AM STEREO KYET Cactus Country 1170 1964 GE P925 Vintage Transistor Radio

[@RadioAnnouncer]

Our host asked me to post here after I replied below to a comment. I appreciate the chance. Apologies for the wordiness, but it's necessary to address a few points. AM stereo seems to be making a slow comeback with owners of mainly smaller ownership and small market stations. Many newer AM transmitters, specifically Nautel are building the capability in, which needs to be turned "on" but is "in there" B-E (Broadcast Electronics) transmitters still have the option of a stereo exciter card in their AM transmitters. Unlike IBOC which required royalties to Ibiquity (and benefited Iheart, formerly Clear Channel, an investor in them) there are no extra royalties or licenses in the using or reinstituting of AM stereo, it has always been a "hardware based" decision. My station, WION of which Paul Gardner spoke below turned C-Quam on about a decade ago for the fun of it. When we did, we also knew we'd be streaming, and we wanted to play to the world ACTUAL AM stereo and showcase AM's potential fidelity so we sourced (still do today) the stream from an AM stereo tuner in my office. Naysayers tell me it's not because they "see data" on songs. It's the streaming software we use that marries the studio DATA ONLY and an audio ID'ing company for any songs without data with the music when playing the stream. There's another rumor debunked, you CAN stream from a real receiver. Broadcasting in stereo is not difficult. Many stations have it already in their racks, unused. (refurbishing before use recommended, much like Shango does here to older equipment....caps and connections being the biggest issues.) We began with older CRL gear, popular in the 80's to 90's and readily available from EBay and other secondary sellers of broadcast gear. Since then, we've graduated to using Orban's "Optimod" line of processors, specifically the 9100 stereo model, but the "guts" have been modified by our engineer to give us our own signature sound. He's changed some boards inside on a component level to outperform what can be "adjusted" today on a digital box. Out of the box refurbished by the manufacturer, these Optimods are not bad, but can be improved-upon. Orban still makes a new model which will process AM stereo, but the ability to modify the sound in a software-based box is much less than with a hardware based older model where components dictate the range controlled by end-user controls. For the record, Orban still makes processors today for both AM and FM, but...for we small market operators, refurbishing is a much lower cost than 10-20 THOUSAND dollars for a new model. You have to sell plenty of commercials to pay for that kind of "new" processor. Regarding one of the rumors in a reply below, AM stereo does NOT shorten the range of the station, nor does it cause any modulation loss if set up properly. AM in mono OR stereo is allowed in the US up to 125 percent positive and "almost" 100 percent negative modulation before causing distortion and clipping. Careful and proper use of settings can deliver what we have, which is around 116 percent positive and 95-ish percent negative while delivering great sound and range. In our case, on 4.7kw, when you're not near the usual AM interference-causers, reaches quite nicely out about 40-50 miles listenable on the road, and actually not badly into the two large cities, one each to our East and West, (Lansing and Grand Rapids, MI.) Back in the 1950's when WION went on the air, there were less noisemakers in the world, and the original 5 HUNDRED watts went this far but that's another story for another time. The "untruth" of AM stereo causing a loss of either modulation or range was started by those favoring the (defunct) KAHN system and, later by those who touted IBOC, in an attempt to discredit the use of C-Quam. It is simply that, an UNtruth. Since most modern control boards are stereo for radio stations, all that is required is a station that WANTS to sound great in AM stereo is to have the proper stereo audio wiring, a C-quam processor and C-quam exciter (small wattage transmitter that drives the amplifiers in what we CALL the "transmitter" ) and to set it up properly and maintain it with regular maintenance as ANY station should. It's not that difficult. If an unrated market can do it, ANY station can do it. To address the question of "why bother" as mentioned below, I would reply that if you care about your station, you should maintain a clean audio chain all the way from microphone and control board to transmitter. Doing this for a STEREO AM broadcast system is even more important, and only helps improve the MONO sound received on many more radios! The end result is a great sound on any kind of radio, anywhere. Sadly, most AM stations throw a processor in the rack, hit "talk" which then limits the bandwidth being broadcast to way under the allowed 10khz, and you end up with a muddy, muffled, lifeless sound, and often...lower modulation which in AM broadcasting = lower range of listenership. If you want to hear AM stereo the way it is broadcast, our feed is on our (now old, someday we'll find time to update) website at www.i1430.com. I don't know of any online SDR's near our area on which you could listen, they are usually in larger markets so you'll want to listen directly from our site or a stereo device. I highly recommend using headphones, or...a STEREO online device from Amazon or Google to enjoy it. Even a ROKU box with "Tune in" through your home theatre will sound great keeping in mind Tune-in plays with the bitrate, and thus it may not be as clean as directly from us. If you doubt our broadcasting from a tuner, as Paul mentioned in a comment, listen in the morning and at night for pattern changes. You'll hear the station mute as it changes from single tower day to 3-tower night directional and back. And finally, the bottom line to "why bother" is....we WANTED to do it this way. YES, there are few radios which decode AM stereo on the road anymore....YES, it's not heard by as many in stereo...but it DOES sound great and it makes us proud of our station. If you can find a Radio shack TM-152 tuner, or a Carver TX-11a, or B, or a Denon Tu-680 tuner, each of them is AM stereo and does fairly well, each with their own unique quirks. the TM-152 drifts until it warms up. The Carvers can have "holes" in the sound at certain frequencies as they age, the Denons have become my favorite for monitoring in our studios. Each of these is available secondary market if you search online and have a local STEREO AM station. Radios by "Directed" either the add-on HD apater for your car, or their home "cube" AM/FM/HD radio will decode AM stereo, but being digital, there is a delay from the "real" signal, and again, it's not as wide as an actual AM STEREO receiver, but in a pinch, they work. I don't know if the Meduci site on the web is still selling his radios or not, we had one a few years back, but it suffered a "whistle" both on and offsite, and he graciously took it back and I believe the owner has developed a newer model since which we have not tried. Otherwise, for a dose of AM stereo of which we're proud, enjoy WION's music (60's-2000's) with minimal news in the "full service" style of the 1970's, all locally programmed with no satellite delivered pre-formatted day. ALL of us in radio use automation now to keep our stations alive, but properly used, it CREATES jobs, especially in small markets and does not destroy them, so don't vilify a station on which there is some automation. We do a live midday show 9-noon Eastern Time, and have special drop ins and local voices 24/7. It's our own format. If you're more into "country" format, ANOTHER 1430, and good friend to WION, station WRDN owned and operated by Brian Winnikens is also streaming C-Quam, I don't know at what bit-rate or who carries it so I cannot vouch for the end quality vs. what is put IN to the broadcasts, but he's another GREAT owner in a small market that cares about sound and is online. At some point, maybe we can provide our host here with a video of our processing of AM form our transmitter room if he wishes to use it, but it'll be awhile...running ANY small business these days takes more than it ever has in time and commitment. Thanks so much, Shango066 for asking me to comment. You are appreciated for your videos, and your support of REAL radio.

