AM Radio for Every Vehicle
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- Опубліковано 17 вер 2023
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5:20 sums it up perfectly. Yes, it is the very definition of "broadcasting". Well done sir!
I recall the cell phones being inoperative in Manhattan during 911 for obvious reasons. The AM'ers remained on the air and continued to provide vital information.
PS. As I understand it, WBZ 1030 in Boston has enough diesel to run at full power (50Kw) for 30 days (24/7). They used to claim 38 states at night can hear the signal.
It is a priceless communication resource and it is very efficient. Embrace the new technology, but always have a time tested backup like AM terrestrial radio when the SHTF happens.
AM forever. I like listening to KFI 640 out of LA, even from Nevada. Then sometimes AM 660 from castlerock in the Navajo Nation. From several hundred miles away.
When at my previous job they had the AM station in Bakersfield, 660 from Window Rock, AZ obliterated us at night.
Good old country and some drums.@@TheBroadcastEngineer
It's certainly possible to have an AM radio in an EV with no interference. I have a 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (plug in hybrid, operates as an EV for the first 30 miles or so and then the gas engine takes over) that has an AM radio, and I haven't been able to detect any interference. Can even DX with the radio pretty well at night. No interference on the hf bands below about 25 MHz either.
Mitsubishi seened to put a lot of effort into RF shielding to get it working so well. All of the high voltage cables going to the front and rear motors and inverters are covered with copper shielding braid, the inverters are mounted in metal cases with rf sealing and some of the inverter control cables have ferrites on them.
So it's possible to shield an EV properly, but I can imagine a lot of car makers wouldn't want to spend the money.
very good. in a emergency AM can reach more people and is more likely to stay on the air. some AM stations have back up transmitters and feed line and are tube type. no computers needed or internet. just give it a audio source and it goes out. and some are EMP proof. hear in NY the DOT has AM transmitters that give travel info on out interstate system . cars/trucks need to hear the road closings ETC . if you in area of AM station you do not need any power to listen to AM radio. A crystal radio and some wire with a ground . some AM stations going digital .
AM is more fragile than you think. Not many major broadcasters are running tube transmitters anymore. The cost savings is incredible with solid state.
There are no towers that are capable of withstanding a nuclear attack. So your efficient radiator is gone. The thermal pulse alone would probably damage the structure.
The FEMA equipment at PEP stations are manually connected into the antenna system. That equipment is also significantly less power than the station’s normal transmitters.
What audio source would you be giving a tube transmitter that would be worth doing in a trans or post attack scenario if you’re not connected to official sources?
We have to remember that broadcasting is still a business. There’s no money in the “just in case”, so all the decisions to go solid state and digital are what the business needs in the normal day to day operations.
There are zero stations out there that have experienced anything that the “worst case” has ever planned for. In fact many stations have been born and died preparing for when the balloons go up and that never happened.
The 2007 Scifi/Horror movie I am Legend has a scene that raises the hairs on the back of my neck every time I watch it. The zombie apocalypse has happened and the main character has found an AM station and has recorded a loop for broadcast saying to meet in a specific location at a specific time for help. A perfect example of AM just working as a disaster broadcast medium. I just hope that zombies never figure out how to turn on an AM radio. :-)... edit: If they could figure it out, can they understand spoken instructions? I don't know! Now I'm a bit worried.
Even with inverter noise in EVs, it's better to have and not need than need and not have. Maybe you have to be parked with the motor inverters powered down, but it could mean the difference between life or death if it's the only AM radio you have
Hi Marcus... It's not just motor noise in electric cars. The inverters in in some of the cars creates wicked QRM. Another argument is the amount of "environmental" noise on AM. AM is a mess even in my own house! But, in fairness, you should've mentioned the AM rig that is in every USAF E-4B aircraft. If the President needs to address the nation in a crisis, chances are it'll be on that rig, using the trailing wire antenna that goes from VLF to HF, The rig we pray never gets used, 73
I don’t have first or accurate second hand knowledge that there is a transmitter on board those aircraft. I know they have their own transmitter for the airborne launch control facility.
