AM Radio Performance

I have a terrible AM experience in my Volvo too... Go to scan the AM Band and it just bumps up one step at a time with nothing but static everywhere... Except, like your experience, you are much closer to the city than should be required.

 

The AM circuitry is almost an afterthought, the engineers are focused on the user interface and the FM/XM circuitry. The antennas and coax (and mounts, connectors, diplexers, etc.) that OEMs are installing these trucks nowadays are just crap.

http://www.ccrane.com/AM-FM-Radios?by=Category
http://www.ccrane.com/AM-Antennas?by=Category

Unfortunately, radio frequency interference (RFI) is a very noticeable problem when listening to the AM band. If you know a ham radio operator, ask them about a ferrite choke.

The following are notorious for causing RFI:
power inverters
fluorescent lighting
LED lighting units on the truck and on LED traffic signals
electric motors (like the windshield washer pump and the HVAC blower)
fuel injectors

 

You need a ground wire from the radio to the frame and a ground wire from the antenna mounting to the frame. Old solution to a constant problem for many years. Plastic trucks have poor grounds.

 

You should be able to pick up WBAP at night from 100s of miles away.

Cascadias have the Worst cb antenna hardware, so I wouldn't be surprised if the am radio setup sucked too.

 

I think it's all in the antannaes. The dealer said the cb and radio and xm are one antannae.
I can't pick up FM channels as far as my car does. Which is still nowhere near what my 97 used to do. And my cb barely works in my 16 cascadia. Same cb i had in the 12 cascadia with external cb antannaes. Worked like a champ in that truck.

Only time i get static is when my invertor is running. Walmart 160 watter off the `12v socket.

 

All of thee above plus terrain and the weather.
I have rush 's site on my phone , the station guide is a big help .

 

AM is a VERY strong signal but is heavily dependent on a proper antenna. The Japanese used an AM radio signal to guide them into Pearl Harbor.

Some of you may find this interesting.

Almost all of the outter islands all over the world are completely cut off from civilization but weather is a big factor to them and other important information. They use a setup where a small hand held AM radio like you had as a kid with a microphone in front of the speaker. That is tied into a simple device that reads the fax like signal and prints out on a thermal printer run off solar power. That's how they get their weather maps and other important info.

Airplanes also use AM radio stations to navigate called an ADF. Just dial in your favorite radio station until you hear it good then the needle points in the direction of the radio tower.