"It's the programming, stupid!"

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 19 May 2012 00:45:40 -0500, "Bill" <brscomm@yahoo.com> said:

> You could put an AM radio in an ipod easily enough.

Not really.  One of the principal design requirements for the iPod was
that it be thin, and later models have gotten smaller and even
thinner; there's not enough room in there for a workable antenna at
those wavelengths, and AM doesn't couple well enough to the headphone
cable to use that as an external antenna.  Plus of course there's all
the electronic noise.  (Do any of the HD pocket radios that have been
sold do AM?  Can they actually decode anything more than two miles
from the transmitter?)

The smallest non-HD pocket radio that I have today that does AM
acceptably is the Sangean DT-400W, which is not much smaller than the
original Walkman; it's about twice the thickness of a classic iPod.
It has to be that thick in order to fit a short ferrite loop antenna
onto the circuit board.

-GAWollman