A lot of new radios don't even have the AM option . Like you I am partial to listening to AM from time to time.
Landy

-- Edited by landy on Friday 16th of July 2021 09:24:16 PM

I'm not up with the antennas available for AM these days. We get by fairly with the reception we had with the Navara D40. We have not done any Qld travelling with the D23 yet.

I find it difficult to find the radio stations as we are travelling. You seem to need a very strong signal for finding them with the auto search functions on any of the radios I have had in the last few vehicles. I thus go looking through the frequency lists from the ACMA. I download them from the page - List of transmitters with a licence to broadcast. The frequency/channel listings are presented in various forms and orders. Some are not very friendly to travellers. The listing I use requires you to be able to sort channels in a spreadsheet (Excel format.) Look for Broadcast transmitter excel (572.07 KB). This is a .ZIP file, so download it and extract the file so you can open it. There are pages for TV, FM radio and AM radio in it.  I sort these pages into state order and then latitude. When I L am looking for stations I can scroll through the state I am interested in. When I find towns I know on the approximate latitude where I am looking for I can then look in more detail above and below that town to find likely mountains or towns where there may be a station that may be possible to receive. Also, in a lot of times, you can do a search for the town where you will be staying or towns nearby (this is particularly for TV reception.)

Happy hunting with that database.

iana wrote:

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I can remember in my early days of driving we had a 8 foot aerial (may have been 12) fitted on the side of the car to receive AM.

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 I don't believe the "whip aerials" of the 50 -60's actually gained any performance - but gee they looked cool - copied from Texas Rangers on TV.

Thanks chaps,
Re Ian's whip - they were a gimic but looked good flopping around in the wind! Unfortunately they started to shred if left out in the weather too long - I recall them being about 4' long. They worked when radios had high sensitivity front ends. And I think only AM was available then.

As well a lot of cars didn't come with radios until the late 50s, early 60s. Mk2, Mk3 Ford Zephyrs, some Holdens had them, I know. Often they were a large two unit radio until the use of transistors made them the single unit (DIN) type that most of us are now familiar with. I know of the Telecom electrician's panel van at Ceduna where the radio-cassette player was purchased as "a few elements for hot water systems" in the mid 70s because Admin in Adelaide couldn't see why we had to have such luxuries!

And Mike, the shark fin aerial has an amplifier built in - for the FM, GPS frequencies only. They don't cater for Australian travellers who like to access AM unlike Europe with their shorter travel distances & FM

Peter, thanks. I have a printed spreadsheet of the radio stations that we commonly go near on our travels with notes of AM or FM. I'll look up your links too.

I'll continue to play - if I strike "gold" with good reception, I'll let you know.

Hi all; Gone are the days of having a decent am radio, a lot of the radios out of the 60's & 70's and this was before FM took off were a real work of art . Had all of the sensitivity and selectivity that you needed and coupled with a 1/2 decent antenna of around 4 ~ 6 feet could really pick up the stations from around the state and when the atmosphere cold, and dry a lot more stations would appear on the dial. Not a lot you can do now due to the humble car radio having FM, a couple of usb ports, one in the front and one in the back for a external hard drive, bluetooth, and even the 'old' cd deck is ging the same way as the cassette. AM is a last thought and the specs are well down. And a lot of radios these days are also integrated into the the main display that can also display your GPS coordinates, the heater and air conditioner statis as well as the reversing camera in the back of the car, so not just the humle radio of yaw !!!

You could try a communication radio, but in the modern car it would stick out like a sore thumb.Then you have the trouble with the antenna and finding something that 'works'. Sometimes you may come across a old Ferris radio, and Astor made a couple of 1/2 decent radios in the day ( Astor diamond dot ) The last of the 'good' radios that Astor made were put in to some of the up market HQ Holden cars, push pull output , tuned Rf stage and they really took off in performance, Have a look at what the old truckies had in their prime movers, some would give their eye teeth for a good radio in the cabin, but trying to find one nowadays is a tall ask. These type of radios The manufactures also payed attention to the front end of the radio, with a well designed RF amplifier and intermediate IF stage.