@@TheBroadcastEngineer The aircraft is equipped for just about everything from 14 KHz to 8.4GHz. Yes, much of the info about what's aboard is anecdotal. But, it would stand to reason that the President or designate would have a means to address the American people during or after an emergency.
Two small problems with that. The first is that there's not enough RF bandwidth to support AM at carriers below 20 kHz. Second, the VLF network is specifically for comunicating with submarines, not for addressing the American people. The TV capability added post 9-11 would be used for the latter.
@@StringerNews1 At 540 KHz, one wavelength is 556 meters, easily within the range of the trailing wire antenna. The anecdotes about TV on the E-4B have given me laughs because of: (1) The number of homes without antennas of any kind due to Cable; (2) The few surviving TV's in antenna-equipped homes because of the EMP burst from each thermonuclear detonation; and the limited coverage such would have. Yes, a theoretical HAAT of 40,000' AMSL is greater than the Stratovision experiments of the 1950's using DC-6's and B-29's. But, they used regular broadcast antennas. The E-4B would not. That's where AM would have a serious coverage advantage.
AM has always been susceptible to noise, including ignition systems in existing cars. At the very least you could park an EV with the inverters powered down and listen in an emergency. The fact that an AM radio can be made out of some wire and very basic electrical components gives it the best chance of reaching even the most remote places
Great video! I strongly believe very robust ATSC 3.0 signals should be the next generation of alerting the public. Having one PLP with QPSK 2/15 and implementing SFNs would make pushing out emergency alerts with comparable coverage to AM radio incredibly easy. Especially since EVs are becoming increasingly popular, an emphasis should be made on utilizing very robust modulation with incredibly efficient coding to counteract interference. Even though I strongly agree that broadcast is by far the best for pushing out information efficiently, I don't think AM radio should be used.
Mandating, by legislation, that vehicle manufacturers have AM (or any) radio in their car is just one part. There are a LOT of broadcast stations that simply aren't upholding their end of the bargain. I think it is reasonable for auto manufacturers to push back if the argument is that AM broadcast is THE way to reach the masses, when AM broadcasters are not doing their part to make sure that their infrastructure is capable of getting the message out. Just like EAS, the AM requirement is just another unfunded government mandate on the private sector.
Maybe the government should just expand and beef up their own radio network that they have with the National Weather Service and provide everyone with a receiver that wants one. If they want broadcasters to also have EAS as a supplement to that, then provide broadcasters with the required equipment and stop making them buy it from a monopolized source. Same with cellular and cable providers. This would take the monkey off the backs of broadcasters and engineers that spend so much time chasing upstream issues with EAS and making sure we are in compliance with that ONE requirement, while the rest of the station could be literally falling apart, and the FCC would not care.
And for EAS, I think the weekly test is a bit much. A monthly or even quarterly test would be sufficient, at least the part that gets broadcast all the way through. I think listeners get fatigued and are less willing to pay attention when they hear the tones. It is like a car alarm at this point. A weekly test that ends at the ENDEC/DASDEC at the station and is electronically logged should be fine. And speaking of ENDEC/DASDEC, if they are going to have required updates, they should be free to the broadcaster AND released in enough time that they can be rolled out and tested WELL in advance of the deadline. I shouldn't have to put my end of the year vacation and plans on hold because they take right up to the deadline to actually release their mandated update.
If I sound frustrated, it is because I am. forcing AM radio in cars may make the broadcasters Associations happy, but is is shortsighted and completely ignores the parts that the Associations and FCC need to fix and regulate, and they don't because no one is making them.
Great video! Without AM. If iPAWS was gone. We would be screwed. I have a SAGE EAS ENDEC and I can vividly remember my internet going out and having to rely on broadcast stations for monitoring. I really hope our legislators put the big auto money aside and realise just what they are actually voting for.
