AM stereo radio

This gives an explanation on what AM stereo is, the equipment needed and it's history.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• AM
• stereo
• radio
• signal
• AM stereo

[Cringle84]

One comment is that AM is capable of giving you crisp sound quality, as long as the radio station is broadcasting the high sound quality for a start, and the receiver has a wideband IF circuit.

[stuster2]

Thank you for your comment it is a shame that AM stereo went out of style so quickly here in Australia.

[Teflon65]

AM stereo evidentally went to all digital, here in the US. I don't know if there are any analog AM stereo stations left.

[RetroCaptain]

Good day,

I recall AM stereo here in Ontario about 1986. The radios were costly,

I remember 680 CFTR broadcasting top 40 in stereo, & it sounded as good as or better than FM stereo..there was no hiss in background. 680 CFTR is gone, & I cannot find any AM stereo in my area nowadays.

There still are a few good AM mono music stations near me, like 1460 CJOY

Stratford Ont 1240 CJCS Hamilton Ont 1150 CKOC AM 740 Toronto CHZM

[Karl036]

Well done...

[Cringle84]

@digitalmediafan And the sound quality was good enough that there was a noticeable difference between Mp3's and CD's/Vinyl, CD's/vinyl between the two the uncompressed or Vinyl formats just sounded more lively on air, which shows the downside of compressed audio formats, but I do notice that most people these days dont care too much about audio quality, as long as the content is there, just check out peoples MP3 players and i bet you would find their favourite tune in 64KB/s MP3.

[Cringle84]

@digitalmediafan I know, you cant stop the consumer market. maybe eventually AM could end up being a haven for Pirate operators as there is alot of room on the dial on account that there is heaps of room, because our towns are far apart. I managed to get 4-8Km out of a 1 watt transmitter with a 4 metre tall bottom loaded hot water pipe pumping out Trance over a small city. The transmitter employed direct coupled class A modulation so the sound quality was near CD quality with a wideband tuner.

[digitalmediafan]

@Cringle84 Oh really just the same with the UK but it took years for them to reduce the bandwidth but they are already doing this then in Oz ?? The plethera of internet radios may also not be helping any kind of terrestrial radio anyway. I have 5 of them !

[Cringle84]

@digitalmediafan Yes but it could use AM stereo for regional coverage to work alongside DAB in the city.although less channels, so would suit the more popular stations. The biggest thing that is crippling DAB+ is that they are currently using a bandwith lesser than what can be used, so consequently does not yet reach the sound quality of FM stereo transmissions

[digitalmediafan]

@Cringle84 All I can say is dream on. Yes am stereo is very underrated simple technlogy giving an amazing sound with the right wideband tuner. I even took my old Sony ST-JX220a with me to Melbourne in 2004 to listen to 3MP and 2CA Canberra at nights where it boomed in. DAB+ in Oz appears to be getting popular now so this is unfortunatly another reason when am stereo is dieing in Australia anyway plus the USA of course, great shame

[Cringle84]

Yeah it is a shame, it was a very effective means of transmitting high fidelity audio. Just blame the FCC in America not standardising the technology early enough for the manufacturers to meet the supply and demand of high quality AM stereo radios. But there is still a chance, DRM so far has not been bandwidth efficient, and does not work well in comparison to C-QUAM AM stereo, AM Stereo may have a chance to be re-introduced... Notice how there is now music formats on AM again?