[@Veso266]

Thats great, I hope more AM stations play music and use Stereo in the future, I wish we had more AM stations in Europe that use AM stereo (there are like 2 IIRC (Studio X and one more station, both are in Italy and sadly I cannot recieve them in stereo since they are like 100W and their signal is so bad at my location) What streaming software are you using? And can you just feed AM stereo signal from your exiter direcly to every AM transmitter? On FM, some transmitters will not allow to feed MPX signal direcly to them since they have some high pass filter that cuts stuff after pilot tone (even if you set them to mono), not sure if AM transmitters also have that

[@joeblow8593]

Excellent post. Thanks

[@tarstarkusz]

Let's hope AM survives, especially with stereo.

[@Rev22-21]

I recall the mid 80's and Chevrolet model cars that came with stereo AM radios and of course our local station that was both AM & FM with the call sign W A C O. To be honest I thought AM stereo was nice but with everything moving to "talk & news" it seemed like it was a little too late to the party. But too...was sorry to see it go. I can't and don't fault station's going towards "automated" (or piped in) broadcasting; but maybe a suggestion if possible. To help offset operating cost could non and for profit companies/ groups be petitioned to co-sponsor hours at a time of listener requested music (i.e. Friday & or Saturday nights) and that "special co- sponsorship" be rewarded with ad perks, guest DJ's etc....? Who knows.....if it caught on ...it might ...just might spark a return to AM and a cult listening. (A chance to take the airwaves back where they belong...just saying.) Thanks

[@tarstarkusz]

@@Rev22-21 I think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say profits are going ot fall and so they must cut costs and one of the first things they do is cut the quality of the programming. Having someone on the air, live and playing requests and doing this consistently has an audience. This is just such a common thing in the corporate world. They always want to cut costs in some way no matter how negative it is. It's like a snack company invents a new snack, everyone likes it and it sell well and what's the VERY FIRST THING they want to do? Cut costs and increase profits. So they cheapen the ingredients or cut the size of it etc. I don't know the specifics of how the radio stations shot themselves in the foot, but I am SURE it is themselves holding the gun.

[@Allie-ck2lj]

Excuse me gentlemen, I would like to get a word in. My husband, Tom, is a subscriber and watches this channel almost every day. I listen from another room day after day. I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience is such a matter-of-fact and (down to earth) manner. I enjoy listening and I cheer you on when you speak your mind. Thanks.

[@garp32]

If only all engineers cared about their AM sound. I just spent yesterday with a very talented engineer who' worked on and helped develop AM stereo in its early days. He works on several AM stereo stations in the US. Luckily, I'm privy to his "sandbox" here in my hometown where he does a lot of his testing. You can hear his work via the web. WION Ionia Michigan streams AM stereo to the web via their page and tune in along with a few other streaming services. If you haven't, please check it out and see just how good AM stereo can sound. You'll even hear the phaser for his tower array kick in at dusk and dawn when his power output and pattern changes for day/night.

[@vancouverman4313]

I would imagine what you hear on the web is not the actual AM broadcast as received, but an audio steam that originates in the station audio console.

[@RadioAnnouncer]

@@vancouverman4313 The station to which Paul refers streams from a real stereo tuner in the owner's office. Shango asked me to expand on comments so we have.

[@tonyapples1687]

Most engineers don't care how fm even sound and program directors have a part of how stations like here in nc there's a country station on fm that is cranked wide open then there's a rock station it sounds great the computer control equipment ruin radio audio quality

[@tonyapples1687]

@Free in Jesus 93.1 in Greensboro qnd 98.7 both are bad hd does help some on these stations 105.7 from Greensboro sounds good I even emailed the programmer and told him it sounded good told the engineer the same hd audio for good either 95.1 or 107.9 in Charlotte

[@RadioAnnouncer]

@Free in Jesus Stations can use variable bitrate mp3 for streaming, however..it's usually the THIRD PARTY carriers like Tune-In Radio or other aggregates that mess with a station's bitrate as presented DIRECTLY to the public. WION used to run a couple of different bitrate streams to accomodate those with phones on limited plans, yet Tune-In Radio would always try to send out the lowest rate, or pick one which was lower than our best, themselves. We now run ONE stream, and most of the time, the aggregates leave us alone, but....they pay for their own bandwidth through ads or subscriptions so they want to keep the server costs down. We don't agree with this happening as they're messing with our QUALITY but...there is little we can do except try to direct people to our own stream, not the ones the "biggies' pick up. Only way around this for many stations streaming is their own "skill" for devices and separate app from the stream presented on the station's site.

