[AMRadio] AM Radio Mobile

[John Lyles]

I bought a new car for my wife, as her grey goose was getting up in 
mileage and had a few expensive repairs awaiting. One was the radio had 
died, twice, and it was a 2006 Toyota radio that had CD changer, Camera, 
maps, and I found the last one on ebay, which lasted two years. Could 
have been the capacitors failing, but I tried opening it up and its a 
mechanical monstrosity to get to the radio. Anyway, to get to the chase, 
we ended up with a Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid. Its a clone of a Toyota 
Highlander sort of, but cheaper and loaded with electronics. We live in 
Santa Fe county, so of course....

What surprised me was that the AM radio works very well. It tunes 
quickly, like analog would, and it has low background buzzes, hums and 
tweeps. I can actually listen to AM without getting frustrated. This 
being a hybrid engine, it has a liquid cooled inverter somewhere and a 
1.5 kW Lithium chemistry battery under the floor somewhere. There is no 
HD symbol anywhere and we haven't read the 1/2 inch thick manual for the 
entertainment system, but there is a button on the big screen above the 
dash, that said HD data. It selects between weather, highway conditions 
and something else. I don't know what it is yet.

John Lyles