European radio frequencies

[Buick35]

Hi,I installed a repaired radio in my MG. It works and looks great but I can only get three am stations on the medium wave selection. Would an antenna amplifier pull in more stations? I know I could have the radio modified to play fm,blue tooth,ect.but would like to keep it original.Thanks.

[Frank DuVal]

More important is the AM antenna matched to the radio. Is there an Antenna Trimmer adjustment on the radio somewhere? It hides, not in plain sight usually. You adjust this on a weak station about 1400 KC (OK, KHz).

 

Is this at night or in the daytime? How many AM stations are in your area?

[oily rag]

Short wave is used in much of Europe and is a different frequency band.

If your radio was made for the North American market the tuning may have to be adjusted, perhaps more than the antenna trimming.  

[Spinneyhill]

Maybe it would be useful to know where you are and what market the radio was made for?

 

The MW band is generally from 530 or 531 kHz to 1602 kHz or 1700 kHz.

 

Short wave is 2.3 to 26.1 MHz.

[8E45E]

I think all that's left are only three AM radio stations!!  So there's probably nothing wrong with your radio.

 

And you better like 'all talk', country, or religious, because that's all you'll find on AM these days!

 

Craig

[Frank DuVal]

Medium Wave is the AM Broadcast band here in America and the rest of the world (where there are still AM stations).  As Spinney says, typically 530 to 1700 KHz. It was 530 to 1600 KC when the MG was made, 530 to 1500 KC before WWII.

 

Only two clear channel stations still play music on AM here in America AFAIK. WSM 650 KC Nashville, TN [the original Grand Old Oprey Station]  and CFZM Toronto, Ontario [Zoomer Radio, music for baby boomers]. Maybe more on the west coast or Mexico that I can not hear here.

 

The only trouble in American vs European frequencies is if you have a digital radio that only tunes every 10 KHz for the American market, and the European standard is every 9 KHz. And Vice Versa, 9 KHz tuning does not match 10 KHz spacing. Analog tuning, no problem!

[Buick35]

I'm in Florida and the radio was built for the U.K. It does have an analog tuner. Thanks.

[Vila]

Your Medium Wave (MW) car radio operates in a PORTION of the overall MW frequency band  that in total covers 300 kHz to 3 MHz. MW car radios are basically the same frequencies as what we in the US call AM radio.  For your radio MW refers to the frequency range where as in the US we refer to commercial broadcasts in this general frequency range by the type of modulation, Amplitude Modulation (AM) in this case.  Also, band widths (BW) for MW radios and AM radios are slightly different at 9kHz for MW vs 10 kHz for the US AM, but that should not make a significant difference to you.  Some of the radios I have used on military aircraft have a BW switch where you initially tuned frequencies using 10 kHz BW to find a frequency and then switched to 5 kHz to fine tune the radio.

 

Depending on where you live there should be plenty of AM stations to pick up.  Here in central PA there are many AM stations that still broadcast mainly religious, talk programs, and sporting games like college football games.  Commercial AM stations in general have a longer range than commercial FM broadcasts, if both stations have the same broadcast power.

 

Similar situation for FM radio.  You are listening to frequencies that are a small portion of the overall Very High Frequency (VHF) band that gos from 30 to 300 MHz.  Again, commercial FM radio stations only broadcast in a small portion of this frequency range, but in this case they are using Frequency Modulation (FM) and we refer to them as FM radio stations.   There are some portions of the VHF band for thing like aviation radios that broadcast using AM modulation, but for AM aviation radios they just refer to them as VHF radios.  Boating radios are also in the VHF range and they use FM modulation.

 

Like Dave DuVal said your radio may have a trimmer to match the impedance of the radio to the antenna to optimize radio reception.  On my 1962 Triumph TR4 the radio trimmer is a 3/16 hex bolt sticking out from the side of the radio near where the antenna connects.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Vila (see edit history)

[Bloo]

7 hours ago, Buick35 said:

Hi,I installed a repaired radio in my MG. It works and looks great but I can only get three am stations on the medium wave selection. Would an antenna amplifier pull in more stations? I know I could have the radio modified to play fm,blue tooth,ect.but would like to keep it original.Thanks.

 

You definitely shouldn't need an amplifier on the AM(MW) band. I suspect a problem with the antenna or antenna cable. A few things:

 

1) Put your antenna up all the way if it is telescoping, and try it at night. If you still get only three stations, it is very likely something is wrong.

 

2) As Frank DuVal said, there may be a trimmer. It needs to be set after the radio and antenna are installed in the car they will be used in.

 

3) Some radios are just crap. If this is an MG factory radio, I might try to find a UK MG forum and see what experiences others have had with the same radio. This probably isn't the answer, but it could be.

 

Good luck, and let us know what you find out.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Buick35]

I do need a new antenna or aerial like the Brits call it,I'll order one tomorrow and then try adjusting the trimmer after I install it.

[R Walling]

 A list of AM stations in the US by state.

 

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/page?p=states

[8E45E]

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 11:18 AM, Spinneyhill said:

Maybe it would be useful to know where you are and what market the radio was made for?

 

The MW band is generally from 530 or 531 kHz to 1602 kHz or 1700 kHz.

 

Short wave is 2.3 to 26.1 MHz.

The original poster didn't stated if his radio read in meters or kilocycles.  If its an older radio,  may be in METERS, vs KILOCYCLES (or kilohertz), which will read 188m through 550m on the dial face, and it will be opposite in direction to kilocycles when it comes to tuning in a station.  Conversion chart here: https://earlyradiohistory.us/khzmeter.htm    I have a couple of vintage European automobile radios here (Smiths 'Radiomobile' and a Blaupunkt) with the dial face in meters as opposed to KC.

 

Craig

[Restorer32]

As I was told by a Mercedes 300SL owner years ago referring to his car's lack of a radio..."When driving a sports car you should be listening to the sound of the engine, not the radio".

[Rusty_OToole]

RediRed Radio Adapters, Rediscover Your Radio

[Guest]

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 11:43 AM, 8E45E said:

I think all that's left are only three AM radio stations!!  So there's probably nothing wrong with your radio.

While sitting in the car waiting for someone I switched to AM and counted the stations available in Victoria BC.  There were 35.

The op's problem is probably the trimmer adjustment.  We used to have to trim a radio id it was switched from one vehicle to another.  Brand new radios had to have the trimmer adjusted for optimum reception.  Sometimes you had to retrim it if you moved from one province to another.

[8E45E]

15 hours ago, Tinindian said:

While sitting in the car waiting for someone I switched to AM and counted the stations available in Victoria BC.  There were 35.

I can see pulling in that many AM stations in Victoria considering Vancouver, Seattle-Tacoma, and perhaps even Portland is close enough to obtain clear reception on the AM band.  Regardless, AM radio has lost their listening audience steadily since the 1970's.

 

Craig

[Guest]

4 hours ago, 8E45E said:

Regardless, AM radio has lost their listening audience steadily since the 1970's.

I couldn't/can't remember when I last listened to AM, maybe fourty years ago.