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Car Radios: Why is the reception so good...
as compared to my home radios/stereos?
All-- Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. On the car NGs, it was suggested that my house was blocking signals, and that the metallic car acted as a big antenna. Neither seems plausible, as my car next to the shop radio (which is terrible) still gets good reception, and that if the metal in a car were so good, you wouldn't need a car antenna. I'm thinking it's the actual electronics. Any opinions/explanations? ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll |
Car radios (at least back in the tube era) were generally superior
to most inexpensive home radios. They included a tuned RF stage which gave them the extra ooomph. The tube auto radios had the antenna as part of the tuned circuit (coupled to the high impedance point of the RF stage), so they worked somewhat like a tuned active antenna. Peter "Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ... as compared to my home radios/stereos? All-- Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. On the car NGs, it was suggested that my house was blocking signals, and that the metallic car acted as a big antenna. Neither seems plausible, as my car next to the shop radio (which is terrible) still gets good reception, and that if the metal in a car were so good, you wouldn't need a car antenna. I'm thinking it's the actual electronics. Any opinions/explanations? ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll |
Behold, Proctologically Violated©® signalled from keyed 4-1000A filament:
as compared to my home radios/stereos? All car radio's use an actual antenna to receive signals. Many home stereo's don't even have a connection for an external antenna anymore....they're mostly just vapourware. -- Gregg t3h g33k "Ratings are for transistors....tubes have guidelines" http://geek.scorpiorising.ca |
"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ... as compared to my home radios/stereos? Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. Since cars drive through all the poor reception areas as well as good places, there is a strong incentive to build their radios to have good performance. These days the weak-signal performance of the AM side of car radios is degraded, since RF noise levels are so high. It's cheaper to degrade the radio than to further suppress the noise the car makes - and anyway power lines, etc., are pretty noisy. But the FM sections are generally very good. The ordinary plastic-box home radio or all-in-one system has a VERY cheap radio. Your expensive hi-fi probably has a good FM section, but most are very poor on AM. It's all a matter of design and perception of what the listener will tolerate. No sense building a wondrous radio if most buyers don't care and wouldn't want to pay what it would cost.. |
In article HbA5d.298202$Lj.253385@fed1read03, " Uncle Peter" wrote:
Car radios (at least back in the tube era) were generally superior to most inexpensive home radios. They included a tuned RF stage which gave them the extra ooomph. The tube auto radios had the antenna as part of the tuned circuit (coupled to the high impedance point of the RF stage), so they worked somewhat like a tuned active antenna. Peter Another reason was the lower IF -- generally 265 kHz vs. the 455 kHz used in home sets. This allowed a more selective IF -- smaller bandwidth for the same Q -- so the adjacent channel interference was cut dow. Some MW [BCB] DXers would use car radios set up for home use for just that reason. Dr. G. "Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ... as compared to my home radios/stereos? All-- Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. On the car NGs, it was suggested that my house was blocking signals, and that the metallic car acted as a big antenna. Neither seems plausible, as my car next to the shop radio (which is terrible) still gets good reception, and that if the metal in a car were so good, you wouldn't need a car antenna. I'm thinking it's the actual electronics. Any opinions/explanations? ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll |
Appreciate the, uh, feedback. It's sort of as I thought.
Altho I also think it's a CableTV conspiracy. Now, if I could find a car radio w/ a pre-amp output, I'd just plug it in to my crappy stereo's aux. input! ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll "Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ... as compared to my home radios/stereos? All-- Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. On the car NGs, it was suggested that my house was blocking signals, and that the metallic car acted as a big antenna. Neither seems plausible, as my car next to the shop radio (which is terrible) still gets good reception, and that if the metal in a car were so good, you wouldn't need a car antenna. I'm thinking it's the actual electronics. Any opinions/explanations? ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll |
Proctologically Violated©® wrote:
Appreciate the, uh, feedback. It's sort of as I thought. Altho I also think it's a CableTV conspiracy. Now, if I could find a car radio w/ a pre-amp output, I'd just plug it in to my crappy stereo's aux. input! ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll You may have trouble finding one with a pre-amp output, but most of the new ones have "line level" outputs. That's what many of them use to drive those gigawatt bass amplifiers, so they can shake the rust off of their car. -- Martin E. Meserve - K7MEM http://www.k7mem.150m.com |
#1 reason is the Antenna. #2 cost is king!
Car = antenna on AM & FM Home radio = Bar antenna on AM and ? what on FM... Sometimes it is the power cord. Sometimes you have a wire to drape over the lamp shade. The aluminum backing on house insulation can provide some attenuation effect, but I'm sure this is less of a factor...it is the primarily the antenna. Car radios on FM do not have exceptional selectivity as speculated above. The adjacent channel selectivity is only fair and the systems are made to only use alternate channels in any one market, anyway. When you're between markets and have a weak station 200 KHz away from a strong one that you have trouble. If "they" wanted better performance @ home is could be done, just costs $$. Low IF for reduced BW can be done in any radio, but size and Q and frequency are not independent, so lower freq IF means bigger coils and more "R", so "same Q - lower IF" is not that simple. Did you hear about that guy who changed his name to "They". Interview on pub radio this weekend. "Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ... as compared to my home radios/stereos? All-- Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception, on both AM/FM. On the car NGs, it was suggested that my house was blocking signals, and that the metallic car acted as a big antenna. Neither seems plausible, as my car next to the shop radio (which is terrible) still gets good reception, and that if the metal in a car were so good, you wouldn't need a car antenna. I'm thinking it's the actual electronics. Any opinions/explanations? ---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll |
"Steve Nosko" wrote in message ... Low IF for reduced BW can be done in any radio, but size and Q and frequency are not independent, so lower freq IF means bigger coils and more "R", so "same Q - lower IF" is not that simple. It must be a couple of decades since IF bandwidth depended on "real" IF coils and their Q. Since then mechanical [ceramic] filters have set the bandwidth of essentially all consumer radios known to me. OK there are now a few high-end DSP-based radios. Those too-narrow IFs in today's AM radios come from ceramic filters, not low freq IF. |
"Steve Nosko" wrote in message ... #1 reason is the Antenna. #2 cost is king! Car = antenna on AM & FM Home radio = Bar antenna on AM and ? what on FM... Sometimes it is the power cord. Sometimes you have a wire to drape over the lamp shade. The aluminum backing on house insulation can provide some attenuation effect, but I'm sure this is less of a factor...it is the primarily the antenna. Car radios on FM do not have exceptional selectivity as speculated above. The adjacent channel selectivity is only fair and the systems are made to only use alternate channels in any one market, anyway. When you're between markets and have a weak station 200 KHz away from a strong one that you have trouble. If "they" wanted better performance @ home is could be done, just costs $$. Low IF for reduced BW can be done in any radio, but size and Q and frequency are not independent, so lower freq IF means bigger coils and more "R", so "same Q - lower IF" is not that simple. Selectivity is easier for FM since they can use inexpensive ceramic filters instead of IF transformers. Unfortunately, instead of going a few pennies more for DECENT filters, they use the cheapest they can get away with. Peter Pete |
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