Is Japan witnessing the death of AM radio? Since February, some commercial radio broadcasters have begun a trial suspension of AM radio, with a real possibility the pause will extend to a permanent discontinuation across the country as broadcasters look to cut costs. Thirteen of the 47 commercial operators in…
I think I understand better where you’re coming from. I have a variety of homemade low frequency antennas, typically on the order of 20 meter wavelength, and I observe lower frequencies clearly get better reception inside buildings. Transmission tends to be more variable because I have an increasingly large near field zone that’s effectively impossible to clear. Indeed, my real world experience has always been the opposite. Lower frequencies appear to get through better, provided you can actually talk out. I usually prefer to modulate the H field because it’s orthogonal to household noise sources and after some distance away doesn’t couple to metal.
I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps buildings are different enough from Faraday cages? Lower frequencies diffract and bend around objects much much more effectively than high frequencies.
I have some RF design engineer friends and I’ll ask them why my experience is different.
If you find your having better reception indoors then outdoors then the signal your looking for is being attenuated less then the noise/interference is being attenuated by the structure your housing your antenna in.
Low power noise is less likely to bounce around and come in the building from a different angle, but AM is famous for its ability to propagate.
Consider driving a car into a parking structure with the radio on, listening to AM radio. You can hear the signal getting weaker, not stronger. Until you get to the roof. If you go into the basement, you only hear local noise
I think I understand better where you’re coming from. I have a variety of homemade low frequency antennas, typically on the order of 20 meter wavelength, and I observe lower frequencies clearly get better reception inside buildings. Transmission tends to be more variable because I have an increasingly large near field zone that’s effectively impossible to clear. Indeed, my real world experience has always been the opposite. Lower frequencies appear to get through better, provided you can actually talk out. I usually prefer to modulate the H field because it’s orthogonal to household noise sources and after some distance away doesn’t couple to metal.
I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps buildings are different enough from Faraday cages? Lower frequencies diffract and bend around objects much much more effectively than high frequencies.
I have some RF design engineer friends and I’ll ask them why my experience is different.
If you find your having better reception indoors then outdoors then the signal your looking for is being attenuated less then the noise/interference is being attenuated by the structure your housing your antenna in.
Low power noise is less likely to bounce around and come in the building from a different angle, but AM is famous for its ability to propagate.
Consider driving a car into a parking structure with the radio on, listening to AM radio. You can hear the signal getting weaker, not stronger. Until you get to the roof. If you go into the basement, you only hear local noise