Finally, some good news regarding AM radio

[zenith2134]

Awhile back I picked up a Stromberg carlson wood cabinet radio from 1939. It had SW and AM and it was the nicest sounding AM radio i ever listened to. Someone threw this out. It was so clean I could eat off of it. I eventually sold it since I have no interest in SW or AM for the most part. Anyways, my car AM radio is so susceptible to interference it isn't even funny. My vintage Kenwood KT7500 does a pretty great job with a long wire antenna, especially at nighttime.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

My vintage Kenwood KT7500 does a pretty great job with a long wire antenna, especially at nighttime.

How? Being in Queens, New York, you are in the primary signal area of every AM station in New York City, most of which are 50kW. I am amazed your tuner isn't overloaded to saturation or worse by the tremendous signal your wire antenna feeds into it; it would seem to me that you would now have so much signal from just the local stations that DXing between stations would be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. Your tuner must be extremely (almost incredibly) selective, IMHO, if you can hear anything other than local New York stations with a wire antenna.

You are using a part of your tuner (the external AM antenna input) most people don't even know exists, as most people are content just to use the small pivoting loopstick AM antenna mounted to the backs of most tuners if they listen to AM at all. Many true audiophiles, however, will go to the ends of the earth (even to the extent of putting up a deep-fringe FM antenna on a 50-foot tower) to get excellent FM reception from as many stations as possible--even in metropolitan areas with 20 or more local stations. Again, your Kenwood tuner must have an above-average or even excellent AM section (with selectivity variable down to a gnat's eyelash[!]) if you are getting as many stations as you mention; not like the poor excuses for AM tuners found in many otherwise excellent stereo receivers.

[zenith2134]

It's a good tuner but what I meant was that I can listen to local AM with nice fidelity and signal, but yeah I can't get anything else since we are being bombarded by local AM...