SWLing Post reader, Bob, has a relative who works for BMW in the United States. Recently, Bob learned that some models of BMWs shipped to South Africa have a shortwave radio option. He followed up with this photo of the radio display [see above].
Wow, what a fab idea! Not only would I love to have a factory-installed shortwave radio in my car, but I must admit that I love the simple design of this digital radio dial: elegant, clean, and just a tad retro and sci-fi, all at once.
Now if I could simply afford the BMW…Sigh!
As far as I know all the new BMW’s here in Europe also have 49 meters. The receiver is very narrowbanded and deaf. I always thought it was included because there used to be a lot of german broadcasting stations on there.
*sigh* I mean it’s great that they have SW in it at all, but I’d want something broader – coverage on 31 meter band and the 25 meter band for starters.
Jim: I couldn’t agree more. If I could only have one band, it would be 31M. I’m sure there’s good reason for the 49M band coverage in South Africa, though.
Re the BMW with SW radio:
In my time at least South Africa they did not have AM but only SW and FM
Is that an actual tuning knob and bandwidth scale or are we looking at a virtual display on a touchscreen?
Hi, James–I believe that is a touch screen only. Reminds me of the analog modeled digital display on the (new-ish) Kenwood TS-990: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wadei/DSC02895.jpg
Love the floppy disk icon to indicate storing the channel. We still don’t have a good icon to replace it.
Jonathan, I noted that too! Amazing that we still use that icon. Must look like hieroglyphics to a teenager in 2014.