[@Synthematix]

SW is designed for extra long distance and should never be ignored with radio, its probably the most important band, great video shango.

[@frankowalker4662]

Also SW works better at night. I used to listen to it in bed a lot in the 80's.

[@gavincurtis]

No. You must only want line of sight 5Ghz digital.

[@vcv6560]

This radio was my introduction to shortwave listening at 11 years old. I had traded a kid at school 4 weeks of my allowance it had been one of his older brothers maybe he's been in the service. In any case I've been an electronic engineer now almost 40 years, found one of these in 2015 it took a while looking at pictures 1960s shortwave radios to get the model number all I had was by memory of it.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

@@frankowalker4662 12.160 MHz 12-4 pm Eastern Time and 4.840 MHz 10 PM to 2 AM Eastern. WWCR2, Genesis Communications and Infowars Alex Jones.

[@MattExzy]

I don't know what it is exactly, but shortwave reception in even small urban areas is a total crapshoot. The bands are just a total wall of noise... seems to be related to modern day internet stuff. VDSL etc. I've found I need to travel half an hour out of town to a local camping area just to get a clear signal. YMMV though.

[@TonyButchT]

The station power reduction was distinctly heard, not a fade. Thank's for sharing this Shango!

[@treelineresearch3387]

I resurrected an absolutely wrecked old Hallicrafters AA5 set a few years ago, first tune that came thru was "The Lights of Albuquerque" by Jim Glaser coming from Albuquerque a few hundred miles away. Old country music was meant for AM.

[@tectalabyss]

Hi Shango0. Always a treat to see a video from you on a Sunday. Thank you. All my very best.

[@SpeakerFreak95]

AM stereo is still alive and well in many places. We keep one on the air in thomasville Georgia, yes in full stereo C Quam.

[@thatmiddle-agedex-mormongu2590]

Thanks Shango066, I'm in Australia and you git me streaming KYET. Great music

[@cvbabc]

The opening was so nice because you could hear how quiet it was, even with the radio on. I LOVE it when it's so quiet, you can feel it.

[@F40PH-2CAT]

AM stereo....i remember a couple of stations in NYC, back in the 1980s.

[@elektroqtus]

Was one of those a classical station??? Yes yes??? Ir it was, I heard it!!

[@gsnfan]

Philadelphia had AM stereo on WFIL 560, WPEN 950. KYW 1060 and WPWA 1590. KYW had news while the other three had music. They couldn't compete with the more listened to FM stations. In fact, FIL and PEN are now religious, and PWA is Spanish.

[@uxwbill]

Actual classic country music is my favorite format. It's the stuff I grew up on. For several years, there was an AM station here that gave it a shot and in stereo no less. When they changed format to oldies, stereo went out the window. I wrote their station engineer to ask why and actually received a response. He said that C4C had decimated the available AM stereo receivers and that being in mono allowed their FM translator to reach further out. I wrote back to say that at least some HD radio tuners (usually those with the TI DSP) can decode analog AM stereo, and never heard anything further out of it. At least the station is still broadcasting oldies and has a decent selection of them in rotation.

[@Earcandy73]

My goodness, I love all these songs!

[@BG101UK]

6:38 "DuraCrap Leak-o-Matics" .. love it. I've been calling them Duraleaks for years but this is so much better. ☺ BTW shame we never had AM stereo this side of the pond. The 9KHz channel spacing we use isn't enough to accommodate it. Maybe if we had, we might still have some stuff on AM worth listening to instead of having to put up with the very patchy FM coverage.

[@BillyLapTop]

Ahh, AM stereo. I remember back in the 80's when it was becoming a thing. I would put 2 Zenith sailboat radios side by side and off tune them upper and lower of center frequency to listen to WQXR-AM as they transmitted the upper lower sideband stereo. Kind of critical tuning that. I bought the Sony AM portable CQUAM radio and tried to listen to AM signals on it but conditions had to be very good to excellent to get the stereo effect. I even modified several Pioneer receivers to receive AM stereo via a CQUAM module and had some success with that. What killed AM stereo was the FCC's position of letting the marketplace decide which format would become the standard instead of deciding on one format. It was a cluster you know what. In the end it was a lot of to do about nothing. Then the HD thing hit the band and what a mess that was. Lesson learned was if the AM band isn't broke, then don't fix it.

[@fiercefeline5096]

The first AM station I heard in stereo I think was WBAL in early 1970s playing hippie music from Baltimore. I remember the dj explaining how to listen by detuning a couple of radios to lower-upper sides. I didn't hear of it again until the 1980s.

[@appliedengineering4001]

What you described there was an AM stereo encoding format called "Double Sideband Differential Modulation." or DSDM for short. What was cool about DSDM is that it allow a AM stereo broadcast to fit in the same bandwidth as a normal mono AM broadcast. It was quite simple and ingenious how it worked. If you know how an AM signal works. You have a carrier in the center and you have the 2 sidebands, both a upper and lower sideband. Under normal mono AM operation. both sidebands are an exact mirror copy of each other. What DSDM did was take the stereo differential (L-R) component and would amplitude modulate the sidebands in a teeter toddler like fashion. when one sideband went up in amplitude, the other one went down. like a complementary inversion. As far as I know. DSDM was a homebrew hack and was not any kind of an official standard. I think that there might have been other issues with it as well, like sound quality. What ever it may have been. Still, the fact that you can get the stereo by just using 2 normal radio was pretty dang cool.