-- Edited by valiant81 on Saturday 17th of July 2021 10:37:43 AM

We prefer to only listen to ABC National as like commercial TV,most commercial radio isnt worth listening to in my opinion. We printed out a sheet from the ABC that gives you all the ABC frequencies for all of Australia and works for us. Not sure how good it is in the outback areas as we tend to travel inland Vic,NSW and Sth Aus.

I was looking at purchasing a portable radio designed for am it had a whip aerial, and had the aerial that you wound out across the ground. This was for bushfire advise. Its no good asking the shop assistants for help as they know nothing about am. I can supply the name of the Sydney company if you require.

iana wrote:

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I was looking at purchasing a portable radio designed for am it had a whip aerial, and had the aerial that you wound out across the ground.

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 That whip antenna was only for the FM reception (although it did have a placebo effect on the AM band for some people.) There were two ways of improving AM reception. One was where the radio had a jack or terminal to accept an external antenna. You connected a piece of hookup wite to it and "threw the other end up a tree" or used other methods to elevate it.  The other way was to take your long piece of hookup wite, wound several turns of it around the radio, earthed the short end and elevated the long end (threw it up a tree etc.)

Warren, sound like Isuzu hijacked your radio from a 2012 Mazda bt50. My LC200 has the best one I've had for over 20 years.

Both my long distance vehicles, a 2013 Hilux with a stubby rubber antenna and 2015 Corolla with shark fin antenna can and do stayed tuned to Brisbane's 4QR 612 am or 4KQ 693 am from home at the Gold Coast to about Mt Larcom (sometimes right through to Rocky). West over the divide not so much. Around CQ, I usually listen to 4CC am as it has more local content than 4RO but they both use repeaters on different frequencies so reception is straightforward.

As far as ABC radio stations closing down, the only ones that I'm aware of are the HF stations of Radio Australia at Darwin, possibly Carnarvon & am not certain if Sheparton is still going. With about 60 other PMG staff, I put in 3.5 years at Darwin. A friend who I met there, recently went back to see if he could see anything of the station. The "receiver" site is just grass, the transmitter site is inaccessible with video warning signs. We found that the station bits & pieces are in several large containers - to be buried near the Delissaville Community. What happened to the high powered Collins & Thompson transmitters, we don't know. The cost of running those stations must have been astronomical! Up until TC Tracey, there were two launches to get the staff to work as well as a 21 foot 1/2 cabin speed boat for the afternoon, night shifts when the bigger boats were out for mtce.

I have a comms receiver but it's a bit big to use in in the car (it's in our van though). The modern day radio is in a thing called a head unit - with all sorts of extra stuff in it like car play, etc with more emphasis put on anything but AM reception. While I haven't removed my shark fin, I have seen pictures of the insides. The dipoles are suitable for VHF, UHF reception only nothing lower like MF, HF where much longer aerials are required. The fact that three other cars of similar vintage (about two years old or less) points to the whole installation.

The major ABC stations run fairly high power transmitters (10Kw plus, 5AN, CL in Adelaide were 55Kw in my early days) - one reason why they have good coverage with a receiver of some credibility. I'll keep plodding around with my aerial, may have to get another AP46 aerial when one of the shops have a 20% discount! Another option might be to run a long wire (folded many times) aerial along the bull bar but it may also pick up noise from the alternator, LED bar too - nothing like trial & error!

PeterD, that pdf is fantastic. I also prefer AM. But when traveling and in camp I use the mobile with a small speaker, but it only receives FM.

Granty I first used this in 2011 as we did 22,000 klms around the west half of the country! so convenient as the  glove box was full on our 31 week trip! 10 years on and I am not sure things are easier.