What happened to Car Radio Antennas?

Michael Trew wrote: =============== >

** The risk of damage far outweighed that.

FYI powered ones collapsed if the ignition or radio was off.

...... Phil

That's not how I remember (at leat some of) them ... inside the telescopic sections was a coiled nylon(?) shaft, with teeth on the outside that engaged with the metal parts, the shaft was motor-driven up

*and* down.

The aerial did retract when the ignition was turned off, but that was deliberate, not simply by "falling down" because the ignition power to it was cut.

** ROTFLMFAO !!!!

FFS wanker.

The antenna drive unit was permanently powered from the battery. The on-off switch on the radio triggered it to go up and down. Micro switches told the DC motor when to stop.

The ignition key switch did the SAME !!!

..... Phil

"collapsed" is very different from driven-down, IMO

** Wow !

A folding telescopic object can be " extended" or " collapsed ".

Or did you image the antenna fainted ?

..... Phil

How should we know what type of third-rate shitty products you have to put-up with down there?!

=======================

** So we all now see your "extension " faints pretty easily ....

... Phil

Yes, that differs regionally. My car is 16 years old and it still has MW and LW bands on the radio, but almost no stations on them anymore here in Europe.

I believe it was an anti-vandalism thing.

RL

It would depend where in the world one is. In the US cars started out with AM only, then AM/FM, now many have the satalite added. There has never been a MW/short wave radio on the standard American cars that I know of. Not sure if you could even get the short wave radio on a special order .

Here in Europe, what you Americans call AM is called MW (Mediumwave) and we usually have a lower band called LW (Longwave). Both are using AM modulation. But AM is too unspecific as a bandname because there indeed may be additional bands on short wave (SW) that also would be AM when on a car radio. There could be a couple of SW bands. But SW on car radio is for special purposes and/or high-end radios only, for countries where there is or was no local broadcast network and you would listen to the international services of other countries. Which mostly have shut down as well.

FM *is* used as a band name here, although of course it formally is just as wrong as AM. However, FM usually refers to a 87-108 MHz band. (in some countries that still may be different, e.g. it starts lower in countries in the eastern block and Japan, and it used to end lower in mainland Europe, first at 100, then at 104 and finally at 108 MHz)

Yes, another difference in the contries. IN the US from about 600 to

1600 KHz is just commonly called AM. The exact frequencies have changed slightly over the years. The FM is around 88 to 108 MHz. The shortwave would be anything from about 1.8 to 30 MHz and mainly AM for the average car or home listeners to comercial stations.

AM/FM/MW/SW are stone age services. The trend is towards digital everything. For example.

Satellite radio Sirius-XM:

DRM (digital radio mondiale):

HD Radio:

DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting):

AM Stereo:

Get yourself an RTL-SDR receiver[1], a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ or Mini-ITX computah, some mostly open source decoding software, and plug the audio output into your existing AM/FM car radio.

You get most of the above digital radios services, the usual AM/FM/MW/SW, and can add playing local digital media and cellular streaming[2]. With a decent display, add ADS/B and AIR aircraft and vessel tracking.

[1] List and prices are about 5 years out of date. [2] Free audio streaming on some T-Mobile plans:

--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com 
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272 
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558

Oops. That should be AIS, not AIR:

Distracted driving example: Looks like Ever Given is out of Suez and almost in port at Rotterdam:

--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com 
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272 
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558

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** Automatic, powered antennas did that perfectly. For a fraction of the cost.

Haha... a couple of my cars currently have the coat hanger trick... it's nice to get stations again. I have a fleet now, but the newest one is a '94.

So is your MW band the same as our 540 to 1710 (1610 on older radios) Kilocycles? Why did they drop those stations?

In the US, the "AM" dial is primarily talk radio, but there are still music stations that I tune into.

Eh, you can keep all of that fancy stuff. I won't pay for radio in my car with a satellite subscription. I'm happy with my normal AM/FM bands that I don't have to pay a dime for. Sometimes I'll play physical media or hook up a MP3 player... one of my car radios accepts a USB flash drive with MP3's on it.

Rob wrote: =========

** " AM band " is a perfectly accurate name. The *only band* that is reserved for AM broadcasting.

** Wot drivel.

Again, it is the only band reserved for high quality FM broadcasting.

..... Phil