[@fiercefeline5096]

@@appliedengineering4001 No it wasn't a standard it was like a test for FCC. There was quite a bit of this at the time. Several quad systems also had test runs (on FM).

[@Boozion]

I remember am stereo. It sounded really good back then. Really warm sound on a good car radio. My dad had an Oldsmobile that had a am stereo radio in it. I would listen to some stations in LA. I just can't remember what stations back then that broadcasting in am stereo. Well that is what happens when you get old and forget. BTW I just got a am radio by GE from 1958. Model P780-A You did a really cool video on one that you repaired. They sound great with a 5 inch speaker. Good thing I have a am transmitter to hear classic oldies on it. That radio you have there is awesome. Love it. Thanks for sharing. And always take care. :-)

[@Suddenlyits1960]

I have one of those ge radios as well. It’s probably the best sounding ge portable radio of that era. I like the dial light feature too. It’s very heavy and well made.

[@brigganthewolf1461]

I have a P780B but it has a rattling speaker. Unfortunate because it's a Carbonneau make, with the superior low-end response that I crave. Replacing it with a different speaker would make it suffer either in efficiency, or low-end response.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

@@brigganthewolf1461 If it's just misaligned sometimes a carefully placed cotton ball can help. Usually between the cone and frame.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

I've got a couple Silvertones that are as good tone-wise. The P780 is great.

[@brigganthewolf1461]

@@johnnytacokleinschmidt515 I don't know. It just occurred all of a sudden while I was using it, and I didn't even have it that loud (really needs a recap).

[@vwestlife]

According to this list, there are 44 stations currently broadcasting in AM Stereo in the USA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AM_Stereo_radio_stations_in_the_United_States And there are more in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe, as well as some unlicensed low-power Part 15 AM Stereo transmitters, including my own. The FCC does assign sunrise and sunset times in 15 minute increments. If you look up an AM station on the FCC's web site, there's a link to see a list of that station's assigned sunrise and sunset times for each month.

[@shango066]

Check out the pinned comment, yeah I was off a little bit with that one

[@01chippe]

Hi. Do you get the Camden station in stereo?

[@sw6188]

A number of stations in Australia have either converted to AM stereo in the recent past or are in the process of doing so.

[@tedcowart3647]

I bought 4 of those a few years ago still sealed in their original moisture proof packing. I opened 3. One works really well and the other two have very low volume. Maybe this will get me motivated to fix the two broken ones. Great video! Thanks!

[@shango066]

I would probably buy one if you wanted to part with one. This one's a little abused

[@tedcowart3647]

@@shango066 how about I trade you the one I have still sealed up in it's packing for repairing one of my other ones?

[@shango066]

@@tedcowart3647 sure. Or I'll fix both of the non-working low-volume ones for you

[@shango066]

@@tedcowart3647 my email is on the Channel about tab

[@charlesstauffer9831]

Your shows are always interesting. Beautiful country out there and the radio is very cool. I collect old Civil Defence stuff like this.

[@Suddenlyits1960]

That desert scene at sunset is beautiful. Thanks for sharing these videos with us. They are always enjoyable,entertaining and informative. I remember AM Stereo too. The first car I ever saw that received AM stereo was in the 1980’s,I can’t remeber what car it was in though. I thought it sounded good and was a pretty neat idea since there were many more AM stations at that time devoted to playing music,unlike these days when the AM dial seems to dominated by 24hr propaganda/talk/Spanish stations where stereo wouldn’t really matter. For some reason it never really seemed to take off. I guess the thinking was that FM was the band for music,since it claimed to have the best fidelity,and Am wasn’t. I’d like to see it make a comeback and for more music stations like the one you opened with here to return to the AM dial. I just use a redirad device to play music on my vintage cars radios since for the most part nothing worth listening to is being broadcast anymore. That little GE radio is pretty cool and seems to perform decently given its not a high end set. . Thanks for the tip on the fallout shelter videos in your exploration channel. I’m going to have to watch them!

[@WPM_in_ATL]

You are correct; they do go to 1 WATT at night. They are considered a "Class D" station. A daytime license with "flea power" at night. The primary stations on this frequency are: KJNP (North Pole, AK), KOTV (Tulsa, OL) and WWVA (Wheeling, WV). Much as we love AM, I am sure the FM "translator" is what keeps this AM station on the air.

[@danielt.8573]

I like that you went for a field test of sorts with the radio.

[@barryfleischer6553]

That's one cool radio! I happen to like GE radios very much. Thanks for another great video.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

I'm a GE junky myself. My very first radio was given to my by my grandpa. It was a GE. It ate batteries and grandpa was sure I was leaving it on. It had birdies, but I turned around and through them. I was 4 or 5. He bought me a new radio I picked out. A Realistic 12-666 I still remember the devil-ish number. Now I have an electronics hobby since my early teen years and a propensity to grab GE and Realistic vintage electronic items. I live a few hours from Electronics Parkway and traveled through Utica on my way to college. Bridgeport is my birthplace and less than an hour from home. All GE locations back in the old days.

[@PracticallyFixed]

Ok, I finally had to comment. The first 4:42 was great listening in head phones; like Pink Floyd's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". Really enjoyed the stereo panning! Well done Shango!

[@Centar1964]

I bought a new car in 1986 and was setting the stations on the radio and when one of the AM stations made the stereo light come on I thought the radio was defective until I noticed the stereo image. Never knew of AM stereo until then, what a surprise.

[@sirmojo4537]

I remember when 580 WDBO in Orlando was the first AM stereo station in 1985 when they still had an M.O.R. format but shortly thereafter, they phased into a talk format. The second AM station to broadcast in AM stereo was 990 WMMA which was an oldies format in 1987. My 1991 Dodge Monaco had a factory AM stereo and all it offered was enhanced AM static😆.