We use two FMs for our EAS
@mikehemeon2473 I don’t believe there are any FM PEP stations.
@@TheBroadcastEngineer I believe WSRV-FM in Atlanta, GA is a PEP. But that still doesn’t change the fact that 99.99% of PEPs are AM. Not sure why so many people hate AM. I don’t know about them but I’ll be all cozy in my bunker listening to oldies on AM haha! I’m really glad we have WAQI-AM here in Miami! Without it we would be pretty disconnected if iPAWS went out. I remember Florida actually discontinued iPAWS/Everbridge use for a while when that whole 4AM WEA thing happened. They issued the monthly test over daisy chain from Tallahassee and I got it in full quality down here!
@@TheBroadcastEngineer We use WBZ-FM and WEEI-FM as our designated EAS stations.
What is being done about AM stations going out of business?
Not much to do. That’s a business issue. As of now, the government isn’t subsidizing AM owners.
There is a problem with this. I do a lot of driving around in Australia, the AM radios in our Ford Rangers are rubbish and soon lose the AM radio signals when leaving towns. The AM radios in our Toyota Land Cruisers are much better and will pick up the AM radio signals much further away from the transmitters. So, Ford may have to fit AM radios in their vehicles, but they obviously do it as cheaply as possible and pay little attention to the design of the AM section of their car radios. When we have to drive out in the bush we always take the Toyotas so we can listen to some music as we would be driving for hours.
And then, there's shortwave...
In Ireland we just don't have an am anymore even the masts are demolished, America seems far behind the times
Same here in South Africa, where FM coverage is pretty much the entire country, and there are only one or two AM broadcasters left, who have the majority listenership on FM anyway.
I think deregulation and the resulting corporatization is what killed AM and radio in general. It should be mandatory locally owned and local programming because that’s what it’s good for and yes it’s needed for emergencies. I also don’t know why they don’t make cell phones able to pick up signals directly from local emergency services if the cell network goes down. That seems like it would make more sense. Cell phones are basically a brick without the network.
Should add that I used to love AM radio. I loved KGO 810 with all the local personalities. Really sad what the corporate did to it.
It would be good to have a AM radio that could receive 11 Meter and Ham bands but that isn't going to happen.
just let it go u cant have AM radio in a electric vehicles the motors put out to much RF noise and in my town i live in there is only 1 AM station just hanging by a thread and that only AM station has a FM station FM can do the same thing AM can do but better the station is WIBQ 1230
The AM Radio in my 2019 Nissan Leaf works just fine. Now sure why people are claiming that AM radio's do not work in BEV's.
@@SDGregDitto, Toyota Prius, both the hybrid AND the plug-in!
Sounds like you live in a really tiny town. Top ten markets have thriving AMs.
AM RADIO IS *DEAD*, deal with it. I say this as a retired broadcaster, myself.
Why require AM radios in cars when there are NO AM stations left to listen to? We used to have 6+ AM stations in my area. Now we have NONE. Even the religious folk and Mexicans jumped the sinking AM ship.
The real enemy here isn't the technology being used, rather, it's the lack of quality content, which has made terrestrial radio irrelevant, causing people to look elsewhere. In my circle of friends, I don't know of anyone who still listens to local radio. I do listen to some radio stations from other countries via streaming, but that's it.
As far as the emergency situations go, I've been through countless hurricanes, most recently a Cat 5. Both the telcos and broadcasters were unprepared for a Cat 5. ~30 broadcasters were taken off-air, some for quite a long time with this storm. In my area, the hardest-hit area, 65% of the cell towers were offline the first day after the storm. 3 days after the storm that was down to 19%. Despite my home being dead-center for the worst destruction, we always managed to get a cell signal on the balcony. Call quality was questionable at times, but we were always able to get calls in/out. Centurylink *still* hasn't even begun to lift a single finger to restore service in my community. The telco cans are all still tipped over and full of sand.
