining but after a few hours, it gets old. Truckers listen to it all the time and you can tell by what they talk about when they get back. Either politics or Dave Ramsey, both which are interesting topics but we have other things we need to tend to at work.

At least trucks have wind shield wipers, bikes not so much. And before folks started attaching radios and what not all we got to listen was the thump thump.. thumpty thump thump thump.

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