New universal (when will I learn that anything universal is not and will need rigged) antenna and my AM radio works!! The one speaker will get me by till I decide to put in 4 speakers and a radio and go FM. Course I only listen to talk radio, but the AM talk guy in NE Ohio is an idiot.
Play with that radio on a clear night... no clouds. You will get signals from places you can't believe. AM signals bounce every 40 miles or so. I picked up Chicago one night while living here in Florida ... WLS ... I used to listen to it as a kid there. Nighttime makes it better because the airwaves don't have as much competition with other frequencies IIRC.
how did you hook the am radio up? I have an original one but the guy who had the mav before me had a cheap cd player put in and i want to go back. im not sure how to hook it up.
A lot of aftermarket installs just aimed their wires over to the fuse box and a good ground point. You may find the original Ford plug still hanging there someplace close.
Maybe I'm weird, but if I had a good factory AM radio I leave in for a vintage/original look...but then maybe have a hidden amp feeding the rear speakers for an ipod.
Not weird at all. I went through much agonizing over how I could keep an original look and still have a good modern stereo. I eventually gave up for now and just tried hard to hide all the speakers. One day I'll revisit that idea though.
Too funny! probably mostly because it makes a ton of sense. Like Drew, I am in the middle of hiding my speakers too. I mounted my 6x9s out back under the rear panel, then took that big piece of factory chipboard, made some openings for the speakers (with some ribs running across the opening) and then covered the entire panel in speaker cloth. It really looks clean. Pictures to come soon ... I had 4 inch speakers mounted in the kicks. Lately I scored some primo black front kick panels ... no way I am cutting them. I will be putting the two speakers under the dash similar to how the original dash speaker was mounted. For the head unit ... I will be sticking with the "vintage" ( my nephew's words...) Alpine AM/FM/Cassette that I bought for the car in 1992. It has dials on both sides like an "old radio" and has green lighting... looks great in a green car. So do my gauges. Back to the discussion of AM radios ... the factory radio will have four wires ... power, ground, speaker +, and speaker - ... and a place to plug in the antenna. Should not be that hard. Find the factory power and ground and that will be your biggest challenge. Hopefully the aftermarket stereo was wired in using them. Does it come on with the ignition? ... or can you turn it on without a "key on" condition?
^^ yep for power. Then another set of wires for the ONE speaker. The speaker is some 4" radio shack in a shell on the dash shelf. I will either go back to one under the dash or deck the hell outa it with a modern radio. I figure no reason to go in between. Am or all the way baby. edit. The antenna plugs in on the SIDE of the AM radio, not the back like it should.
Am vs FM (if you care to know) AM (amplitude modulation) has a constant frequency and the sound is carried by carving out the top and bottom of the freq (as shown in the second part of the attached pic.) This is a very simple way of carrying sound, and was originally designed so some phones could carry their sounds further. There are two problems with this. 1) noise will also carve out hills and valleys, distorting the signal. 2) AM actually travels in two paths. One called the ground wave which follows the curve of the earth. The second is called a Sky wave witch bounces off the ionosphere and earth like a rubber ball. As stated, this is why you can hear AM better at night, MORE bounce. AM stations used to be required to reduce power at night to reduce bounce, but I do not know if that is still true. FM (frequency modulation) keeps the carrier signal at a constant height (as shown in the last part of the attached pic). The sound is carried by squeezing the freq like an accordian. The advantage is that interference and noise cant do this and are ignored. FM only has one travel path, basically line of site. Thats why FM antennas are up high on towers and mountains, to cover more homes. FM signals do not curve to the earth like AM. The do not bounce off the ionosphere but penetrate and keep going into space. I may not know the difference between a tie rod and a ball joint, but radio modulation, I got this b*&^%
You get an A+ sir. I will add that some AM stations were "daytime only" radio stations. This way, they would not interfere with other radio stations at night. Here in my part of Indiana, we actually had a daytime, directional AM radio station. It was directional in that it only could broadcast its signal in a certain "direction". This was accomplished by using 7 antenna's. This was very expensive at the time as an AM station has a lot of cooper wire buried in the ground around each of the antenna's. "Daytime only" here in Indiana (at the time before we finally went to daylight savings time) meant broadcasts stopped at about 5pm in the winter time. This station finally went off the air back in the mid 90's. AM stations are heard enough to make profitable, let alone a "daytime only", direction AM station. There are also some clear channel AM stations. This means there are NO other stations on that frequency. WOWO 1190-AM out of Ft. Wayne, Indiana was a clear channel radio station. No other radio stations exist at the 1190 AM frequecy. This way these "clear channel" stations could be heard all over the world back in the early days of radio. I have heard this has recently changed, or at least it has for the 1190 frequency. Craig Selvey Holder - FCC Broadcast License (back in the days when you actually had to take a test to get a license...now all you need is a pulse and you can get a license)
Ham radio license? I have always wanted to get mine. Now that they have dropped Morse code, I just might. But ONE expensive hobby at a time man.
I was thinking of getting one of the "Secret Audio" systems and keep my original AM radio. Anybody here put one in their car? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...5fffec761&rvr_id=&ua=WXI8&itemid=400079109643
FCC broadcast license is different from ham license. Broadcast license gives you commericial operating privileges. Ham radio is non-commericial /public service/ hobby operating priveleges. I am amatuer/ham since 1984; I do agree "one expensive hobby at a time. I been back in this hobby for 11 months and have'nt bought any radio gear and probably won't for the forseeable future. Go for the license -- don't have to buy any radio stuff to get the license. I respect all those who care to keep their car interior lookin original. I went the direction of sound quality over original look. I suppose if u just listen to talk radio than a vintage AM radio maybe the route to take. I listen to both, but vry little talk radio in the Comet - I do that in the house and Ford Windstar. I believe in the best of both worlds and I just don't see enjoying both w/ a vintage AM reciever. If u compete in an original class at car shows I suppose it's a must to be original. My car was acquired in a slightly modified state, being mostly noticable under hood. The interior was pretty much stock - since then I have added several mods to the interior. I have CD/USB/IPOD/AM/FM/HD and Satellite radio capabilities in my Comet --- I believe in 21st. century has provided us w/ new technology and I want to get most, if not all the airwaves have to offer. JMO
