AM Radio Circuits

The earliest crystal radio receivers used a crystal diode detector with no amplification. Medium-wave and short-wave radio signals act differently during daytime and nighttime. During the day, AM signals travel by groundwave, diffracting around the curve of the earth over a distance up to a few hundred miles (or kilometers) from the signal transmitter.

However, after sunset, changes in the ionosphere cause AM signals to travel by skywave, enabling AM radio stations to be heard much farther from their point of origin than is normal during the day. This phenomenon can be easily observed by scanning an AM radio dial at night. As a result, many broadcast stations are required as a condition of license to reduce their broadcasting power significantly (or use directional antennas) after sunset, or even to suspend broadcasting entirely during nighttime hours. 

 

Because of its susceptibility to atmospheric and electrical interference, AM broadcasting now attracts mainly talk radio and news programming, while music radio and public radio mostly shifted to FM broadcasting in the late 1970s. However, in the late 1960s and 1970s, top 40 rock and roll stations in the US and Canada such as WABC and CHUM transmitted highly processed and extended audio to 11 kHz, successfully attracting huge audiences. Early experiments with stereo AM radio involved two separate stations (both AM or sometimes one AM and one FM) broadcasting the left and right audio channels.

 

This system was not very practical, as it required the listener to use two separate radios. Synchronization was problematic, often resulting in "ping-pong" effects between the two channels. Reception was also likely to be different between the two stations, and many listeners used mismatching models of receivers.