Whats a good car radio for reception

Pioneer

I was talking to a radio tech a few years ago, who had many years working on the flying doctors radio's... he thought that Kenwood had the best technical specs.

Good topic Dave.
I would like to go one further & ask which radio has the best AM reception, as a lot of the country area stations are AM only.

You will find it hard to find any car radio with good AM reception, as all car radios are designed in Japan, and now probably use the same IC.
I was Sanyo ICE manager in the late 80s and even then the factory would not make any changes for Australia.
The problem is that if you improve the sensitivity you have to improve the selectivity. In Japan and Europe and elsewhere you would have crosstalk from "distant" stations interfering with the local station, like you have even in OZ at night. This is expensive so no manufacturer will do it.

The best FM receiver I believe is the Pioneer "Super Tuner". If you mate it with a helical wound antenna and low loss cable you can get FM for hundreds of Kms sometimes.
I have an OEM Eurovox in my 92 Range Rover( Eurovox used to make a special AM tuner for OZ in the late 80's but I think no one bought it. C'est la vie.)
I can remember getting Townsville from Mackay clearly, but that's over water.

Mobile 1 ?? (not sure ) make the low loss FM antenna, but it is non retractable so , I have mine on a swivel mount and lay it down to the gutter when in the city. Its only about 80CM long but hits my garage roof.
Regards Philip A

Important issue Dave. Back in the 60's I had an eleven transistor Astor Diamond Dot Range master radion in my MG that held Victorian stations all the way to Queensland without any probs and vice versa. I can still remember holding 4WK Warwick all the way to Ballarat.

I've just returned from the NT in my LC100 and the OEM radio was not worth a crumpet - AM or FM! The six disc MP3 was great but after a while a bit of news and conversation helps break the monotony on those 1000k plus days. The previous post on Eurovox might have something to it. I'm of the view that this was originally an Australian company owned by one of the Directors (or former) of the Hawthorne football club and they may have specked their gear for OZ conditions. Myself - I've thought about looking through some of the junk stores to see if I can find one of my beloved Range Masters to add in for long remote trips. Mind u the sound quality was crap compared to modern gear but my hearing is so bad it does not matter that much.

G'day Dave,
I have an original Eurovox AM/FM Radio Cassette in my '93 Rodeo. I have no trouble picking up AM ABC where ever I travel, and that includes Perth to Coffs Harbour last year and back via Bourke and the Darling River run. I regularly travel to South Aust. and back visiting family and always manage to pick up the ABC.
If you go to a ABC Shop you can pick up a small fold out list of all ABC stations (AM & FM) throughout Australia, cost about a $1.00. If you want stations other than ABC most town have a sign up on the outskirts giving a list of local radio station frequencies, at least they do in WA.
I have had pressure put on me to upgrade to a CD player, but will not get rid of my trusty Eurovox, besides I have learnt to like the ABC, regular news, interesting talkback and more and more, my type of music (must be getting old).
Regards
Peter (1)

Thanks to all of you who have replied.
Just did a search for Eurovox for interest and the company is up for sale. Seems that they are an Aussie company.
I was hoping to maybe find a radio with good reception particularly on AM, with a plug for an MP3 too.
FM reception doesn't bother me much, if I want to listen to music, I play the music I like, when I like with the CD or MP3.
Dave

The best reception I get whilst outback is on the Codan HF. This tunes right down into the bands you need for listening to 'AM Radio' and whilst it will only Rx on sideband, it certainly picks distant stations up well...probably not what you wanted to hear....Hmmm another benefit of HF over sat. phone.....oooppps will start a bigger than Ben Hur thread now!!!

Cheers ;-)

Mark

Try looking at the reciever sensitivity specs. All brands have different specs as well as all models. Simply just get the one that has the specs that meet your needs. Also look at antenna placement and length. Some people just pull their antenna up and leave in one postion, if you workout what frequency you are wanting to listen too work out the wave length which matches the frequency, all be it for AM extremly long you can work out a harmonic to match.

I have just walked inside after fitting a JVC in my Caravan, A right pucker job too with an auto aerial and cd/dvd player in it. I noticed though that when I was scanning through the stations I could pick up Sydney AM stations in Canberra so I can't complain about reception....$299 at JB hi fi...
Remember "sound lounges"? audiophiles used to congregate in them in the days when owning decent stereo gear was very expensive...

RobEG took the words right out of my mouth. Was about to post a plug for the older diamond dot Astor (Aussie Made I think) & maybe some others suchas Ferris & AWA. No choice other than to sieve out amongst thosae others mentioned above it seems.