[@brentschmitt3338]

My brother turned me on to WPGS I listen on my phone in Wisconsin

[@johnyetman3179]

I never knew am had stereo ! Also had no idea am stations dropped power at night. I learn alot from these videos!

[@vcv6560]

It was just coming up while I was in college 80-84, initially 4 standards as I remember it would have gone father had the FCC stepped in more aggressively and set a single standard.

[@1L6E6VHF]

Most AM stations (those that are not strictly daytimers) use separate patterns for daytime and nighttime. This is why you may be listening around sunset and the song you had been listening to without warning.

[@christophercullin9309]

Good afternoon from north wales United kingdom love all your videos related to vintage shortwave receivers

[@pcno2832]

14:02 Were totem-pole output stages like that used because NPNs were still more expensive in 1964? I wonder if they used negative feedback to smooth out the push-pull transitions.

[@roadster45]

Love the videos. The fine tuning knob next to the volume is used for fine tuning of SW stations.

[@MyDailyUpload]

I had a Realistic TM-152 AM Stereo component receiver. It was like $10 on clearance because there were no compatible stations in my area. Sold it for a few bucks on Ebay a bunch of years back. I'd wouldn't mind having it again for kicks, but I really don't miss it.

[@elektroqtus]

My late friend got one of these for one station that played our kind of rock. Classic rock 1070. You really should have kept that radio my friend. It's actually all too easy to hook up a shortwave front end conversation receiver through the 450Khz if to pick up XFM shortwave stereo directly. And be set for my future test of am stereo in shortwave bands.

[@nickb.8876]

What a neat radio. Like you said, surprising for GE. But when your life depends on it, you get something good.

[@conanthemodeler858]

Desert radio. It’s definitely a thing. My favorite Shango066 videos involve these two things. The one where he and another guy fixed up a cabin and Obamna was giving a speech and I think they were drinking Jäegermeister.

[@HiSmartAlarms]

Sounds like that is a network controlled station. I recognize that announcers voice from one of our local stations (WAMN, I am an engineer for them). Sounds like Westwood One, we play the same format. KYET sounds like a very nice little station! I'd love to get a tour of it. Too bad I am on the opposite side of the country. Anyways, awesome content shango, keep it up!

[@donbest5024]

Just downloaded cactus country 1170on my phone,now my go to country channel.

[@johnmadow5331]

Back when I was a student in technical college in Philadelphia, we brought a large quantity of components such as Condenser or Capacitor, resistor, transistor switch from major American Company such as Malloy and Fairchild some are donated by the DoD left over, We still had a Tube in stock and build a lots of projects using these American components. We don't have CCP. import components back then.

[@focusfrenzy9759]

their am tower sits between Kingman and Golden Valley, they also transmit 250 watts on FM K222CZ 92.3MHz from a tower on a mountain to the south east of Kingman

[@huwkelvinmorgan3575]

One watt and you could still hear the station i remember in my radio amateur days before the internet i could build an antenna that had a very high E.R.P even on the lower bands right down to top band i could put my lobe's in any direction i built it for i remember sometime in the mid 90's i had a full size horizontal quad for 40m (cloud warmer) i was on about 5 watts and getting back 5 by 9 60+ over reports all over the U.K and Norway.

[@MrKillswitch88]

Reminds me of an radio I had as an kid that I sadly lost back in the late 90s.

[@davepike6170]

Nice GE, first time I have ever seen or heard of that model before.

[@coptertim]

I remember an AM stereo station in Los Angeles during the early 60s. I think it was KFAC and they ran classical music. My folks would put two AM radios across the room, offset the dials over and under the channel and there it was, stereo. It sounded terrible but it was stereo. Happy days...

[@elektroqtus]

You could kinda get stereo effects by doing that on non Kahn systems and get some good hollow effects. But with Kahn, the radio tuned down was left and the one tuned up was right. I'm starting to see where engineers are taking about CQUAM being so phase and timing sensitive. I used the Sony all systems radio. So yes, I've heard them all, even the great WOWO in Magnavox. We had 2 Kahn, 2 Harris and 3 or 4 Motorola in Houston alone.

[@jamesstarr1971]

I think AM stereo is making a comeback. We have a station here in Longview Texas KFRO 1370 broadcast in stereo. C-Quam. It's an oldies station.

[@RadioAnnouncer]

Agreed on the comeback. All things have cycles. Have you contacted the station to congratulate or thank them? They'd love it!

[@ladamurni]

I never heard of AM stereo, overhere you could only get stereo over FM. Interesting to know, thank you Shango!

[@vcv6560]

What this radio does is use a second stage of IF ( on the first daughter board ) rather than a tuned RF stage to make the sensitivity necessary to make it a decent shortwave radio. A three gang capacitor especially one with metal plates likely wouldn't have fit the case, or price point. As a brief aside since you mention the Transoceanic models Zenith in the 1953 year (H500) also made a portable AM / shortwave that had no RF and only one IF stage. This L406 I can't imagine was good for much of anything and yet at the same time they made an M505 that had a tuned RF stage but was AM only. Go figure whoever made those decisions! For shortwave this P925 is actually very good, @15:42 you were picking up WWV, which is an easy get. My first DX was Herversum Holland around 7 MHz. I was so excited (11 yrs old) I didn't know where it was but I knew Europe was across the Atlantic Ocean thousands of miles away. I had a longwire (~50ft) from my bedroom window out to the avocado tree in our backyard in Los Angeles. Shortwave of the 70s in that frequency range was very busy with content. The fine-tuning control ( which causes the local oscillator to slip a bit ) was an effective low-cost approach to band-spread vs another variable capacitor

[@CoreyDeWalt]

Very cool video. Love the scenery and music.

