Now you have to make sure your car has a radio (at least AM)?
 

So Tesla and many others (seemingly all of them are EV's) are ditching AM radio. Teslas also do not have an auxiliary port for you to easily hook up your own AM radio. Reading Tesla forums it looks like they've also got Bluetooth setup so you can only hook up a phone. Other Bluetooth transmitters don't work.

So if you want to have a true AM radio in a Tesla you either need a separate speaker or an FM modulator so you can hear it over the car's stereo. But then there's fear they'll drop FM too.

I have an AM/FM radio hooked up in the Avalon with it's own speaker since I have problems with the stupid infotainment center. But apparently if I buy a Tesla I may have to do the same thing.

Not to mention the reason they do it is because the electric motors cause more interference with amplitude modulated signals, and they don't want to go through the hassle of lowering their RF noise through better shielding and chokes and such or a better AM radio with better noise filters.

In truth, I listen almost exclusively to downloaded media (USB flash drive, or bluetooth). I do occasionally listen to public radio, but it's more the exception.

The real danger here is that we'll get into a feedback loop of fewer listeners resulting in fewer stations resulting in fewer listeners. This is almost certainly the beginning of the end of free public radio.

Can they still call it Bluetooth? The answer is somewhere in here: www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/

Possibly Advanced Audio Distribution Profile 1.4?

Instead of a radio, my Notchback had twin 40mm Webers. They souned like Gabriel's trumpet.

After getting caught in two storms that knocked out all phone and interet communications, I've become rather interested in radio. I wasn't before, but now I see it's value. I don't think there's any good substitutions for having a radio.

The thing about AM is it travels farther. I can get AM stations from hundreds of miles away. I don't get any FM stations that are more than 20 miles away.

I don't listen to radio unless I lose internet connectivity, which is fairly often. No interest in AM radio. It sounds like garbage, and my annoyance is that HD radio never became standard.

Another thing is that a crystal radio can receive AM. I read oncet about a crystal radio who's coil was copper tubing winded 3ft in diameter, and capacitors made from bottles of water in a tub of water. It would drive an 8" speaker.

AM in high fidelity compared to a PRC-6 walkie-talkie.

AM radio seems to be getting out of favor worldwide. In my country its frequency has been used for 5G internet, while most AM channels are switching to the extended FM band using the frequencies formerly used by the 2 through 5 analog TV channels. It's been a while since I noticed most devices such as cellphones or portable MP3 players whenever having a radio receiver it would be FM only.

In 2022 only 47 million people listened to AM radio in a given week. Of those people they only average 2 hours of listening a day. On the other hand 275 million people listen to FM radio.

Automakers are dropping AM radio because it would cost money to keep it and the vast majority of people don't care. Pretty much anything broadcast on a radio station is also available to stream. Yes, there are some use cases where AM makes sense like remote rural areas but that is a very limited market.

(In 2013 63 million people listened to AM radio. In 2017 that was down to 59 million. Another 5 years later at it is 47 million. The trend line is very clear)

Exactly true.

But what gets me is that they not only cut AM (which there are reasons why to do that) but they also cut the AUX port and apparently made it impossible to connect a bluetooth device (other than a phone) in an apparent attempt to make it impossible to connect your own AM radio to the car.

There still is a way... If you want AM in a Tesla you could either 1) use an AM radio with it's own speaker or 2) use an AM radio hooked up to an FM modulator so you can hear it on the car's stereo through it's FM radio.

But this is something that saddens me about new cars: uncustomizability. For an example, cars are no longer designed so you could add your own stereo. True: CD's, cassette tapes, 8-tracks and now AM are things of the past (for most people). But having a non-customizable car means you get what you get, whether it works for you or not. Whether something new suddenly pops up or not, or whether you'd like an old feature or not.

As someone who likes to fix things and is the minority that lives out in the middle of nowhere and listens to AM radio and enjoys hobbies like amateur radio, I don't like the idea of uncustomizable cars.

It looks like you can get audio in through a 3.5mm to usb dongle...

https://www.amazon.com/VOLT-PLUS-TEC.../dp/B08NWGGWTW

I've got a cheap Bluetooth to FM transmitter for the Acura. Strangely in 2006, the car would pair with a phone for calls only, but not anything else. If I want to play anything from my phone, I've got to send it to the dongle and then receive it on the FM radio.

