Flash MP3 player with AM and FM rad

Question

Why is it that the only MP3 players I see with AM and FM are CD based? Some people have a great desire to listen to AM radio for sporting events, news, or talk radio. It is so annoying for me to have to carry a separate radio with my n200 so that I can have my music as well as AM radio. The funny thing is that I listen to AM radio much more than FM. I usually like to either listen to my music or to AM radio. I also have an MP3 cd player with AM and FM, however that is even larger than both the n200 plus a small separate radio. Since I don't want to constantly swap the earphones from the n200 to the radio and back, I am also carrying two sets of earphones.
My ideal flash mp3 player would be
) At least 4 gigs
2) have both AM and FM radio
3) Run on a AA battery.
AA batteries hold 2.5 times the power of a AAA yet are often lower in price.
4) have a decent sized display.
5) Have a separate button that with one press switches from mp3 music to the radio or back.
6) Supports subscription music
7) has a built in clock with the time constantly displayed, even when the player is off.
While such a player would be slightly larger than the Nano Plus, it would be so much more functional.. There are still some who want the smallest possible player so I wouldn't want to see such a player replace the Nano Plus, however it would be nice if such a player would replace the TX FM which is too similar to the Nano Plus(who really cares whether the USB plug is on the player itself?).

Answer 1

I think the reason you don't see AM radios in 00% digital products (such as MP3 players) is not enough demand to tackle two significant technical issues:
The ferrite-coil antennas used by most portable AM radios take up a lot of room on circuit boards; some MP3 players are too small for them, while others simply can't give up valuable circuit-board real estate for a feature used by so few people. OTOH, most portable FM radios use the headphone cord as an antenna, so they can be smaller.</LI>
AM frequencies and channel spacing vary around the world in ways that make a "one size fits all" digital solution very hard to implement. The US AM band runs from 535-705 kHz with 0-kHz spacing (540, 550, ... , 700); in other parts of the world it still runs from 535-605 kHz, and/or uses 9-kHz spacing which is incompatible. OTOH, nearly all major countries, except Japan, have adopted FM bands in the 87.5 (88 in the US) to 08 MHz range, and all spacing schemes are multiples of the narrowest one, 50 kHz (it's 00 kHz in most countries, 200 kHz in the US), so a digital FM tuner covering 87.5-08 MHz with 50-kHz spacing will work everywhere but Japan.</LI>
Also, digital-radio considerations in the US may inhibit the sale of new AM radios here. The US digital-radio standard is an IBOC (in-band, on-channel) system, where the analog and digital broadcasts share the same frequency and signal. Though this is supposed to allow simultaneous analog and digital broadcasts as long as broadcasters want them (unlike DAB systems in other countries and digital TV even in the US, where the digital signal is separate and broadcasters must eventually give up their analog spectrum), even IBOC broadcasters will eventually go all-digital. Since the bandwidth of digital AM is so limited (at present it only promises "FM quality" while digital FM promises "CD quality") and digital limits analog sound quality (especially on AM where it's poor to begin with), it's likely AM will want to go 00% digital long before FM does. Limiting analog AM radios now makes it easier for AM to make that painful transition.
Message Edited by RBBrittain on 2-2-2005 09:49 AM