From a ham perspective, if AM is allowed to go away, then fighting RFI will be
left mostly to us and without the AM broadcasters, preventing RFI will be
considered far less important and our risks increase.
I’m not a talk radio fan but I guess we take the allies we can get.
73,
Jim K4QPL
Sent from my iPhone
> On May 22, 2023, at 3:20 PM, Charles Coldwell <coldwell@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This was in an email from the New York Times
>
> Major automakers are eliminating AM radio from new vehicles, arguing the
> antiquated system is unnecessary and is incompatible with electric engines.
>
> But House lawmakers will convene a hearing in early June to discuss the
> importance of keeping AM radio in cars, committee spokespeople confirmed
> exclusively to The Technology 202.
>
> House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair *Cathy McMorris Rodgers* (R-Wash.)
> and ranking Democrat *Frank Pallone Jr.*(N.J.) will hear testimony from
> public safety experts about why they think AM radio is still essential for
> vehicles.
>
> *The hearing comes as lawmakers in both the House and Senate **sound the
> alarm*
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a1532d/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/11/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>
> *on **AM radio being phased out*
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a1532f/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/12/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>*,
> a move they say could prevent Americans from receiving public emergency
> notifications and stifle political discourse.*
>
> AM radio was popular through the 1960s and ’70s, but once FM radio came on
> the scene, it was able to provide better audio quality at the cost of
> transmitting across a shorter distance.
>
> *The debate has made unlikely alliances, as lawmakers argue that AM is a
> crucial service that can reach Americans in life or death situations when
> FM or other transmission methods fail.*
> <https://sli.washingtonpost.com/click?s=690291&li=technology202&m=6b6f603646bfd6ba3e2649ec9cfef2c2&p=646b712246cd7852d9380726>
> <https://sli.washingtonpost.com/click?s=690292&li=technology202&m=6b6f603646bfd6ba3e2649ec9cfef2c2&p=646b712246cd7852d9380726>
> <https://sli.washingtonpost.com/click?s=690294&li=technology202&m=6b6f603646bfd6ba3e2649ec9cfef2c2&p=646b712246cd7852d9380726>
>
>
> - A bipartisan, bicameral bill introduced last week would direct the
> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue a rule
> requiring carmakers to keep AM broadcast radio in their vehicles without a
> separate payment or fee.
> - It also requires automakers selling cars without AM radio before the
> effective date to disclose that AM is not present.
> - The bill, titled the AM for Every Vehicle Act, has endorsement from
> Sens. *Edward J. Markey* (D-Mass.) and *Ted Cruz* (R-Tex.), as well as
> Reps. *Josh Gottheimer* (D-N.J.) and *Tom Kean Jr.*(R-N.J.).
> - It also has endorsements from Federal Communications Commission
> Chair *Jessica
> Rosenworcel* and Republican Commissioner *Nathan Simington*, who call it
> a “clear public safety imperative.”
>
> “AM radio plays an essential role in our communities, especially during
> public emergencies when other alert systems that rely on the electric grid
> and cellphone networks may not work. I’m looking forward to the Energy and
> Commerce Committee holding a hearing on this important matter soon,”
> Pallone said in a statement to The Technology 202.
>
> *Republicans have also argued that popular conservative talk shows that
> rely on AM airwaves could suffer from the phaseout.* Eight of the country’s
> 10 most popular radio talk shows are conservative, as our colleague *Marc
> Fisher *previously reported
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a153f8/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/16/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>
> .
>
> *AM radio has largely been **discontinued in electric vehicles*
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a15330/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/17/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>*
> made
> by companies like Tesla, Ford, BMW, Mazda and Volkswagen on the grounds
> that the motors in those vehicles create electromagnetic frequencies on the
> same wavelength as AM radio and could lead to interference.* Automakers
> also argue that AM’s phaseout trends with the population that grew up with
> AM: one that is getting smaller and older.
>
> The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an automaker trade group, has
> previously
> said
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a1597f/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/18/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>that
> AM mandates are unnecessary and that the Integrated Public Alerts and
> Warning System can be transmitted across AM, FM and other types of radio,
> as well as cellular networks in case of an emergency.
>
> Former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in February wrote to
> Transportation Secretary *Pete Buttigieg*
> <https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3a15331/646b712246cd7852d9380726/59730117ade4e21a848908c7/19/73/646b712246cd7852d9380726>arguing
> that the United States should seek assurances from automobile manufacturers
> to keep AM in new cars.
>
> “AM radio plays an essential role in our communities, especially during
> public emergencies, and we look forward to hearing from public safety
> experts about the importance of ensuring this continues to be a resource
> for Americans,” McMorris Rodgers said in a statement to The Technology 202.
>
>> On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 02:34 Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 5/21/2023 6:11 PM, n0tt1@juno.com wrote:
>>> Personally, I think it's
>>> because they don't want to deal with filtering out all those RF
>>> square waves in the vehicles. Or maybe they know that
>>> EU is, or has already, discontinued Broadcast AM radio.
>>
>> This has been widely reported in the press for several months. I've been
>> driving a Tesla Model 3 for 2.5 years, and have a VHF/UHF FM rig in it,
>> no observable RF noise. When looking for installation advice, I came
>> across several youtube videos from an OT in 5-land who first did that,
>> then advanced to an HF rig. He reported that to be pretty noise free as
>> well. The 12V system won't support a lot of power. I've charged at home
>> from the outbuilding that houses my shack, first from a 120V/15A outlet,
>> now from 240V/30A, can't hear any noise with my Kenwood TH-F6A
>> (wide-band RX) probing along the power cable, or in my radios in the shack.
>>
>> The Tesla designers were VERY good about RF shielding that's quite
>> frequency-selective. A talkie with a duck is deaf inside the vehicle,
>> but cell phone works great inside the vehicle at knee level in the
>> center pedestal (and, of course, in my pocket).
>>
>> As to RFI to the AM band -- I haven't probed that, but no issues on 160M
>> when charging.
>>
>> Vehicles are sold worldwide, so discontinuance of AM broadcasting in any
>> large market could drive mfrs to drop AM in vehicles. AM has been on a
>> long downward spiral for several decades, and noise has long been a
>> problem. A colleague was chief engineer at WLS in the '80s and '90s
>> (maybe longer, don't remember when he retired). Their 50kW clear on 890
>> kHz was maybe 25-30 miles S of Chicago, and had chronic complaints of
>> ignition noise from Fords that wiped them out in the northern suburbs --
>> I'm guessing 50 miles or so from their omni stick. And as we all know,
>> noise has increased exponentially in the intervening decades, and the AM
>> band takes the greatest hit.
>>
>> Starlink, a related company, is quite the opposite. The PSU for my dish
>> is mondo-noisy, took a half-dozen ferrites with multiple turns to quiet
>> it down. I love that system, which I bought as redundancy for ComCast,
>> whose power backup was next to non-existent. They've since improved
>> quite a lot. But with no cell service in the mountains, we can't be
>> without internet, so it's great to have both systems.
>>
>> 73, Jim K9YC
>>
>> 73,
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
>>
> --
> Charles M. Coldwell, W1CMC
> Belmont, Massachusetts, New England
> "Turn on, log in, tune out"
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