Could the AM radio still be hooked up to the 12-volt power outlet which has replaced the cigarette lighter on most new cars?


Gone are the days of mixtapes recorded from radio broadcasting of some old songs...


And even "in the middle of nowhere", FM radios broadcasting on mono instead of stereo have a longer reach. This might explain why some radio stations which used to transmit traditionally on AM, such as news outlets, were turning to FM. Not to mention the interferences which used to be a PITA nearly 30 years ago in big cities, while neither hybrids or EVs were much of a hot topic outside California.

The early bluetooth spec had very low audio quality. It was only good for phone calls. I have several mid-aught cars that have BT only for phone calls.

I use auxiliary in ports on those cars + a Tunai Firefly to bluetooth audio into the car's stereo system. I've found that even if the car didn't come with an aux in port, some enterprising soul has come up with a way to hack one in.

I don't have any idea how many years it has been since i listened to AM radio. I accidentally switched to it yesterday hitting a button putting my phone in its mount, which is in the CD slot of my stereo.

I automatically change the channel when people start talking. I will listen to the news, but that is a couple of minutes of people not trying to be entertaining.

I just don't want to listen to people talk when I drive.

AM is the only way I can get stations from out-of-town without an internet connection. There's one that's about 70 miles away that comes in during the day. Then at night I can't listen to it as another station interferes, but I get a lot of other AM stations at night.

FM is limited to basically line-of-sight. As soon as I head over the first hill 8 or 10 miles away from town the signal disappears, which is also where cellphone service ends too.

Which is one of the reasons I haven't listened to FM radio much in about 10 years - along with commercials. (I can't watch or listen to broadcast for more than about 15 minutes now - the commercials just drive me crazy)

I download anything I want to listen to at home and the use either AUX in, bluetooth, Android Auto, or CarPlay to connect to the head unit in the car.

That's great for entertainment purposes, but worthless for emergency purposes. When the cellular is out and you're too far for FM to reach you, AM may be the only option, that is IF your vehicle has it.

I mean, an AM radio costs peanuts. Bet there are devices to rebroadcast on an FM station or AUX out, too.

I have a Grundig S350 AM-FM-Shortwave above the couch, and a hand-crank AM-FM-Shortwave-flashlight in the bugout bag (rattle-can no-glare finish).

But I don't even turn on the AM-FM in the Metro. On long drives I sing to myself or whistle.

Back in the elementary days, I was "acquiring" music at the rate of one 5MB song per 25 minutes, and would offer custom 15-20 song mix CDs for $10.

Around that time I discovered one could broadcast in FM, and I had the unfulfilled dream of a mobile pirate broadcast that served my city. I wanted a call-in component where people could make requests or share local gossip.

Then I discovered a movie along that theme called "Pump Up the Volume".

If only I had more nickels. I'd probably have done less prison time violating the FCC than my other pursuits of interest.

I've managed to go 45 years without needing AM or any radio for emergency purposes. Even when a supercell came through Alabama back in 2011 and 58 tornadoes touched down in 2 days the TV stations kept broadcasting. (They were broadcasting the tornado rolling through the West and North side of Birmingham live.)

(6 EF0, 29 EF1, 8 EF2, 6 EF3, 7 EF4, 2 EF5)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak

I do have a hand crank AM / FM / weather radio in the earthquake kit.

I plan on using HAM radios for 2-way communication, which is way more important in an emergency than someone saying the nuclear bomb you managed to survive through was the cause of the nuclear explosion you managed to survive through.

Public broadcasts cater to the most inept among us. They include information like get warmer if it's too cold, or don't drive through water that's too high. You might be tempted to touch down powerlines, but maybe don't.

TV doesn't work in a power outage unless you have a way to power it through battery. They do make ATSC TV tuners for Android phones and tablets though...

When the power, phone and internet all went out here, the police and other authorities were using the local stations to broadcast what to do. I went out into the car to listen, but the recommendation was "Stay inside. Do not go out and sit in your car, it is too dangerous. Please wait inside for further instructions." What are you supposed to do with that? Keep going out to listen every time the wind calms down a little? Good thing I have a backup battery powered portable radio.

