AM radio noise help.

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ephedralover@hotmail.com - 21 Nov 2005 20:56 GMT

I have a Pioneer 8600MP radio, and with the AM stations I get some sort
of noise that gets louder as the engines rpms increase. It doesn't
happen with stations that are very close. Anyway to fix this? Thanks.

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e-nigma - 21 Nov 2005 21:01 GMT

>I have a Pioneer 8600MP radio, and with the AM stations I get some sort
> of noise that gets louder as the engines rpms increase. It doesn't
> happen with stations that are very close. Anyway to fix this? Thanks.

It's a very common problem with aftermarket units. most of the technology is
in the CD
section and all the bells and whistles. AM gets ignored.
the problem is probably worse on the lower end of dial on weaker stations.
On
the higher end and on stranger stations not so bad.
I've had customers return $400 head units because of the bad AM.

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ephedralover@hotmail.com - 21 Nov 2005 21:04 GMT

> >I have a Pioneer 8600MP radio, and with the AM stations I get some sort
> > of noise that gets louder as the engines rpms increase. It doesn't
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> the higher end and on stranger stations not so bad.
> I've had customers return $400 head units because of the bad AM.

Yeah. It stinks. Its not a cheap radio. Are there any manufacturers
that make a good AM section?

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Most Wanted - 23 Nov 2005 02:05 GMT

If you live in an urban enviroment, AM reception will be garbage no matter
what head unit you buy. There are just to many sources of interferance at
those frequencies.

>> >I have a Pioneer 8600MP radio, and with the AM stations I get some sort
>> > of noise that gets louder as the engines rpms increase. It doesn't
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Yeah. It stinks. Its not a cheap radio. Are there any manufacturers
> that make a good AM section?

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Scott Gardner - 23 Nov 2005 04:58 GMT

>If you live in an urban enviroment, AM reception will be garbage no matter
>what head unit you buy. There are just to many sources of interferance at
>those frequencies.

It's not so much that there's more interference in that frequency
range - it's more a function of how AM radio handles interference.

Since the information is encoded by varying the amplitude of the
signal, any interference that affects the amplitude, like lightning,
sunspots, weakened signal due to distance, etcetera will show up as
distortion in the sound.

With Frequency Modulation, the information is encoded by varying the
frequency, not the amplitude, so even though there's a lot of
interference out there, you'll never hear it because it doesn't affect
the frequency of the signal.

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Scott Gardner

"After things go from bad to worse, the cycle will repeat itself."

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Scott Gardner - 23 Nov 2005 05:03 GMT

>> >I have a Pioneer 8600MP radio, and with the AM stations I get some sort
>> > of noise that gets louder as the engines rpms increase. It doesn't
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>Yeah. It stinks. Its not a cheap radio. Are there any manufacturers
>that make a good AM section?

Not really. Thanks to microprocessors, you can buy an entire AM radio
tuner on a single chip for less than twenty-five cents apiece in bulk,
and that's what all of the manufacturers buy to put in their head
units. AM mono radio has fallen by the wayside to the point where
there hasn't been any innovation in years. Manufacturers still
include it just so they can put the "check in the block", but they're
not spending any time or money on improving it.

AM radio in a head unit is like a 3-1/2" floppy disc drive in a PC.
They've been around so long that they're a commodity item, and PC
makers only include them because they're so cheap and they know that a
significant number of buyers will complain if it's missing, but no one
is bothering to come out with a faster floppy drive, because they know
virtually no one cares. As long as it's there, the actual performance
is secondary, at best.

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Scott Gardner

"The media finally figured out that their "paying customers" (i.e. advertisers) don't WANT an intelligent, thoughtful audience. And they no longer have one." (Rich Tietjens)

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