Photo by Brock Wegner on Unsplash
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura, who shares news via Radio World that the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (H.R. 979) has cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support (50-1). If passed, the bill would require automakers to include free, easily accessible AM radio receivers in all new vehicles, including EVs, for at least the next eight years. Lawmakers emphasized the ongoing importance of AM radio for emergency alerts, public safety, and reliable communication. You can read the full article here: House Committee Advances AM Radio Bill – Radio World.
I have to wonder if the push to drop AM radio from cars isn’t really about the usual stated reasons (cost, nobody uses AM anymore, etc. etc.), but is really more about not having to take expensive RFI suppression measures on electric vehicles. If RFI suppression is suddenly no longer a priority for car manufacturers, good luck for ANYONE to listen to AM on any crowded road, electric vehicle or not.
Transport such as electric trains, trams, trucks and cars are exempt from FCC electromagnetic emission standards for a long time. It’s impossible to prevent arcing from pantograph, overhead wiring. Arcing causes a very wide range of frequencies. The power reduces with increases with frequency. AM has is regarded by the receiver as part of the transmitted signal. AM radio uses the lowest broadcast frequency. FM radio uses a frequency 200 times that of medium frequency radio. FM can supress impulse interference provided the transmitted signal is high enough to reach limiting.
Now that all TV is digital it has vacated American channels 2 – 6 which could be used for digital radio.
Pure digital broadcasting can prevent the effects of noise by using COFDM modulation, forward error correction and shuffle the data in a pseudo random order prior to transmission and the receiver will shuffle the data back into the original order. For digital radio receivers, it produce the transmitted signal as it was sent as long as the transmitted signal is stronger than the digital cliff.
The best digital broadcast systems use all of these techniques but not all digital broadcast systems use all of these processes.
I would like to see a center space available in slide-in rack to accept a standard equipment box similar to what general aviation adopted years ago. Even Cessna adopted this after decades of building panels strictly for ARC radios and nav aids.The cars and trucks could be prewired for various antennas or have conduit to fish wires and coax cables. Power connections could be connected when the box was seated and secured in the rack.
It’s about time. Thousands of people out west do not have reliable FM reception, but can receive AM 24 hours per day. I’m old enough to remember the CONELRAD system in the 50’s and 60’s. Cellular communication cannot be relied upon everywhere due to system shortcomings. I still listen to AM for several hours per day for information and weather advisories. Thank you to all people supporting this bill. It’s crucial for public safety.
Very good point!
This. I’ve traveled to some pretty desolate places for work where the FM and cell coverage was quite temperamental and because it was a rental, we didn’t have an XM subscription. That leaves the MW AM band. It covers a lot of territory.