Why is it that alot of my AM radio station come in fine and clear during the day but at night tend to become static-like in the evening whether it be in my bathroom while dumping and showering or in my truck?

Just cruious. I ahve noticed this and have no answer.

I mean the towers are not going anywhere so the reception should still be there right?

www.justfuckinggoogleit.com (http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com) http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/3332/amradio.html



# Daytime Stations and Reduced Night-Time Power If your favorite station is a small daytime only station, you won't be able to receive it after sunset. While this may seem obvious, you would be surprised at how many folks come to me because they can't pick up a particular station at night, and it turns out to be a daytimer. Some stations don't go off the air altogether, but reduce their power to very low levels, and can't be picked up more than a few miles away after dark. If you are not sure if your favorite station shuts down or reduces power at night, you can call the station, or check the station databases I have links to on the main radio page.






Directional Transmitter Antennas and Stations with Directional Nighttime Patterns Many radio stations have directional antennas; that is, they concentrate the signal in one direction or towards a particular geographic area. This is often done to prevent interference to other staions in the area, or to concentrate the signal where the greatest number of people may live. For example, the huge 50,000 watt WBZ near my home town has an antenna that beams the signal west-- which makes good sense, since there is no point in wasting power broadcasting out over the Atlantic Ocean! Likewise, the little college FM station that I was on (Oh! Those carefree college days!) beams it's signal to the south, to avoid interfering with another station close on the dial to the north of us. AM stations do this also. One local AM station in my area has a respectable 5,000 watts in the daytime, but the antenna system is so directional that most of the signal goes out over the ocean. They're feeding the fish, or that's the joke among some local radio engineers!

This sometimes explains why your friend who lives the same distance in miles from the station, only a few towns over, can get the station while you can't. It may be the station's antenna is aimed at his or her town, and away from yours. So, try to determine where you are in relation to the station's transmitter-- not just in terms of distance, but also in terms of direction? Again, a call to the station or search on the databases I've linked to may answer this question for you.

To make things even more intersesting, sometimes a station has to change its directional pattern at night. That is, either in place of reducing their power, or in addition to reducing their power, they may also have to change their broadcast pattern at night. One station in my area has an omnidirectional pattern in the daytime (broadcasting equally in all directions) but at night must not only lower its power, but also has to beam its signal to the east to protect stations toward the west from interference. This means people to the west of the station lose it when the sun goes down.




It was alot easier to google and copy-paste that than to type out what I could remember.

is there an antennae in which I can pick up alot better and more stations esp when driving across state lines in the middle of no where?

amplitude modulated

frequency modulated

while I'm an electronics warfare officer in the USAF - if i explained it, i'd have to kill u

It is basically called, "NIGHT EFFECT" and it is due to the fact that AM radio energy is a low to medium frequency radio band that produces both ground and sky waves. At night the sky waves are more pronounced or stronger than in the day time since at night they are most reflected by the Ionosphere. Since the sky waves may be arriving from any direction depending on how and where they have been reflected, they cause a static or more of an interference. The key is also that at night the sky waves travel at a much flatter angle than in the day. The point between where the ground waves end and the sky wave or reflected waves strike the earth is known as the skip zone, this is where very erratic signals or no signals at all are heard.



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Not to be a dick but,who the fuck listens to AM? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

Not to be a dick but,who the fuck listens to AM? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif



I do. I listen to sports talk and Clark Howard.

Not to be a dick but who the fuck wants to listen to the same ten Nelly songs all day on teeny bopper radio?

And don't give me any bullshit about listening to classic rock or the oldies either cuz those bastards have 40 years of music to pick from and they still play the same fucking rotation of pink floyd, zeppelin, boston, kansas, lynyrd skynard and other shit.

Sorry, just venting cuz radio sucks here. Lotsa music to be played but the stations only play what makes them the most money not what the people want to hear.

http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

amplitude modulated

frequency modulated

while I'm an electronics warfare officer in the USAF - if i explained it, i'd have to kill u



Why? It's been general knowledge for decades. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

He isn't asking for battle coordinates, just wanted to know why some radio stations don't work so well at night. There have been plenty of valid reponses that fall well within the "unclassified" category. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Not to be a dick but,who the fuck listens to AM? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif



I do. I listen to sports talk and Clark Howard.

Not to be a dick but who the fuck wants to listen to the same ten Nelly songs all day on teeny bopper radio?

And don't give me any bullshit about listening to classic rock or the oldies either cuz those bastards have 40 years of music to pick from and they still play the same fucking rotation of pink floyd, zeppelin, boston, kansas, lynyrd skynard and other shit.

Sorry, just venting cuz radio sucks here. Lotsa music to be played but the stations only play what makes them the most money not what the people want to hear.

http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif



when you work I agree with you. hearing the SAME ol' bullshit ALL day long sucks. At least with AM the shit is new everday. Maybe the same topic but more in depth....

Sky waves are reflections from the ionosphere. While the wave is in the ionosphere, it is strongly bent, or refracted, ultimately back to the ground. From a long distance away this
appears as a reflection. Long ranges are possible in this mode also, up to hundreds
of miles. Sky waves in this frequency band are usually only possible at night, when
the concentration of ions is not too great since the ionosphere also tends to attenuate
the signal. However, at night, there are just enough ions to reflect the wave but not
reduce its power too much.

Basically, the ionoshpere is dependant on the sun to regulate is thickness. During the day the ionosphere is thicker due to the suns rays, at night it is thinner (the bottom is higher from the ground, so the point of reflection is different). Kinda like aiming a laser pointer at a mirror hanging from above. if the angle is the same and you raise the mirror, you would "increase" your range, even though your power and transmission angle stay the same.

As an extreme exapmle, some Hams also use the moon to bounce singnals around (EME transmissions). You can see how your range is changed from when the moon is overhead, compared to a 2 o'clock postiion. It is used to overcome "line of sight" limitations.

There is also "Tropospheric ducting" witch basically uses thermals in the air to extend the range, but is not as dependable -too many variables.