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Your best ever car radio?

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
bmw
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Your best ever car radio?

Post by bmw » Sat Aug 24, 2019 10:53 pm

Of all the car radios you have ever owned, which one was your favorite?

As for stock radios, my favorite was the one in my parent's car when I was young - the Cassette/radio in their 1996 Chevy Cavalier. Closest picture I can find online is this one:

Image

That thing had superb AM/FM reception and there was no car/electrical noise whatsoever on the AM band. I was always amazed at the reception on this thing.

My favorite after-market radio was one I installed in my 1990 Grand-Am - a Sony MiniDisc Recorder/stereo.

Image

You could record off the radio onto minidiscs with this thing, and it had excellent FM reception, including very good selectivity. Sound quality was excellent too.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by Turkeytop » Sun Aug 25, 2019 12:36 am

I had two Dodge Chargers, an 06 and an 08. They both had excellent radios. I did a lot of driving on my job, often at night. I passed the time by tuning around the radio in search of DX..


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Ed Joseph
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by Ed Joseph » Wed Aug 28, 2019 4:40 pm

I had a Blazer I put a Radio Shaft C-QuAM stereo in when I worked at SAM in the 80's. Loved that radio.


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SolarMax
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by SolarMax » Wed Aug 28, 2019 6:17 pm

'93 Plymouth Grand Voyager. Good AM tuner w C-QUAM stereo. FM tuner with great RF headroom (never overloaded in high signal areas). Multiband audio EQ and good sounding speakers. I'm pretty sure it carried third-party branding, possibly Infinity,
Last edited by SolarMax on Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Deleted User 3751

Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by Deleted User 3751 » Wed Aug 28, 2019 6:25 pm

The Mach 300 in my 2005 Ford Escape, it had a great AM tuner with C-QUAM stereo.



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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by CK-722 » Wed Aug 28, 2019 6:28 pm

Delco in a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. My first AM-FM. Slide Rule Dial. Wore out the tuning mechanism from DXing. Had to tune with the mechanical memory buttons. Got pretty good at it by pushing two buttons. Didn't have it long after that happened though. Sold it to a Chevy Supervisor's son to fix up.


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windsor
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by windsor » Wed Aug 28, 2019 7:17 pm

My 1997 Chrysler Intrepid had a real sensitive receive.Was great at picking up out of market radio.

WIOT,FM96,WMMS,Q106 was an everyday occurance.

The reception in todays car radio is garbage.Mind you the dial is a mess also.


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CurlyHoward
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by CurlyHoward » Thu Aug 29, 2019 4:08 pm

My dad's 94 Cavalier and my '04 Cavalier both had excellent stock radios. Could listen to Chicago AM stations in Toledo during the day as long as I wasn't right under a power line. FM was good except for co-channel interference, eg WCSX on 94.7 was obliterated by WXKR on 94.5

The current 2018 Hyundai Elantra I have is garbage on AM but decent on FM. But I'm listening to something on Bluetooth much of the time anyway.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by Turkeytop » Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:29 pm

Back in the early 90s, I had a rental Plymouth for a day. It was the only time I ever experienced AM stereo. Why did the broadcasting industry abandon that mode?


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

kc8yqq
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by kc8yqq » Fri Aug 30, 2019 8:52 am

Turkeytop wrote:
Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:29 pm
It was the only time I ever experienced AM stereo. Why did the broadcasting industry abandon that mode?
A few reasons I've heard:

1. AM stereo was replaced with IBOC
2. Format changed to talk, no need for stereo
3. Coverage is lessened
4. Equipment failed and don't want to fix/replace

Turkeytop, I'm not sure where you are located, but you may be able to receive CFCO 630 (Chatham, ON). I believe they are still stereo. Another one is WLS 890 (Chicago, IL) at night.

If have an HD (IBOC) receiver, it may be able to decode AM stereo.



k8jd
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by k8jd » Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:19 pm

The AM auto radios were really good in the era between the mid 1950s and late 60s. Those were very sensitive and selective and with some good speakers the sound was really good. The selectivity was actually too sharp to tune in right on freq and hear the highs, but I learned the trick of tuning off just a little on one side and then the highs and bass were both excellent. I even used some car radios in the house with a 12 V transformer hooked up to the vibrator socket with the buzzer pulled out :D
Newer radios all seem to sacrafice sensitivity on the AM side to deal with FM text and HD audio sound but using tiny antennas that just don't pick up distant AM signals well at all.
I can remember sitting in the driveway at my N.W. Detroit house (the first house that I owned) and listening to Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago, Toronto, Milwaukee, Fort Wayne, Pittsburg, Columbus, Cincinnati, etc, etc in daylight on the old 1970 GM car radio , but it was one of the last good AM listening auto radios.



k8jd
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by k8jd » Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:27 pm

I bought the JVC KD-HDR1 to replace the worn out radio I had in a ford Escort about a decade+ ago when HD AM was pretty new.
The AM side sensitivity was pretty sad but the new HD sound was fascinating for me :D
I now have it hooked up on my desk , but The power lines and DSL and cable TV behind my house wipe out the AM side.
The FM HD sounds really good with big speakers and the sub channel multicast is pretty interesting to listen to.



k8jd
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by k8jd » Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:46 pm

Libraries\Pictures\radios2016\DSCN0634
Just can't figure out how to attach a picture !!!!



k8jd
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by k8jd » Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:50 pm

Jeff Dugan wrote:
Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:37 pm
k8jd wrote:
Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:27 pm
I bought the JVC KD-HDR1 to replace the worn out radio I had in a ford Escort about a decade+ ago when HD AM was pretty new.
The AM side sensitivity was pretty sad but the new HD sound was fascinating for me :D
I now have it hooked up on my desk , but The power lines and DSL and cable TV behind my house wipe out the AM side.
The FM HD sounds really good with big speakers and the sub channel multicast is pretty interesting to listen to.
Now if you can find a good formatted HD station to listen to, good luck on that one.
Since WKAR moved to the tower several miles West of the old site, I cant even get them in Stereo in the house !! :( forget HD!!



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Turkeytop
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Re: Your best ever car radio?

Post by Turkeytop » Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:16 pm

kc8yqq wrote:
Fri Aug 30, 2019 8:52 am

Turkeytop, I'm not sure where you are located, but you may be able to receive CFCO 630 (Chatham, ON). I believe they are still stereo. Another one is WLS 890 (Chicago, IL) at night.

If have an HD (IBOC) receiver, it may be able to decode AM stereo.
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