Speaking from where I live as a few forum members are from Canada, among other places.
A simple set up indoors with an AM transmitter with the wire and maybe a ground through the a/c cord won't get you as far as FM will. Probably the majority of people don't have the access or facilities to do the not so easy outdoor install with ground radials etc to get the extra range. As for another member getting such good results with the Spitfire in a building of all places with just the indoor install with no ground is exceptional and maybe is blessed with no electrical noise to drown it out. But most all over North America AM is killed by the electrical buzzzzzzzz that plagues the AM band in all houses and buildings and in the house where I am it's across the whole band and at the signal strength of the local 50,000 watt stations.....wipes out everything! Am is only good if you go outside away from the hydro(ac power) like the street. As for if something was there that people want they will listen, My brother told me that he will never listen to AM no matter what is there.....listen to this he said! If I were to be on AM here where I am it would be for MY USE ONLY as no one would listen and here in Canada there's no AM transmitter approved for "broadcasting". If my goal is to have listeners then FM is the way to go here as BETS-1 gives us increased coverage than part 15 does and in mono a little more. Also the Decade MS-100 is approved for "broadcasting". So here, the statment that a medeocre AM is better then the best FM is not true. And if you don't have access to the ideal AM set up....not medeocre, FM gets you farther and doesn't have to fight through the noise to do it.
FM is also much easier as a good FM set up needs only an indoor place on a shelf and works with a indoor antenna thats 30" long and there's no ground involved. Much simpler for someone to do.
And then there's the nightime thing.....forget it....even the best outdoor set up with a compliant transmitter looses the range at night drowned out by the clutter of 5 stations coming in on top of you. FM doesn't....it works day and night.
I grew up with AM and in the 60s and 70s....and eighties for oldies and it was clean. but in the mid nineties all the noise started creeping in till you have what you have now and this is what kills AM. I can't listen to something that I want it's so bad here.
Here in Canada FM IS the practical choice if you want more than yourself listening.
Even in a rural area out in cottage country where I had listeners around me no one would have listened if it was AM.....most people had there radios in their garages or porches by their cottages and the noise was brutal even out there and no one would listen through that. They would have to be right beside me to get a clear signal.
AM to me is a last resort only if for some reason I couldn't do FM.
Mark
I did FM for quite awhile when I lived in the suburbs, I had always gotten poor performance on AM due to HOA restriction. FM covered the Block and then some with a C Crane, maybe up to 800 feet in some directions.
In the country however, I've had the exact opposite experience. My worst AM setups have always outdone FM here, except at night. Now with the Rangemaster even my nighttime coverage far exceeds even the wildest dreams of an FM microcaster.
YMMV, I think FM is perfect for dense city operation and AM is perfect for Suburban and Rural use.
Do note even with my fantastic AM coverage, if my neighbor watches TV I cannot listen to my AM in my own living room. (Yet I can listen to the same AM on the other end of town at night)
I stand corrected concerning my comment in the prevoius thread, I'm not very versed on the legalities with FM in Canada, but recall talk of the limitations being less strigent. My comments were really in reference to the limitations here in the US.
Best to you in your venture Mark.
Now, I realize that the country is different every place.
But I have a hard time with all these naysayers who claim you can't listen to AM radio in this country. So you mean to tell me that the more than 4700 AM stations in the USA are not being listened to? Tell me then, how do they meet the payroll every week? Who the hell is buying all those ads? How is it that I listen to AM radio darn near everywhere I go?
How is it that I've worked at an AM station for the past 28 years. A station where listenership and revenue have increased yearly? How is it that when I take listener calls (no, it's NOT talk radio) gobs of people call in? How the heck are they even HEARING me? I just twirled the dial on the crummy AM portable sitting next to me, by my computer, under my fixture with two CFL lightbulbs in it, in a room surrounded with ham radio power supplies, wall warts, a charging phone, a charging electric razor, and many other devil devices that are supposed to be blocking my AM reception. I can hear, loud and clear, 11 AM stations. And I'm 70 miles from any major city.
When I go to Minneapolis, 180 miles away and hit scan on my radio, it locks on another AM station loud and clear instantly all across the band. There are craploads of loud and clear stations.
I do realize that in a metro area a Part 15 AM can certainly be lost in the noise floor. But to simply say that no one can listen to AM is not accurate. If it was, I wouldn't be going to work in the morning!
TIB
I think there's a place for all viewpoints, rebels and by the book folks or in between.
Things have changed, life is different now. Decades ago there wasn't as much information about all of this stuff, you'd have Popular Electronics and QST at the library, and young reader books on building crystal sets and maybe a simple transmitter. Radio Shack had kits, or you could buy a Knight porno oscillator.
For the teen hobbyist by themselves, so much was experimentation, taking radios and TVs apart and building something else from them. It taught you to be more self reliant and learn, and then think of what might be possible.
Now we go on line, and we have many more plans and kits to buy, right at our fingertips. I don't think experimenters are as intimate with radio circuits now, and too, things have changed to smaller components.
Anyway, in the vacuum back then, we didn't have input from others, where now encouragement from knowlegeable people, (or those who think they know), and also naysayers are as close as your screen. It makes it seem like these people are right outside your door, but it's good to remember that they aren't.
