Oddity Archive: Episode 242.5 - Ben’s Junk: Sony SRF-A100 AM/AM Stereo/FM Portable Radio

[@RetroDakota]

Growing up in a middle-of-nowhere SD town called Winner, I'm familiar with their AM/FM combo, KWYR. I specifically remember before 2005 at the latest, KWYR AM 1260 would occasionally boast about being in AM Stereo since it was, and still is, a Country station. I don't know if they still are in AM stereo, but if you do tune in 1260 on a vintage AM/FM radio such as this, the sound quality almost sounds like FM. 1260 would theoretically reach the Sioux Falls area, but the local AM 1270 drowns it out.

[@mariteaux]

Always a good day when Ben's junk performs well. Looking forward to tomorrow!

[@KronoGarrett]

C-QAM was a thing in some areas in the late 1980s, I think. The radio in Dad's '90 Cutlass Supreme was able to receive that type of broadcast, but the only thing we listened to on the AM band was baseball games, it was almost always WCPN, WKSU, and WCLV or tapes.

[@5roundsrapid263]

My parents had a Chrysler K-Car, and it also had an AM Stereo tuner.

[@vwestlife]

C-Quam quickly became the dominant system due to Motorola being a major parts supplier to the automotive industry. The FCC made C-Quam the single standard for AM Stereo in 1993.

[@KronoGarrett]

@@vwestlife And now, I know.

[@mini_ika_musume]

AM Stereo was not widely adopted in Europe but I remember France Bleu having AM Stereo. I do not know if they still do it today.

[@vwestlife]

Unfortunately France Bleu shut down their AM transmitter entirely a few years ago. But there are still a few low-power AM Stereo stations on the air in the UK, Ireland, and Europe (I believe mainly in Italy and Greece).

[@michaelcarpenter2498]

That was something I always wanted. Our big station 1110 WBT broadcast in C-qAM. I know our sports station, a couple of years ago, if you are in the right spot, would sound like AM stereo as well.

[@jamesslick4790]

I HAD this radio! (Some bastard STOLE it from me at a job site in 1987! 🤬) It was a TRULY AWESOME performer on AM!!! (Better than some of my SW sets that had good AM sections!). I bought it not for AM stereo particularly, but figuring a radio designed to emphasize AM Stereo would have to have a good AM section. I Was NOT disappointed! I will now be down the eBay/Craigslist rabbit hole. Thanks, Benny Boy! P.S. a "shout out" to VWestlife means you are a man of culture!

[@HappySnoutHour]

Happy pre-10th anniversary Ben.

[@jamesslick4790]

The 3.5mm headphone jack is ringed in green. IDK if this was "law" at Sony, but it seems that green "meant" it was Walkman headphone compatible, and therefore stereo. YMMV, But every Sony device I have had that had a green ring on the 3.5mm jack was stereo.

[@mightyfilm]

A rare Wednesday upload. Saw the video thumbnail in my feed, and I was like, where the hell did Wednesday go? Man, is that hardwired into my subconscious. Looking forward to the big video tomorrow.

[@apriltimelady5006]

>AM Stereo Nice. I can think of exactly one station I can receive that still uses it, and it's a Canadian country station.

[@djhrecordhound4391]

Which one...?

[@apriltimelady5006]

@@djhrecordhound4391 CFCO

[@Cinemagic77]

I have one of those radios, I remember getting it back in '83. I also have a few other models of Sony, Carver and Sansui AM stereo receivers. In addition to that I, like yourself, do Part-15 hobby broadcasting and I have a transmitter that does C-QUAM AM stereo. If you're interested I'll send you a link so you can hear the station at any time in true AM stereo. I have a Carver tuner picking up my station and audio from that feeds my station's Online stream.

[@bratina501]

I have one heck of an offer in terms of a demo. In my collection of portable radios is a fully restored Sony SRF-A100 which works like new at this point and I also have a WORKING part 15 compliant C-QUAM AM stereo transmitter. I could use one of your songs for it just to prevent any copyright issues most likely one with good stereo separation just to give the best effect.

[@OddityArchive]

Yeah, you have my blessing. Hit me up at [e-mail] if you need anything.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

I'd love to hear "Pavanned" in AM stereo.

[@bratina501]

After listening I think Pavanned would be a good song to use.

[@bradjones1977]

I've have genuinely never heard of AM stereo before, and I'm in my forties! Was it a even a thing here in the UK?

[@mfbfreak]

Not sure about the UK, but France had a couple of France Bleu AM transmitters that were stereo, and a few that were mono. Some were decently powerful, and you should've been able to pick at least one or two up at night in the uk. I don't think it was ever that popular in Europe, because during the cold war era practically every country had multiple transmitters putting out several hundred kilowatts, sometimes even a megawatt, meaning they had to adhere pretty strictly to the 9kHz channel spacing and the associated limited bandwith. Even with those rules in effect, splatter from neighboring transmitters could be very noticeable at night. Even in stereo, audio quality would've been pretty bad. These days, because there are fewer transmitters, you'll encounter stations that are much wider than 9kHz. For instance, Radio Caroline is transmitting in about 14kHz, just like Radio Romania. Both of those sound markedly better than the old national 300kW transmitters of the Netherlands we used to have.

[@vwestlife]

The BBC did consider adopting the C-Quam AM Stereo system but ultimately decided that due to the narrower bandwidth of AM radio stations in Europe (due to their 9 kHz channel spacing instead of 10 kHz) the sound quality wouldn't be sufficient for good stereo separation.

[@r66fplaysgames]

Last I checked, KISD does have a livestream on their website.

