Vwestlife I just wanted to tell you after a decade of watching your videos, I finally met someone in my city who is also a huge fan of yours. We hit it off instantly and are great friends now. Thanks for all the content you've provided for so many years

Yay! We get a Vwestlife/OA crossover! It is sad that Chris Cuff has died. I love his videos. Nice to have that radio to remember him by.

Warranty is 1 year. Says to bring that card to the shop to fix it. Becomes void with all the normal things like damaging it, trying to repair it, modify it. Number 5 talks about earthquakes, flood, lighting, other natural disasters, and pollution.. lol. My favorite part is number 1, where they say if its broken to bring it in and they will do their best. Very Japanese Andor Corporation out of Tokyo is the company. It seems they are still around, but not at the address listed. They are listed as a software company on google

Interestingly your point about the lightning sounding cool on AM is actually how lightning detectors work. They have RF receivers that listen to AM-like frequencies and feed that back to a central platform, which then triangulates the lightning strikes to give you a location on the map.

I had no idea AM could even do stereo. Impressive! :)

Today I learned that AM Stereo was a thing. Thirty plus years and always thought stereo was FM exclusive. Your knowledge is appreciated, really neat stuff.

Really nice that you have that radio to remember Cuff by. A shame he passed. He inspired me to do all the turntable modding I do.

Even the AM Mono is seriously wideband and sounds flippin' phenomenal. I wanted one of Cuff's radios but never got around to it. That, I regret.

I am a fan of devices, but I live in a backward country and all my youth I lived through wars and economic blockades, and I did not enjoy practicing my hobbies by acquiring stereo devices from Sony, Kenwood and Technics brands. It's the first time that I know that there is a stereo AM radio, thank you very much for what you publish

Wow, thanks for sharing this video and also the recording from CFRB. I live in Toronto and that was good piece of nostalgia. The announcer mentioned Kromer Radio, that was a well know store to purchase audio equipment for your home and car. I purchsed a stero system from there. The business closed in 2012 after 55 years in business when the owner decided to retire.

Chris Cuff - he will forever be missed. Among other things over the years, he gifted me a NOS Magnavox 45 changer spindle for my Maggie consolette I have in my office at work. I kept the box he shipped it in and the OEM box the stacker spindle was in which, after he passed a while back, became displayed together beside my Maggie. Rest In Peace my dude.

Both of mine were stolen…still miss them. I still have my Srf A1 packed away somewhere in my move box. The SRF 100 was a DX machine, but didn’t have the extended band. Before it was stolen my radio easily picked up 780 KHZ WBBM Chicago at my QTH in Tucson, Arizona. My trip to Washington DC saw it stolen, liked my previous one in Jacksonville FL. Take good care of yours and watch for thieves. The Chip is Sony proprietary so good luck finding one, the used it in the Sony ICF-2010. Have a great day!

While watching this video. I went digging in my cupboards to find an AM stereo radio I built as a project from the Australian electronics magazine Silicon Chip in 1989. Listening to wide band AM does sound good, but no radio station in Sydney still broadcasts in stereo. It was a good gimmick to sell new radios in the 90s, but the FCCs decision to not choose CQAM first made the radios too expensive for the public to want to buy. From memory it was as good as a 70s cassette recording pre Dolby.

I have to confess I found your channel by accident, and I watched two clips before it dawned on me that it wasn’t Ray Romano I was listening to. I subscribed because “this guy is really good, and his voice is a bonus feature.”

Thanks for the tip regarding turning the stereo distortion pot counter-clockwise. I just acquired an SRF-A1 in the wild after searching for an AM stereo radio for years and its pot was in the middle as well. I’m on the lookout for ways to improve this radio’s performance since there’s lots of interference in my area and the nearest AM stereo station is over 60 miles away. Even at night I can’t seem to catch it at all, so maybe I’ll take a road trip.

I remember when 590 VOCM flipped into AM Stereo in 86. Even those of us who only had mono heard an improved sound. I am guessing that improved sound was a result of attention bring given to the overall sound. In 1990 when my hometown 570 CFCB went to AM Stereo, I got to hear it in stereo and I loved it. I’m still using that stereo copy of Jailhouse rock. Hundreds of times at weddings and other public events. I absolutely love the sound.

That was such a great radio! I squealed the Christmas I got one of those. I must have gotten it Christmas '84. I wore that thing completely out.

I have one of Chris Cuff's AM Stereo Transmitters. I did not know he has past away. I have not yet mounted the board in a proper designed case. I will do this soon in his memory. Thankyou for this sad information. He was a wonderful guy and a friend of my husband's brother in Prince Edward Island.

Was hoping this was Ben from Oddity Archive. Very underrated channel for those into retro electronics and technology.

The perfect crossover doesn't exi-

Right before your video I gave up over a week of work on a 1979 Pioneer deck after snapping a wire in the end. I guess nobody is alone in this situation haha.

Wow. I'm really impressed with the fidelity of AM Stereo, especially at Wide bandwidth. Granted you're very close to the transmitter as well, but it really does sound great. Not at all what I hear from the talk radio stations with bits of music these days.