[@pcno2832]

I wonder how much of an EMP pulse that GE could take compared to an "AA4" battery-operated tube model from a few years earlier. I suspect that those with the tube model would have a better chance of it working through to the end of WWIII, for whatever that would be worth.

[@MattExzy]

Given the amount of ICs in the stuff it takes nowadays to run a radio station, the tube radio itself might survive, but there'd probably be no stations.

[@AERVBlog]

I bought and built a little C Quam AM Stereo transmitter so I could fix AM stereo radios. It works good but it was kind of expensive.

[@timothystockman7533]

If it is still the same as it was, the times for day / night switch are printed right on the station license. These times were local (time zone of the transmitter site), standard (not daylight). There are different times for each month of the year, and they are at 15 minute points. Usually they are near sunset / sunrise at the transmitter site, but there is at least one case where the power change is done at sunset / sunrise at the protected station. The station may not only drop power, but switch pattern on a directional antenna in order to reduce radiation in the direction(s) of station(s) they are protecting.

[@mrwcp63]

actually found this station like classic country pretty good station I like independent radio stations and with the internet you can listen to whatever you want thanks

[@markaz2kk]

Here in Australia, we had 6 channels in the mid 70’s right upto the 2000’s. Now the only channel that still has both signature stereo channels only transmit in mono. Just in case one carrier goes out, they can run on a mono, until it’s repaired.

[@NJRoadfan]

We have (had?) a local AM Stereo station here, WCTC 1450. I don't know if they are still broadcasting in stereo. I have 4 tuners that can receive C-QUAM AM Stereo, one is even multi-system from before the FCC finalizing the broadcast standard. We have one oldies station on AM here that could really benefit from a stereo upgrade, but I doubt they are interested in doing so any time soon. They likely still have the equipment on the racks too, since they used to broadcast C-QUAM back in the 80s.

[@nozmoking1]

XTRA in Mexico broadcast in stereo I believe way before anyone else using two carriers like 20KHz apart. Of course you needed two receivers but it was certainly a thrill when I was a kid in San Diego.

[@airplaneengine]

Album Rock 540 WXYG is my semi-local station that broadcasts in AM-stereo. There's still over 40 stations in the US broadcasting in AM-stereo, with a number more worldwide.

[@davek12]

We had two Cadillacs and stil have a Corvette in my family with C-Quam AM stereo. Stereo stations tend to have a wide filter, too, and sound as good as FM Stereo anyway.

[@rolandkeith5322]

AM stereo was very short lived here in Aussie land but it was good when it was running though....This is a cool video with a cool radio as I enjoyed it very much and it's got my thumbs man.

[@MrPocketfullOfSteel]

Wow! Dudeeee - the gift that keeps on giving! haaha I'mma trying 2 find the GE P-780 video. Surely you have one in the archives, then I bump into this!!! If you were a girl, I'd kiss you Shango! *lol*

[@williammitchem8274]

Fantastic .....great looking radio. We have a few beach radio stations hear in palm coast fl.

[@Martin-io4wc]

By any chance did you bring the Russian and China SDRs with you on this trip for a sensitivity check?

[@piwex69]

Interesting modules - just like today's Bluetooth or wi-fi boards to solder in via edge vias. I've noticed the russian style top-hat transistor (black) too.

[@RadioTom103]

What beautiful country. So different from where I am in the midwest

[@zulumax1]

In October 1984 I bought a Sansui CX-990 high end car stereo that had AM stereo. Thought it was a stupid gimmick even back then to have AM radio in stereo with its noise and limited audio bandwidth. The marketing and promotion was not there, just like compact cassettes in peoples minds being bad sound, AM radio had a sigma to it that was preceived as non hifi by the general public. Not that it could not be good. (edit, clairified last statement that had a negative context to it)

[@chetpomeroy1399]

I'll bet it's *really nice* out by Needles/Lake Havasu/Blythe this time of year!! Nice-looking and sounding radio -- works like brand new! The FCC requires KYET to reduce its transmitter power at local sunset to protect KCBQ 1170 in San Diego. Those abandoned underground mines re-purposed for use as fallout shelters might very well come in handy if and when Putin starts launching his nukes.

[@Yldcatz]

Charles Schulz lived in Needles for a while growing up. His character Spike was based on that time.

[@nathanlewis5682]

I've been to Mojave during the winters and it's just about perfect. Out in middle of nowhere and the clear blue sky, and the sun is not roasting everything

[@Suddenlyits1960]

@Yldcatz,Yes,I believe Charles Schulz parents moved briefly to Needles in 1929-1930 when he was a little boy and said certain images of desert life always stayed with him. If you’re a fan of Charles Schulz I’d highly recommend checking out the unaired 1963 television documentary “A Boy Named Charlie Brown”,not to be confused with the 1969 feature film of the same name. It shows his Sebastopol home and studio as well as “Sparky” driving his ford wagon taking his children and some of the neighborhood kids to school. Sadly his studio there burned down in the mid sixties (I believe it was 1966?).

[@hpmmqh4477]

I was asked by Google to rate this comment, I gave it flying colours lol. I guess it offends the Б0T$

[@michaelwitas9482]

I could be wrong, but thought I read someplace that this radio model was intended for soldiers in Vietnam.

[@phillanassa759]

Is the "CD" printed on the disc caps denoting Civil Defense use only perhaps. Better build quality and components that I'd expect from that era GE. Diggin' on the the center tap design, and non- transformer driver system? Love the radio, loving the high desert backdrop, or whatever you'd call it., I love your mine videos, radio and TV vids, all the vids and the broadcast stations. You are lucky to still have such a decent broadcast market in your surrounding areas! Thanks for sharing all this god stuff this, Boxie !