[@nobodyyouknow1065]

Ben’s Junk may have a price but let no one say that Ben’s Junk is cheap.

[@electrosoundaust]

AM Stereo was a thing in Australia and I have one of these radio's, albeit in a different colour scheme, bought new in 1982. The AM stations were trying to compete with the then new FM. (We got FM very late in Aust.) AM stations claimed it sounded as good as FM, debatable, and was less susceptible to interference, definitely not the case. It was officially dropped when DAB+ came in 20 years ago, but the commercial stations dumped it long before. Sony sold this radio, a radio cassette (boombox), a basic car radio cassette, and a "hi-fi" tuner, none of which sold that well. Sanyo and Blaupunkt also sold car car radios, but the format never really took off as AM became mostly talk and sport. Nice little (well used) radio, keep on meanining to get it working again, but it's a tightly packed circuit board that makes work hard.

[@joearnold6881]

They still transmit AM, huh? I remember wondering why it was still an option when I was a kid in the 90s

[@PashPaw]

In some places, even in the US, it's the last line of information. My "local" news station in Southern California is KNX because anywhere north of LA doesn't have a news station on the dial, I believe and my county's hard to get here (or too busy sucking up to a politician if I can get it). You can get further with AM than any other band other than SW and LW (supposedly).

[@brantisonfire]

I have an old magnavox clock radio with faux wood grain that I have in my office at work. As far as I’ve seen they don’t have an external aerial, unless I can’t see it in the pictures I’ve seen online and mine has ripped off. The local rock station, 100.7, broadcasts from in my area and this clock radio has to have the tuning dial just right to pick it up. It’s got a couple stations that it will pick it up if you barely touch it.

[@djhrecordhound4391]

1050 CHUM out of Toronto was in stereo, but I don't know if it still is because the station became sports talk. (R.I.P. CHUM-AM!) If any Toronto station has possibly enough reach elsewhere at night, it's 740. Not stereo that I know of but has very powerful signal, and it's owned by the former owner of CITY-TV, Moses Znaimer.

[@r66fplaysgames]

YEAH! 2 Oddity Archive videos in 1 week! 😀😀😀👍👍👍

[@shawnkramer37]

My father had this exact radio. OMG

[@randyphillips7223]

I won one of those in a radio station giveaway. It came with a hardshell case. I have no idea what happened to it. Worked great, though.

[@5roundsrapid263]

AM Stereo actually sounded very good, but the FCC didn’t mandate it until AM was almost dead. AM eventually came back in the ‘90s, with talk and sports, but the stereo format was long gone.

[@RadioAnnouncer]

Actually, it was never "mandated." It remained an option for stations to operate in stereo. It never needed a special license which was a plus, and its parent company, Motorola made money selling the equipment and/or the rights to include their designs in many broadcasting manufacturer's lines rather than demanding a license from broadcasters to USE it at a cost like today's "Hybrid Digital" systems do. By the way, AM is far from dead, there are hundreds of successful AM stations operating in the country, ours being one of them. "Dead" may describe your local market, but don't rule out the independent operators who are doing FINE and not subscribing to Iheart and Cumulus' and others' practices of "put the garbage on the AM and let it run." Those of us who care about the CRAFT of broadcasting are doing quite well with it, thank you. Big cities still have "voices" on AM that are famous to their cities' names...and...many a small town still relies on it's AM station to be home-town information and entertainment.

[@5roundsrapid263]

@@RadioAnnouncer I’m not saying AM is dead now. It was in the mid-80s, but people like Rush Limbaugh brought it back. The FCC did legally mandate C-Quam stereo on X-band stations when they allowed stations at 1600 KHz and above.

[@Intabih]

Was that KMOX?

[@Intabih]

So whenever I was driving at night, I would always try to find my local AM radio stations. In Savannah GA, I could pick up WLS in Chicago usually early morning, just before dawn. I could get KMOX from St. Louis in the mountains of TN/KY. That is one radio tidbit I think is so neat.

[@JoshuaCraigStrain]

NO WAY !! I totally thought this was from a long time ago ! Wow ! Anyway , you were driving WAY TOO FAST !!

[@OddityArchive]

In upwards of 1,600 MPH! I was quite proud of myself.

[@luisreyes1963]

Glad to see Sony still churn out product, even if it's from such places like Vietnam. 🇻🇳

[@Bucky749]

( Ben enters dressed in 90’s neon ) Ben : ( sigh ) never let segri choose your clothes . ( message on screen ) : not his fault he watched a 24 hour fresh prince marathon signed Ed . Ben ( mad ) where is he now Ed ? Ed (Text on screen ) at a comic shop looking for back issues of static shock and some of the milestone comics . Ben : now he gets in to American culture (sigh ). ( Enter sergi dressed like will smith carrying a bag full of comics ) Sergi : I’m back and I have found a bunch of static stuff and some stuff for you . ( pulls out a buster Keaton t-shirt for Ben and Ed a Elvis t- shirt .) Every one smiles end scene .

[@rareblues78daddy]

Ugh. Patreon fanservice.

[@OddityArchive]

Well, Patreon pays a lot more of my operating costs than YT. I'm open to suggestions.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

Content doesn't make itself you know.

[@rareblues78daddy]

@@OddityArchive Funny, I always thought you made all your revenue through selling ads on KLAK? Guess Sergei's not the draw he used to be....

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

@@rareblues78daddy Maybe the Sioux Falls radio market isn't as lucrative as the Beautiful Downtown Aurora market.

[@rareblues78daddy]

@@TheKnobCalledTone. True, true. Not as cultured, nor as attuned the the subtleties of Sergei's fine selections.