European radio frequencies

[Buick35]

Hi,I have a 74 MGB  and installed a working period British radio. It has medium wave and long wave frequencies so I can only pick up a couple of U.S. am stations.I'm wondering with all the many new satellites that are being launched if reception would get better.All I can get in now is Catholic radio and Rush Limbaugh. Not a fan of either but the radio looks good.Greg.

[Phillip Cole]

AM stations have been declining since the 70s, when I was driving my MGB daily. Doubt that it will get better.

 

Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz, using channels spaced every 9 kHz, and in North America an extended MW broadcast band ranges from 525 kHz to 1705 kHz, using 10 kHz spaced channels.

The FM broadcast band, used for FM broadcast radio by radio stations, differs between different parts of the world. In Europe, Australia^[1] and Africa ((defined as International Telecommunication Union (ITU) region 1)), it spans from 87.5 to 108 megahertz (MHz)

Edited February 20, 2020 by Phillip Cole (see edit history)

[Guest]

If you're riding with the "Prince of Darkness" Lucas electrical system, you may want to reconsider that Catholic station.

😄

[Bloo]

MW is like our AM band. The 9khz spacing they use wont matter on an old analog radio like that. It will work fine. If it were digital tuning, that would screw everything up. An AM car radio should have a trimmer capacitor that needs to be adjusted after the antenna it will be using is connected. IIRC you set it with the dial around 1400 and peak up the noise. AM is a vast wasteland in the USA, probably not worth any effort.

 

LW is hardly used for broadcast anymore even in Europe. There may be one or two still alive. The biggest baddest one was 162Khz "France Inter" in Allouis, France at about 2 Megawatts (yse, Megawatts). That would have been impossible to receive here with a car radio. It has been heard in the eastern US with high powered communications receivers and long wire antennas. Not good enough to listen to, just good enough to tell what it was. I believe I heard top of the hour the chimes from Washington State once, but nothing more, and I was trying really hard. The transmitter is still on the air now, but only broadcasts some kind of data (no programming). In the US the only stations you will hear are aircraft beacons identifying themselves in morse code, and possibly some data channels.

 

IMHO call it a really good looking hole plug, and hide some other system you can connect a phone or music player to.

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Bloo (see edit history)

[8E45E]

3 hours ago, Phillip Cole said:

The FM broadcast band, used for FM broadcast radio by radio stations, differs between different parts of the world. In Europe, Australia^[1] and Africa ((defined as International Telecommunication Union (ITU) region 1)), it spans from 87.5 to 108 megahertz (MHz)

The former USSR and Japan used or still use a different bandwidth for FM.  

 

Importer of Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars soon find out the OEM radio is close to useless on the FM band.

[Frank DuVal]

1 hour ago, Bloo said:

IMHO call it a really good looking hole plug, and hide some other system you can connect a phone or music player to.

 

Or simply modify it to accept phone or "iPod" audio through a 1/8" phone jack.  i .e. add an AUX input to the radio. There are paces that will do this.

 

Or, just find an AM transmitter attachment to do it, so no modification to the radio. Example RediRad.

 

WSM 650 is still playing music of the country type, they stated the Grand Ole Opry, can be heard over lots of the country. And 740 in Toronto is playing music "Zoomer Radio" and can be heard on the east coast. Night of course....

 

[padgett]

To me FM is a lot better sounding than AM. Long wave is below the AM band (150 to 400 kcps on one of my TransOceanics). Also with FM, bluetooth adapters are inexpensive and just plug into the cigarette lighter.

[Buick35]

Thanks for the replies.Greg

[60FlatTop]

22 hours ago, Buick35 said:

Catholic radio and Rush Limbaugh.

 

Does the horn blow when you change stations? I always wondered where "Horns of a Dilemma" came from.

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

 

Does the horn blow when you change stations? I always wondered where "Horns of a Dilemma" came from.

I suppose it could, with all these newer redundant controls for the radio that are now on the steering wheel right next to the horn!!

 

Craig

[padgett]

Same place a petard did.

[Frank DuVal]

15 hours ago, padgett said:

To me FM is a lot better sounding than AM.

 

For clarity, fidelity and noise suppression, yes.👍

 

But I am having fun listening to AM stations again (mostly the two mentioned above), reliving my youth, even in my modern cars at night! Nothing like having signals distort as you drive along only as AM can (whether LW, MW or SW band). FM just not the same sound as it gets weak. No good FM stations around here in my daily drive, so all my FM is weak reception, not high fidelity......😡

 

The few times I have had satellite radio in rental vehicles, they seem to have the same top 50 songs, just more genres (channels) to choose from. I need a station that plays like Ben Vaughn's Relay Shack all the time! Mix it up, go deep into singer's catalog.

[padgett]

I think the sat tunes sound like AM and AM is best suited to talk radio. Is why I have over 500 albums on my phone (and adding more as I translate all of the vinyl that has been boxed up for years)

[oldcarfudd]

All I need is to download "In My Merry Oldsmobile" to my cell phone so I can play it in the parking lot when I go to Cars and Coffee!