Am Radio

I enjoy my Smart Car, reminds me of a motorcycle with a roof. However my radio on AM stinks.
Sometimes it works well and other times all static. Same drive same weather etc. but sometimes it works and other times nothing.
I need AM in the morning for traffic and weather etc.
thanks,
bill

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by 451 Kahn on October 12, 2008 at 2:13am: Are you using factory antenna?
I would take the car to dealer and have them look at it. You should get good AM signal.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bill on October 12, 2008 at 9:37am: Everything on the vehicle is factory. I do plan to take the vehicle back to the dealer but first I wanted to know if I was the only one getting a bad AM signal.
thanks for the response; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mr bad example on October 12, 2008 at 10:57am: i originally installed a pioneer unit in my pure, AM was crappy, FM was fine, i got the "radio 10" a couple months ago, AM is perfect. not sure about "radio 9". i doubt the dealer has a "radio tech", all they can do is disconnect and reconnect the antenna.

the funny thing is on most AM radios, the antenna is a small ferrite bar inside the radio, on home stereos, it's a small ferrite bar you place somewhere, in cars, they make the AM radio use the same antenna as the FM radio... if you ever saw an AM antenna in a pocket radio, it's usually a small, square bar, about 2 inches long, yet for decades, we have had 3 foot long stainless steel rods for car radios...

on weekdays, i listen to AM radio, weekends, FM or CDs, i know where you're coming from bill. 30 years ago, i'd toss AM out the window, now i listen to talk all day.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bill on October 12, 2008 at 8:55pm: Thanks for the info on the 10 radio. I agree that the dealer wont have a clue. Probably try to sell me a better radio. I live in a big city and my AM's in my other cars are flawless within 90 miles of NY. The smart car AM radio sucks.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dusty on October 12, 2008 at 11:12pm: I'm not sure which smart you own, but my passion radio pulls in AM from San Francisco and San Jose,(about 75 miles) and I drive in the hills and listen to talk radio for the traffic and weather. I had to tune one station that sounded off frequency a little bit. The tuning procedure was in my owners manual. No big deal and it has sounded great ever since.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 451 Kahn on October 13, 2008 at 12:33am: Good information Dusty.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bill on October 13, 2008 at 7:15pm: I have the Smart passion with the 9 radio. As I stated I get static on AM. Sometimes it works fine and the next day with no change in location or weather I get nothing but static.
I looked in my manual and there was no mention of how to tune the radio. Where might it be or do you have an after market manual?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by FIATman on October 13, 2008 at 7:46pm: Alright, I'll bite what the heck is "radio 10"? My smart isn't here yet but I drive a 2001 Focus now with a crap factory AM-FM radio that I am going to keep as a winter car. I could use it now and maybe when I finally get my smart. Any help appreciated.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by alan_tois on October 13, 2008 at 10:19pm: Radio 9 is the AM/FM single CD, Radio 10 is the AM/FM 6 disc CD.

I turned on the AM (Radio 9) the other night for a construction update (1610), and noticed how bad the signal was. I could barely hear it over all the static. I checked the other channels, and they were also bad. I'll be getting a new radio soon, since mine has something wrong with it anyway (see radio on - off - on), so we'll see if that gets fixed too.; ▶ Reply to This