AM Radio Reception

[mauricio]

I have a 2009 TDCi Mondeo.
AM radio reception is very average. I've put up with it for some time but I'd like to fix it, if I can.
I listen to 693 3AW. Strangely, the station works fine in the morning at about 8:30am - little interference, static etc. But when I use it after midday it's terrible and I don't know what's causing it. How can it work fine in the morning then a few hours later it's awash with interference, noise etc. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it possible that they (3AW) reduce their transmitting power at a certain time of day to avoid other RF issues ?
I was blaming the car's radio (Sony) and have done the usual antenna and connection checks but given that the reception is ok at certain times of the day I'm not so sure that it's my radio or antenna.

[cobrin]

from what you've typed it does seem more related to environmental issues, perhaps the equipment is fully heat soaked come midday heavy atmosphere or similar. If it's just one channel it's hard to pick your radio at being the problem.

[mauricio]

Originally Posted by cobrin

from what you've typed it does seem more related to environmental issues, perhaps the equipment is fully heat soaked come midday heavy atmosphere or similar. If it's just one channel it's hard to pick your radio at being the problem.

Cheers, what's your AM reception like?

[sailaway]

Originally Posted by mauricio

Cheers, what's your AM reception like?

693 3AW is always on and no problems any time of day.

Well not quite correct as night time is crap. LOL Content and not reception.

[cobrin]

Originally Posted by mauricio

Cheers, what's your AM reception like?

tried it for the first time today and it's typically low rent, I think I only got two working frequencies and they were really low quality. Here in FNQ. FM is great otoh.

[NZ XR6]

I have a similar problem, and I'm sure that the interference comes from the car as it just stops sometimes.

I've never looked into where it comes from though. FM is absolutely fine.

Sent from somewhere using Tapatalk

[Mondaveo]

From what I can remember from high school engineering, AM radio waves have a much greater range than FM because they can be bounced through the atmosphere, so it's likely that the transmitter you're tuning in to is that much further away. The kicker is AM waves are also much more susceptible to interference and atmospheric distortion, whereas FM tends to come through clearly until the point they drop off. This link seems like a good summary.

I wonder if you'd feel like carrying a portable radio with you tuned to the same station and compare the reception on it to what you hear from the car?

[rondeo]

It's like whistling harder or softer on one note to send a message: or whistling a tune to send a message.

Because of that, AM messages are more susceptible to interference by random noise, which just goes blam.