Even at that, the TV stations kept telling people to "Download our app and watch us online!" during and after the storm. Great, encourage people to chew through their limited cell phone battery power and overtax the cell towers. FM stations that were still able to broadcast were just simulcasting the 1 TV station still left standing...and they were doing typical "TV" things.. "As you can see.... Look at this devastation..." Great... 95% of your audience is listening to you on the radio. Where are you talking about? What are you showing? The audience was left in the dark. Same for "here's a list of emergency relief centers on your screen." Um... thanks gang. I'll let you know when my FM radio sprouts a screen.
Sorry Marcos, but the "something that everyone has come to expect for over 100 years" narrative is a dishonest one. It's factually wrong. In reality, the first car radio didn't appear until 1930, and was not very successful thanks to the Great Depression being in full swing. It wasn't until after WWII that Americans enjoyed the wealth to have a car in every garage. The car radio OTOH relied on the confluence of of several WWII and post-WWII technologies like the automotive alternator and transistorized electronics to become anything close to ubiquitous in the mid-late 1960s. By that time it was the 8-track tape deck that was the "killer app", not the radio. No, the car radio never was universally relied on.
If we took this sort of middle aged longing for a bygone era that never was to its logical conclusion, we'd have the government mandating that every "horseless carriage" come with a free horse, because somehow that makes an old reactionary feel better about things. But it's everyone else who must suffer from this backwards mindset!
While it's true that wireline phone providers and broadcasters are known for having backup power, you're completely ignoring the reasons why. They're all companies that are in business to make a profit. And when being off the air stops your income stream cold, you do things to protect it. Nobody's subsidizing it though. When it comes to cellular, people are willing to assume more risk for lower prices overall. That's what the market wants, that's what the market gets.
Rather than force the world into a past that never really was, why not embrace a present that actually is happening? After a service outage that borked both my landline Internet and cellular service, I joined the local GMRS repeater club, but decided against over-reliance on terrestrial radio services. I got an Irridium satellite communicator that allowed me to send short messages via LEO satellite the next time that cellular lets me down. And with Comcast suffering multiple outages every day, and making no effort to fix the problem, I just ordered Starlink. Both services are space-based, and are not prone to terrestrial weather. And because they _must_ be solar-powered to operate in space, local grid outages don't affect them. Both have sat-to-sat links to reroute communications around any earth station problems. Even if I leave home, none of this relies on my car at all. And it's all 2-way.
As I write this, there are several efforts underway to allow regular cellphones to communicate via satellite. Currently an international company lets AT&T customers with certain Iphone models send emergency messages. Other US carriers are testing schemes that allow _any_ 5G phone to send data to/from satellites when cellular networks are unavailable.
The unavoidable fact is that people are not going to sit by an AM radio, waiting for the President to tell them what to do in the 21st century. (If the Russians launch The Bomb at us, there are no Civil Defense shelters left to go to.) And they're not going to need a car for it anyway. Handheld "transistor" radios were a fad way back in the 1960s. If you want an AM radio, you can buy an AM radio as a standalone product. Most people don't want an AM radio. And in an emergency they'll stick to what they know, which isn't AM radio. 2-way communications are the norm now. If an aging Boomer has a heart attack, you don't just sit and wait for the President to have a fireside chat, you call for help.
So shut down radio and shuffle everyone over to the internet and cell phones? Satellites are going away too. They’re mostly carrying gov payloads.
@@TheBroadcastEngineer no need to "shuffle" people, they are there already. And as long as we live in a liberal democracy, people will have the freedom to make those choices for themselves. I support that. Even my fascist relatives have switched to listening to Rush Limberger on Sirius XM a decade ago because the reception is better. In a free market, it's up to the vendor to make the product useful to the buyer, not for the government to force the buyer to buy the product. As a young man I went behind the Iron Curtain and saw that other system, and it was not a fun place.