A controversial bill that would require all new cars to be fitted with AM radios looks set to become a law in the near future. Yesterday, Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass) revealed that the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” now has the support of 60 US Senators, as well as 246 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, making its passage an almost sure thing. Should that happen, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would be required to ensure that all new cars sold in the US had AM radios at no extra cost.
As someone who has minute knowledge of how radio works, what could those frequencies be reclaimed for?
I also don’t have much knowledge here, but I don’t think much.
I guess the wavelength differences on HF and below would be too large for something of larger bandwidth. And anyway, the AM broadcast bands aren’t that large anyway. Plus there would still be too much RFI from foreign broadcasts.
My idea is, it could perhaps be upgraded to DRM. But this is used very rarely since it requires DRM-compatible receivers.
But personally, I don’t think this would be a better idea than AM. Having to get new receivers for over-compressed digital audio? Nah.
Second, probably not the best idea, some of those could be license-free bands. E.g. for LoRa. Imagine Meshtastic on HF.