Radio and Television Broadcasting
Radio and Television Broadcasting
There is usually a radio playing in my home and vehicle. The radio station I regularly listen to has news every 30 minutes and bulletins for breaking news. No special equipment is needed, just listen to your favorite station. The AM broadcast frequencies are 540 - 1700 KHz. During daylight hours these frequencies are absorbed by the upper atmosphere, only local stations can be heard. During nighttime hours they are reflected back to earth enabling distant stations to be heard. Most tabletop radios can be used without modification but they often lack the selectivity needed to separate stations. Adding an external antenna can make the selectivity problem worst.
I recommend using a good quality AM/FM radio designed for vehicles. They can operate on 12 volt batteries, with very short antennas, good selectivity, push-button tuning and often have scanning functions. Many automotive radios have front and rear speakers. Connect the rear speaker wires to a stereo phone jack for headphones. Distant FM and TV stations can not be received. These stations use much higher frequencies and are seldom reflected back toward earth therefore limited to "line-of-sight" or less than 100 miles.
List of 50,000 watt "clear channel" AM stations.
Frequencies are in kilohertz (KHz)
Additional information about AM/FM broadcasting including this list of "clear channel" stations obtained here.