In elementary and up I did lots of radio, and had friends from school in on it too, AM/FM, CB mostly. There was a vague idea of 'rules', I mostly knew about those from disclaimers on kits, and watching movies with natzi spies being tracked down for running illegal radio transmitters, but that was it. My parents, to put it bluntly, were clueless, they would have no idea what I was doing.
I agree, I do remember when the FM band was clearer, it was just local commercial stations with lots of space between. I had the variable frequency transmitter kit that we upped the voltage on, which got out in the neighborhood, something I wouldn't do today, since that could drift a whole channel either way! Can't do that now, you'd collide with station's on most frequencies.
Some of the frustration could also be in the fact that so much good quality equipment is out there, at low prices; technology is at a high level, to where we could broadcast with precision and the chance of drifting into other stations is low. There's so much potential, that, depending on the way you look at it, is going to waste.
We CAN put out a high quality product on the air now, but it could be said that the rules haven't kept pace with the greater knowledge and more professional grade equipment available now. In the 1970s, the average hobbyist couldn't get anything near a professional level transmitter, so there was no need to think about changing rules to accomodate them.
Another thing is that kids who were earnest in doing radio and were on fire for it had more opportunities in engineering and especially making the move from their basement stations to applying for a job at a commercial station in their town. If you were "the guy" for radio, you didn't have to worry too much about "part 15" as you probably wouldn't be doing it for very long.
Even CFL's make AM impossible for any listenable experience on AM.
If AM was so good why not get rid of the translators raining the same programming on FM taking up space? One has to wonder the goals in that?
TheLegacy wrote "Even CFL's make AM impossible for any listenable experience on AM."
Despite CFLs in my home I can receive AM just fine. Mobile there is no problem from CFLs.
I don't know where you get your information but it seems as if you continually make things up and post here as if it were fact. Do us a favor and knock it off.
Neil
I heard early CFLs could have problems, I haven't personally experienced it.
To answer Legacy's question, the translators are there as a band-aid while the FCC works out a final plan for the AM band. The AM band is great, it just needs some cleaning up.
"As for another member getting such good results with the Spitfire in a building of all places with just the indoor install with no ground..."
That's me! (Taking a bow...) 🙂
"...is exceptional and maybe is blessed with no electrical noise to drown it out."
When I turn off the transmitter, the noise is LOUD! But right now "Last Kiss" just started...whisper quiet. Two houses down, they said it's noisy in the morning pre-sun up, But then it cleans up once the sun rises. I cannot explain this. I just run it as-is.
"But most all over North America AM is killed by the electrical buzzzzzzzz that plagues the AM band in all houses and buildings..."
Yeah. Me too. When the transmitter is OFF, it's JUST noise from 1400 on up. 1400 is the only other channel and it's noisy as hell. It's 8:43 am and I just got a call from a neighbor two houses up the street. Friend of mine. "Great music!" Wow. OK! What can I say?
Doug
I bet you are getting some power line induction 😉
"I bet you are getting some power line induction ;)"
That is what i was thinking as well Mighty, my station does the same thing on 1620 am.
Most of my coverage is power line induction and i gladly welcome it, unfortunetly for me though, a set of large transformers stops the signal cold in it's track further up the road.
But hey, i won't complain.
Map Link
Edited: That's roughly 2,651 feet.
"I don't know where you get your information but it seems as if you continually make things up and post here as if it were fact. Do us a favor and knock it off."
I couldn't agree more.
@Rock95seven....My area here has no overhead power lines...the street is all underground with manholes at some points to access if needed. Wonder if you would get any power line induction in that case?
Mark
Mark,
I am sure it is possible but the signal won't see the light of day until it comes out of the ground and into a home or business. The ground would offer some rather interseting attenuation.
well here is some real facts about AM This is from my experience in two different places where I have lived in two different states also.
Location number 1 Elizabeth City North Carolina turned on my AM radio to 1630 which is the frequency I used to transmit on. You can clearly hear a grinder like sound I can't imitate it obviously on text the only way you would understand it is if you could hear it yourself. I could transmit above it but it greatly affected my range.
In Deltaville Virginia in a rural area in an apartment complex at times turn on the AM radio this time you hear something that sounds to me like data going across the entire band. Sometimes there is a rat tat tat tat tat sound which I have tried to track down and had not been able to find the source of the problem. My guess is could be the router for the internet but then too because it's a fourplex we have other neighbors who use different devices. Keep in mind too that if anybody Close to You watches an old tube type television you get that whistling type sound which again I can't imitate on text which does make listening to any AM radio station very irritating at best.
But as Neal and a lot of people experience when you're driving down the road in a car often AM is dead quiet and quite listenable as long as you don't drive underneath stop lights or near things such as gas station pumps. But it has been my experience that in the city especially over there on North Road Street in Elizabeth City which you could Google and take a look at 211 North Road Street Elizabeth City North Carolina 27909 you would understand what I'm talking about on North Road Street look at the buildings nearby look at what's nearby you can see how interference would be plaguing the AM band. That is my point. Sorry if you think I make things up but it's my frustration with the AM band in my experience and not only that but I have been definitely trying to see what I can do with some decent amount of range with the type of AM transmitter I have access to. now I'm now I'm tempted to see if the Spitfire transmitter is the Holy Grail that some people are experiencing. But and this is only my opinion I have my doubts whether I'll see that magical range that I'm looking for.