How come no matter what car stereo I have had, NONE of them give me clear AM radio?

Question

I have a 1998 Chevrolet Malibu LS. I have had it since October of 1999. I have had a 2 JVC EL Kameleon's, a Pioneer DEH-15 and now I have a brand new ready for IPOD Sony XPlod stereo. FM and everything else always works GREAT but AM is always POOR!!! Always static, if I can get the station to come in at all. Any ideas why? What can I do to fix this? Boost my AM antenna with an add-on or something? Please help, I need my sports and sports talk radio when I am away from my desk or home TV!!! This has ALWAYS drove me nuts!!!

Thanks, CL.

Answer 1

A lot of custom radios just flat out dont get AM radio that good. I have hated this myself about them. One thing you can check tho is your body grounds. I have had cars where there has been work done in the past and the mechanic never bothered hooking up the cable to the body of the car. This will affect AM radio. Question is, did AM Radio work fine with stock radio in it?

Answer 2

AM radio is subject to interference from lightning, auto ignitions, power lines and other electrical noise. Interference due to its Amplitude Modulation (AM) form. The carrier frequency is constant. The audio portion of the signal varies the carrier frequency in amplitude. The forms of interference listed cause spikes which are heard as pops, wines and static.



Frequency Modulated (FM) radio utilizes as slightly varying frequency around the carrier frequency to carry the audio, and is not affected by electrical interference.

Answer 3

Unfortunately there's not much you can do as it's the nature of the beast.



The antenna for AM is internal to the radio so there's no adjustment that can be made.

Answer 4

you may need a noise suppressor on your motor ,or your aerial may need to be checked