[@5roundsrapid263]

I think it stands for Cornell-Dubilier, the brand of capacitor.

[@jefferyb304]

Perhaps you can do a video with a direct recording of what AM Stereo sounds like and post it? At best, I may have experienced what one sounded like in mono. Local station WWNR at least used to broadcast in stereo. I visited their old facilities (a long abandoned building at the time) and took some pictures of their old logo and so forth. I never went in the building. I think some of the not so kosher population were living there.

[@KongKingman]

Shango I picked up a NOS one a few months ago like a time machine 1964. Was made for “G.I. Military morale boosters”

[@josepheccles9341]

I used to re-solder the tinsel wires on the speakers. They fray close to the cone or to the terminal.

[@zulumax1]

I bought a few inches of flex wire for the voice coil on eBay, replaced intermittent flex wires on a few.

[@TheBiggerburger]

Someone's going to point out Chris Carson was on Laser 558, which is a story in itself.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I wish I had a station like that here. I grew up on late ‘70s/early ‘80s country music. SiriusXM is pretty much the only place to hear it now. Now, “country” is basically mumble rap. BTW, this AM signal sounds better than some FM stations!

[@Suddenlyits1960]

I agree completely with your comment about modern country music. Faron Young was really upset about the direction it took. He referred to it once as “tractor rap”. I personally like the 1950’s and 60’s country music best.

[@5roundsrapid263]

@@Suddenlyits1960 The “Nashville Sound” was often overdone and overproduced, but it didn’t have rap or Autotune!

[@brownfranklin]

We had one AM stereo station in Bangor, ME that played top 40 music in the mid-1980's. It was brand new at the time and an electronics store had a walkman that picked up AM Stereo. I wanted to listen to it and sound quality was good but I don't know if I would say it was better than FM. It wasn't until mid-1990's that I could pick up WNEW 1130 in New York and that was AM Stereo. The radio in my parents car had AM Stereo and the quality was pretty decent on this station.

[@vcv6560]

By the way you can repair the speaker with a little fingernail polish and small tears with coffee filter paper it was a trick shown me by a member of a local radio club. Also spray some contact cleaner into those pots and the band switched it'll clear up that scratching.

[@kevtris]

After searching for months, I finally figured out what that "ringy" or metallic noise is in the background of several of the radio stations. It's the Nielsen ratings watermark technology to track station listening numbers. It's called "eCBET". Apparently, radio stations were complaining that they weren't being properly counted, and thus not getting as much advertising as they thought they should, so Nielsen came up with a new encoding for it, and then cranked the gain of it way up so it's audible now. This is why it seems to follow the audio; louder sections need louder watermarking. Music tends to sound fairly terrible since it is louder than talk content. With talk, it just sounds like people are talking in a pipe.

[@shango066]

I don't hear it I need someone to point it out to me

[@Rfk1966]

Thanks for the info. Several stations here in Southern CA seem to do it with national programming. KLAC and the sports stations covering nationally broadcast games sound the worse. Almost like hearing a distant oscillation of a couple of notes - similar to hearing an old dialup modem trying to connect

[@joshjones3227]

@@shango066 Its most noticeable on dry voice. It sounds like the announcer is speaking through a paper towel tube...or broadcasting from a broom closet.

[@RobCampo]

Years ago I had an 'HD radio' in my car. Most AM stations had no static but it sounded like it was streaming at 32kbps or something like that. Not sure if it was in Stereo but it was pretty cool.

[@RadioAnnouncer]

If you received no static (your words) on HD AM, which sometimes "went" to static as you reached outer areas of coverage the stations were using IBOC (in-band on channel) which is HYBRID DIGITAL. When you take all the audio you're supposed to hear on a well processed AM, and sqash it down digitally to HALF the bandwidth AND digital, you end up with exactly what you described. On "all talk" stations, it'll sound muddy. On music it'll sound like a badly encoded mp3. It's why most AM's shut off "Hybrid Digital" over the past few years. The OTHER issue was and remains...that if you have a certain chipset running that HD radio, it may try to decode Cquam AM stereo, but it won't be full bandwidth, and will do a piss-poor job of it. There probably weren't that many HD's in your area. Most likely te AM section of your radio was just very NARROW in bandwidth causing poor sound. HD, however producing bad AM is a definite possibility if you're in an area with many AM's that were owned by (then) Clear Channel/Iheart, as they were investors IN Ibiquity's HD and like other companies, mandated the use of HD at stations with the equipment.

[@RobCampo]

@@RadioAnnouncer That sounds about right.Most the FM stations here in the Boston area advertised HD. There was only a few AM WBZ 1030 is one I remember. A station in Syracuse NY sued them because the HD interfered with their station all the way over there.

[@activelow9297]

1 watt into a gigantic radio tower is a pretty substantial signal.. especially when you consider that radio waves propagate much further out here in the dessert. Something about all the iron oxide in the soil...

[@goldenboy5500]

I remember when WNBC in New York did AM stereo Don Imus said now you'll have twice the static I think it was around 1980 I have yet to see a AM stereo receiver

[@rdg2124]

What a great learning experience all around. Who'd a thunk GE made quality radios in the 60's especially after the crap from the 50's.

[@Radiowild]

There was someone who had a bunch of those GE's still in the box about 15 years ago N.O.S. He/She was selling them for a bunch of $. Had a 88 Buick that could get AM stereo, but there were only 2 stations that used that format in the greater NYC area.

[@zulumax1]

In the early 1970's I lived in the Mojave Desert there in Palmdale CA. There was an AM radio station out of Baja California down in Mexico that claimed be AM stereo. The announcement would advise you to tune one radio slightly to the left, and a second radio slightly to the right, and it would be stereo. I never could tell it was stereo, was that a real thing? Would like to see that on your SDR radio.

