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400 Miles...and No AM Daytime Signals.

Ia this a glimpse of the future?

I'm just back through a road trip through Western Ontario. During a remote stretch of more than 500 miles from Thunder Bay to North Bay. While the area is sparsely populated, there are a number of towns along the route. and no shortage of highway traffic. The Transcanada Highway, (Ontario highway 11) is the main motor vehicle route linking eastern and western Canada. It's also a very scenie drive.

There are also FM signals available throughout most of the journey. In French as well as English. Mostly CBC rebroadcasters/translators.

Specificallty, in Thunder Bay, the lone daytime signal that tripped the scan button in my rental car radio was WEBC from Duluth (560). And that only stopped the scan about half the time. By the time I was out of town by about 20 miles, the scans didn't land on anything. On the other end of the drive, the scan started to land on CKAT (600) by about 40 miles from North Bay. (The ground conductivity in the area....the southern edge of the Canadian Shield....is pretty bad. ) CKAT did better going south. And in less than an hour south of North Bay the big Toronto signals started showing up. CFZM and CFZM first. Followed by CJCL and CFIQ (ex-CFMJ/640). CFRB and CHUM not much longer after then. The car radio was a stock model for a Chevrolet Malibu. Good....but not great....on AM.

In 1994 when I drove the same route, there was AM coverage (albeit at times only one signal), for pretty much the entire way. These stations have now moved to FM (if not gone dark).

The AM dial at night was a different story. I'll post about that shortly. :)
 
I noticed that Daytime skywave has been appearing 2-3 hours before Sunset, and with many stations off the air or possibly not operating at full power, you might be surprised what you hear.
 
I noticed that Daytime skywave has been appearing 2-3 hours before Sunset, and with many stations off the air or possibly not operating at full power, you might be surprised what you hear.
I didn't notice any of that on my drive. I was mostly using the scan button, rather than manual tuning (on what basically a two-lane road with more than a few 18-wheelers.) Also, I was at a latitude where auroral conditions would be a little more common. At my home location, where I am now, the skywave does seem to be a little more apparent earlier as well as later during daylight hours. Hopefully that's a good omen for a better DX season than we had last winter.
 
So this is going to be the future for AM?

I love listening to AM, I don't care what other people say

To me: All Digital won't work on the AM Band
 
So this is going to be the future for AM?
Perhaps some of it. I think in more poppulated areas, migration of AM stations to AM will be much easier said than done. There could also locations where the longer range of some AM stations may make AM a more practical choice.
 
After all these years, I still can't get used to the empty AM band on this side of the Big Island during the day where there's only 3 stations.

There's an area in California on coastal highway 1 south of Monterey where you can't receive even one FM station for a while.
 
Former owner of KPNW KPAY & KBOI from the 70's through late 90's had a condo north west of Hilo. He'd sit on the deck and listen to his 3 stations as the sun went down.
670 Hilo ruined it for KBOI.
 
I remember taking the road from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay 48 years ago. The only AM I heard in the boonies was a low power relay of Thunder Bay's 800 AM and it went about 7 miles. After that, nothing until we were near Thunder Bay.

Gas stations on that road were far apart too.
 
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Ultimately, I think it is up to the mobile entertainment audience and the devices that are available to them.
Vehicle makers will be responsive to customers as necessary to meet their business goals.

Many choices and decision ahead for customers and vehicle makers. Electric vehicles, fossil fuel vehicles, stick vs automatic, transportation as a service (i.e., you pay Telsa or Ford a monthly fee for the vehicle operating system software), government required things, such as free over the air radio, etc.

Just a question of what they vehicle customers will buy, either willingly or because they have no choice. Are we truly transitioning from an ownership culture to a rental culture? It may be a natural end result of technology.

I really enjoy a stick shift and conventional engine. Keeps me on my toes, alert and focused on driving. It does not appear a significant number of vehicle customers feel as I do.
 
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Ultimately, I think it is up to the mobile entertainment audience and the devices that are available to them.
Vehicle makers will be responsive to customers as necessary to meet their business goals.
I had no problem listening to Sirius/XM and other online stuff throughout the drive. Cellular service uninterrupted. Unlike my 1994 drive, when cellular ended about 20 miles outside Thunder Bay city limits.
 
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