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New electric cars won’t have AM radio. Rightwingers claim political sabotage
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Politics
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so hear me out... not a popular opinion by any stretch of the imagination.. but the real reason manufacturers are doing this is because of how much RF spectral splatter EVs put out (think inverters/switching noise, computers, etc) and it's bad news for ham radio operators that use AM/SSB bands. it's cheaper to ignore the problem than it is to EMI shield everything to reduce the noise floor low enough so that the AM receiver works in the car, otherwise you'll hear a bunch of static/popping/whining from the EV electronics that make the AM radio effectively useless. a similar concern that has since gone away was the battle over BPL [broadband over powerline] for the same reasons in that power lines would be effectively big antennas radiating crap in the AM bands. personally, i'm in favor of keeping AM around if it forces these manufacturers to follow proper EM shielding practices, but again... minority opinion for my own selfish reasons. the FCC doesn't give a shit about ham radio, so it's not looking good.
1,000% this.
Except it's not just that a few hobbyists can't play with their toys. The frequencies being disrupted aren't limited to amateur radio bands which make up only a small fraction of the radio spectrum. This has the potential to disrupt military and emergency communication worldwide and I'm actually shocked it's not a bigger issue. RF Pollution is a nasty problem and is one of the main reasons the FCC exists.
Making this a political side-show about talk radio weakens the whole debate in my opinion, even if it has the potential to grab the attention of a wider audience. It's much easier to refute that and "win" the argument.