Years ago, AM stations would sign off at midnight or 1:00 for maintenance. A directional antenna like an ARN-6 or 7) could log some good DX in the wee hours. As the stations in the east off, you could then try for those in the central time zone, etc. I too am amazed at how well the active antennas on newer vehicles do on the AM band. I doubt they are as good as the full size whips into a well designed car tube radio. On late night family road trips, I would search for stations with headphones, then turn the speaker on for everyone when I found something good. Rt. 81 runs along the Appalachian mountain ridge in Pennsylvania, there was outstanding DX at night. Later when I was on my own, I had an ARN-6 in my station wagon (remember those?!) and was able to hear some really good DX there. It broke the boredom.

B. Gentry, KA2IVY

On 4/19/25 4:37 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:

I do a fair amount of "DX listening" and i note that when driving, a stronger FM broadcaster will "pop in" even if for just a couple minutes and then gone. On 2M hamband the strongest station wins, with just a growl heard underneath. On MW AM band, i can so often hear audio from 2 stations, maybe more, on same channel. The freq accuracy of the AM transmitters is such that there's no beat note at all unless very rarely one of the co channels might be overseas. So on AM to separate them you either need a directional antenna, or just wait and hope a station comes way uo in strength for s spell.

It kind of still bewonders me that this inches long antenna on top my van does so well for AM DX.

-Hue Miller
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