"" ) writes:
My "bookshelf stereo" cost a couple hundred bucks.
On a good day, with antenna, I get maybe four FM stations.

On a recent trip to a casino, I got a souvenir pocket radio.
( probably costs less than a buck )
and I get (FM) stations all across the dial !

It ain't fair !

rj
Are they different stations up and down the dials, or is it overloading
so the same station appears in multiple places?

This is one of the myths of "expensive stereos". People pay good money
for them, and assume they will have good radios in them. But they are
buying more than a radio (depending on what's included, a cassette deck
a CD player, flashing lights graphic equalizer, a higher power amplifier,
etc). The radio may not even be seen as important, something to put
in but with the knowledge that few will use it and even fewer will care
about anything but a handful of stations.

Under those conditions, why should they allocate money into the design
and construction of a good radio, especially when there are things
that the buyer would find more appealing?

The same myth applies to a shortwave radio that happens to include
an FM section. Too many beleive that since it's an expensive radio,
that will be reflected in the FM section. But, the circuitry doesn't
overlap, the FM section requires a whole extra radio in there, and
the people wanting it want it for local reception. So they add it
in because it will increase sales, but don't spend too much on
the section because that will take away from the main feature, the
shortwave reception.

Michael