I'm also into ham radio and have a 40ft extending antenna mast with full sized 20 meter, 40 meter and 80 meter half wave dipole antennas on it.

I also have a hand crank AM / FM / weather radio in my emergency to-go bag.

Shortwave: The Warlord's Radio

S2 -- 210,402 views -- 7 Aug 2022

00:00 - Introduction
04:10 - The Emergency Itself
08:10 - The Nature of the Communication
10:26 - MARS Mod
14:24 - Mobility and Fitness
18:40 - Data Modes - RTTY
23:26 - Sending Images
28:37 - JS8Call
31:56 - Winlink
35:41 - Comm Scheduling
41:42 - Encryption
42:58 - Thinking Big
47:15 - Closing Thoughts

Interesting. Your report sounds similar to what Shortwave listeners usually do.

Both radio stations and tv stations need power to broadcast.

On my end I have multiple ways to provide electrical power.
1. My shed is solar powered. Cheaper than running an electrical line from the house and the shed is our dedicated shelter in case of an Cascadia earthquake. I fully expect our house to be unlivable and it is way easier to heat a 200 sq ft shed than a 1000 sq ft house. The shed has solar, battery, and an inverter.

2. If we need more juice the campervan has more solar, batteries, and a 2000 watt inverter.

3. The Ambulance will have 1800 watts of solar, 10 kWh of LFP battery, and a 6000 watt inverter. (The panels have arrived and are waiting for the 80/20 to make racking)

(BTW - a lot of modern cars have built in 120V inverters now)


All my vehicles have AM radio but I don't care if they have AM in the future. If we are at the point of nuclear war of some other similar scenario that takes out all of the TV stations and dozens of FM stations around me I have a lot more to worry about than getting radio broadcasts.

However, I live in a city. If you live in a remote rural area out of FM radio range you have to prepare for that unique challenge. It goes back to my earlier statement above - automakers are talking out AM radios because it cost money to keep them and the VAST majority of buyers don't care.

The point was the vast majority of people don't have a battery powered TV. If the power, internet and phone go out, the vast majority will not have any way of watching TV.

Cars still have FM radios, but that could go away too. But if you don't have a car, you're out of luck as phones no longer have FM radio.

The point is that AM, FM and broadcast TV are going away because "the VAST majority of buyers don't care". I know you said that of AM radio, but it looks like the same is happening to all broadcast radio and TV. It's a push towards an internet-only world, where your only way of communicating will be pushed through the internet in one way or another. All phone lines in my valley, both home phones and cellular, all go through the same data cable that feeds all the internet. When that gets affected, all phones and internet stop working.

Most people don't take even the slightest bit of effort to prepare for weather emergencies. The average TV consumes 150 watts and an inverter sized to run a TV and a fridge is $70 to $200.

I've never really seen the point of buying a generator as I've owned a hybrid or EV for more than 15 years now but they are also cheap:

(Personally I think most people would do better with a deep cell battery and invertor than a small generator.)

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...4&d=1678226555

World needs a network that has been pushed to low Earth orbit. Just so happens the richest African-American is on the case.

Still, I think crystal radios should be grandfathered. Tesla's electrical radio, notsomuch.

Budget DIY Ecoflow Delta Pro! More power for less money

I like the Ecoflow Delta, but way misunderestimated the price. Here is more power for less money.

Generators can also be deadly. Even making sure it's outside isn't enough. 50% of carbon monoxide deaths from generators were from generators that were outside.

Edit. Of course using a car with an ICE for the same reasons is also dangerous.

This does bring up a question though. What battery would work in a cold climate like mine? Or what can be done to keep one from freezing? We still have several feet of snow and quite a while before it's warm again.

I recently picked up an 800 watt Sportsman inverter/generator for $95. Supposedly runs 6 hours on half a gallon of gasoline.

It was somewhat of an impulse buy as my dad has several generators, but they aren't the inverting kind. It's the smallest and lightest genset around, and fairly quiet.

I've been critical of every powerstation "deal" on Slickdeals recently, because what are the odds that a powerstation has exactly the capacity you need, and exactly the power output capabilities?