[@Okanagan48]

6kw day, 1 watt night wow!! I spent many years in broadcasting in Canada. Never heard of 1 watt nighttime power. Maybe a former daytimer.

[@arienhaddock8392]

Just a quick tip, the metal can transistors from this time are known to have tin whisker growth, they can result in noise from leakage to the transistor case or completely non function intermittent. It happens on the inside of the can and touches the transistor die, resulting in shorts or leakage.

[@shango066]

The European stuff. I hardly ever see that here. The American Japanese and Soviet transistors don't do that

[@zulumax1]

@@shango066 I had that happen to a 1965 Magnavox Astrosonic console I just fixed and recapped. The driver transistors were noisy and sounded just like noisy silver mica capacitors in IF cans, like a lightning storm crackles and the waterfall. Replaced and fixed. Could be moisture ingression, oxidation creeping up the leads into the body, or tin whiskers, don't know, but it was fixed by replacing them.

[@arienhaddock8392]

@@shango066 Generally yeah, I saw it with some sylvania metal cans that looked to be late 60's and some early oval cased GE transistors. I think it was pretty much anything with a tinned can can grow whiskers under the right conditions, im sure you have seen tin whiskers on pots and wafer switch shafts. Strange phenomenon, hell nasa investigated it because it was causing suspected shorts on solder joints on satellites.

[@DougDingus]

KBPS 1450 Portland Oregon was AMS last I listened.

[@EmpowerUOnline]

I don't want stereo sound on my AM radio. I love this station.

[@RadioAnnouncer]

Would you care to enlighten us as to why you would not want to hear a.m. in stereo? It's a unique sound that it's quite different from anything stereo you've heard. Since the system is totally different than FM or anything you have at home, I'm curious why the judgment before the sampling?

[@arizonaalchemy7572]

Someone took good care of that Radio, looks great for it's age.

[@flukep1228]

In the SF bay area we only got one country station. And that country station is on fm. And never had a am stereo station here ever.

[@Dan-mq8in]

The SF Bay Area had some AM stereo stations in the 80s and 90s, including the Big 610 KFRC. They disappeared around the year 2000.

[@gavincurtis]

Rebuilt a Mercedes factory car stereo… AM stereo and FM stereo. Amazing

[@myspringitguy3226]

Were you going to have a video of your mine explorations?

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Interesting BC is AM. Broadcast, I assume? I never had AM stereo. I'm not sure if there are any AM stereo stations in the STL. area. I haven't researched it.

[@Madness832]

Yup, there's a station like that in my area, too. Privately-owned, AM stereo (daytime) & plays standards music. Drops to 5W, nighttime, but gets swamped by Zoomer in Toronto.

[@christophercullin9309]

Would love to see a video on the RTL-SDR dongle with dipole antenna in the desert

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Ya must be at your radio test site, about 250 miles from L.A. I’ve seen ya test radios here before. I guess this is where ya get the best reception, especially on radios with bad capacitors. Although these radios are plastic, they look like 👍 a 1970’s model. Night time is a better time to do this anyway. This is when the radio waves 🌊 are stronger, and ya can pull in more stations. Your friend, Jeff.

[@kyoudaiken]

Does that Mexican AM station where that prophet or something was extremely angry still exist? I still come back to that Zenith radio repair to hear this guy. It's so damn funny.

[@LiquidRadio]

18:45 I lost it with the record scratching sounds with the dial. 😆

[@sheldonlatimer6688]

That radio sounds great , I'd like to have it ,if it ever comes up for sale

[@TrakThora]

Beautyful location. Enjoy your stay

[@vanharmon3945]

Our station is am1070 KFDI Classic Country. Same format love it

[@scottb5662]

We need to keep fighting to keep electronics EMI free (greatly reduced). As a city dweller, I'm constantly chasing noise sources that plague my DC to daylight radio interests.

[@randyab9go188]

That radio really, really needs a RF amp on shortwave. AM seems ok. I have a Stuart Warner AM shortwave that belong to my grandmother 1946 model I believe, that has an RF amplifier for AM. The very odd thing is they did not use the RF amplifier for shortwave. The coils were left out. The band position switch connected the converter straight to the antenna. A really good performer on a.m. but shortwave is lacking. Back in the 40s and 50s when you had super power shortwave broadcasters you could have gotten away with a lesser set. The only thing I can figure is this was just a move to save money. Darn thing is built like a tank otherwise and it's one of those sets that used a console chassis in a very nice tabletop cabinet. Model 9003-B. If you have time you should go on nostalgia air and look at the schematic. On page two of the service literature it clearly shows all three bands drawn separately to explain to the service technician how this could be that the RF amplifier wasn't used on the shortwave bands. Value engineering at its finest on a higher end set.

[@clemsonbloke]

That station sounds great. Usually AM stations, whether AM Stereo, or Mono sound like shit these days. Since the mid 90s', AM stations sound awful and yes some of that is because of HD radio but people just don't care enough to properly set up an AM station. I am from the East side of the US and we had a really good AM Stereo station down in Myrtle Beach, SC but that old guy passed away and that old station is gone now.

[@zulumax1]

I've taken those old thin stamped steel frame speakers and bent and tweaked the frame so the voice coil no longer rubs. If you are have no other alternative and nothing to loose, give it a try.

[@goofyahhslimjackson1942]

I live in cave creek I got a 57 transistor admiral and a 51 transoceanic. The transistor gets trash signal at the house yet decent on other parts of the property yet when I enter buildings signal collapses. The oceanic gets decent signal throughout the place cept at night. (I understand the reason for that) What's up?