http://www.ccrane.com/!6xDLefpMek34FTmvNDcp5g!/PTArticle/Car-Radio-Reception-Article-1-of-2
I should have posed this under "receivers"
This article brings up many good points.
However, receiver sensitivity specifications are not related at all to any antenna or ground. And car radios generally have much better sensitivity AND selectivity specs than ordinary radios (portables or handhelds). The only receivers that rival those specs are high end stereo tuners.
It is true that the antenna and ground used on any receiver has a large bearing on what you can hear. But with identical antenna systems, a good car receiver will beat out a good radio (the best car radios have sensitivity under 1uv with 20db SNR, while the best portables are around 2.5uv for 20db SNR) every time.
have to work while moving and constantly going in and out of weak and strong signal areas so the AGC and RF gain control is far surperior to home radios which only have to work in one location.
Also the antenna is not a coil on a ferrite rod, it's a length of wire which the AM and FM both get the signal from so the antenna circuit is completely different and it's also unidirectional.....wouldn't be good if the car was in one direction and when you turned the corner you lost a station.
Way back when I took the AM radio out of my ford pinto and brought it inside and powered it with two 6V lantern batteries and a 30 inch piece of wire for the antenna and I had the ultimate super radio....worked just like in the car.
Mark
Some of the older car radios had a variable capacitor that you could tweak for max signal. Also Artisan: A while back you shared some data about car radio sensitivity. Where brands/model mentioned in the report?