Better to have a separate inverter and battery, than an all-in-one unit that will get tossed in the garbage once the batteries wear out. Cheaper, and you can size it to your needs.

Then again, I'm the sort of person that can't stand combo modem/routers. Most people prefer them for the simplicity though.

Many (most?) gensets have CO detectors. You can buy a battery operated one for like $5. Generators are the way to power people who live in CO, not batteries... and I just realized Colorado is Carbon Monoxide. That's unfortunate.

I'm not saying that someone who know's what he or she's doing shouldn't be able to use a generator. But we live in a society that had things like FM on phones and AM and FM in cars, but since "nobody cared" it's being taken away. There doesn't seem to be any classes that I know of for emergency preparedness. People in general don't have a clue. And when things go wrong, they'll have been set up for failure. How much that's their own fault and how much that's big corporations' fault, I don't know. All I know is that the general public doesn't care and nobody seems to care about the general public.

On the point of the batteries vs. generator for cold weather:
For radio anything, batteries hooked up directly (no inverter at all) are better. You get no RF noise compared to an RF noisy generator, especially an inverter generator. This is especially true if you want to be an amateur radio operator and get the most out of your system.

I have no idea where you got that stat but the Consumer Product Safety Commision says only 15 of the 526 carbon monoxide deaths caused by portable generators in homes between 2004 and 2013 are from generators being used outside. In the overwhelming majority of fatalities the generators were being used in the basement, garage or inside the home.

https://www.cpsc.gov/safety-educatio...onoxide-deaths

The LFP batteries I'm buying discharge from -4F to 140F and charge from 32F to 113F. Some LFP batteries have internal heaters to keep themselves in their operating range. Lead Acid batteries have an operating range from -40F to 131F.

Unlike gas generators you can store batteries inside to keep them warm.


Before I had solar my back-up system was my Prius as a generator: 12V Prius battery attached to a deep cycle battery - attached to 12V inverter. The Prius steadily charges the 12V batteries with a DC to DC inverter. When in Ready mode it will cycle the engine automatically on and off to charge the hybrid battery.

https://www.redcross.org/get-help/ho...ergencies.html

Completely free - people just need to take a bit of time to research

From the local extension agency (Every state has one) - how to prep my water supply in case of a major earthquake:

https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/em9285/html

A sand battery, but they store thermal energy. You could recharge it by firing a rocket stove every other day.

It might be helpful to know how that's even possible.

Notice what happened to the Boy Scouts since 2019.

Emergency preparedness? People don't even plan ahead by bringing water with them when they travel. Instead they buy bottles of it as needed.

Most aren't interested in how things work, and that includes emergency preparedness. Planning is someone else's job. Trust the experts, they have your best interest at heart because they care so much about you.

Ford dropped AM radio from the 2024 Mustang.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/2024-f...m-infotainment

What percent of people opt in to satellite radio? I was always surprised to find that was not optional equipment, but included. Perhaps Sirius subsidized that cost?

I'm considering trading in my Pixel 4a without FM radio for a Nokia G400 5G with FM radio.

Yes, a lot of new cars no longer come with AM radio, just like a lot of new phones no longer come with FM radio. Good by radio, we (I and about three other people, more or less) will miss you.

About 25% of people with satellite radio in their car have an active subscription. Yes, Sirius XM pays for the cost of the equipment.

Sirius XM is going to sunset their Sirius system in 2027. Since the Sirus + XM merger they have been continuing to maintain and broadcast over two sets of satellites to honor their agreements with automakers. in 2027 those original contracts expire.

That was among the reasons I never owned an iPod. Main reason was they were twice as expensive as alternatives. Secondly, you had to use iTunes to put music on the device instead of simply plugging in and the PC seeing it as a mass storage device. Third, alternatives could be used to shuffle files around (thumb drive). Lastly, they offered FM radio.

I just got a Pixel 7 for my wife for $310. This is the first time I've bought a new phone for her, and the most I've ever spent on a phone.

Just replaced my Dad's Pixel 2XL with a Pixel 5 for $160.

The sats already exist, so it seems the best plan would be to take subscribers until they malfunction. Kind of like a nuke plant, the expensive part is building it in the first place, and it's super cheap to operate afterwards.