This video brings back some memories for me. I purchased the SRF-A100 new in 1984. I also had the Realistic AM stereo tuner you briefly showed in this video. I was really hooked on AM Stereo back then. I even did a conversion of a Pioneer SX-850 to AM stereo by adding a CQUAM decoder board. All the units had issues with locking up on a stereo signal, especially at night time as the propagation kept unlocking the decoders. Kind of frustrating at times. Still it was worth the effort when things worked out okay.

I would be suspicious of the power supply to that daughterboard and the decoder IC, and any passive parts being out of tolerance. For quite some time I had wanted to get another of Chris Cuff's AM stereo transmitters, this time with case and antenna tuner. He also sent me a board for a portable AM Stereo/FM Stereo radio he'd designed, and told me that at some point in the future that he'd give me all the info I needed to put it together. It's too bad he's gone.

I had emailed with Cuff long ago about having him add AM stereo to my Satellit 800, but I never did it. The only AM stereos I ever had were in cars. The one in the Cadillac was remarkably good, best AM radio I ever had and happened to be stereo, too.

To fix the dents in the frontplate (if you can take it off) you can use the backside of a smooth bold handle of a screwdriver to push it (gently) back in original position (on the backside of the frontplate of course). You need to do this on a very flat smooth surface such as a bathing tile and take your time and important, do not use a hammer to tick away the dent it doesn't work. Only use controlled human force. Keep the frontpanel flat on the tile while doing this. I have used this method a couple of times (on speaker grills) and the result is amazing if you don't rush the whole process.

AM stereo is one of those things I was interested in as a teenager when it started in the mid-80s, but if there were stations using it there were few radios to buy, or they weren't affordable for a kid. Years later an occasional radio can be found at a time where I can afford them but few stations still broadcast in stereo. It was an interesting standard that failed to really take off, even though it clearly sounded great.

My mother's '87 Pontiac 6000 S/E had a factory auto-reverse deck with C-QUAM and a 5-band EQ. The tape mech was made by Blaupunkt.

Still amazed at how good AM stereo sounds. Ugh JCP&L gets honorable mention here, everyone's "favorite" electric company. Not only did their transmission line failure take out their own customers but also Sussex REC. In addition there was also a blackout in Toms River on the east side of town. You were lucky to have power since you also have JCP&L. Generator is a good investment! I was surprised at how little coverage it got on TV. Seems like a pretty big deal to have a transmission line fall on an interstate!

Cool old vintage stuff you've got!!!!!!!

As other comments mention, we never had AM stereo in the UK, I'm sure we all remember 247 Radio 1 in glorious muffled AM mono until the introduction of country wide FM stereo, what I did find interesting is, as per usual, with new tech.introduction, different broadcasting decoding formats before eventual standardisation. Also look at the quality of those Sony pot's!

Consistently entertaining channel from the get go!

I don't think the UK ever really bothered with AM stereo, always just seemed to be the low-end mono odd-sounding stuff that we got, probably because we ended up with FM across the country, and given we're a small island nation compared to the US, we didn't need the long-range of AM, so nobody bothered adding the stereo option...

Nice, now Ben can go on vacation again next summer, and look for more Stereo AM stations lol.

Never thought I would see an Oddity Archive/vwestlife crossover, great stuff as always.

Also want to say: I don't understand 90% of the nuts and bolts of this stuff. But I watch and enjoy your videos regardless, and I think that says a ton about the content you put out and the way you produce it. I don't have to fully know the technicals to enjoy and that is much appreciated. That's all for the Sunday morning gratitude - thanks again.

I had the SRFA1 model you displayed. When I took it apart to clean the switches, the five AM antenna wires broke away spontaneously from the circuit board. I hadn't forced or tugged -- they just flicked away. I couldn't trace where to solder-back the wires, so I gave up and recycled the circuit board. That was the first sony product to ever give me trouble. Though you can still buy AM stereo tuners and converters online, both stereo stations in my region took out their stereo exciters. Though I enjoyed the sound quality when I could get it, the era is finished for me.

Got to miss those old Sony service manuals. I really hope this type of stuff makes a comeback with the right to repair movement taking off.

Love this crossover of two of my favorite channels. This video is proof that KZfaq is indeed a community!

Thanks for sharing with us

Yes, AM stereo has so many advantages over what we get today in way of digital, it has that full rich stereo sound and as for 1010 Toronto it is transmitting in mono these days. There is some hope I have been working on a improve AM stereo format for 2020's, that has encoded noise reduction and it can send out timing information, called the C-QuAMv2 system.

I find that stereo sounds different even if the speakers are close together or you are not even in front of them.. The way sound bounces around even the small separation gives you some extra dimension.

I was very bullish on AM Stereo when it came out. I still have two Sony SRFA-100 Radios and one Sony SRF-A1. The A1 has a poor jack connector, and both of my SRF-A100s have problems as well. I'd love to get at least one of them fixed. A unique experience was listening to WQXR in Hazeltine stereo sounding great on the stage, with another station carrying Larry King sitting in 7th row, center😀

Loving AM at the moment with a Tecsun R9700DX, Tecsun R920C and a Grundig G2000A. I use them all with a passive loop antenna from Tecsun and can listen to stations from across Europe and further afield.

the crossover of the decade!!!

Oh nice a video a bit late but I'm happy and it's radio related. Have a nice Friday tomorrow.

WRNJ! Hackettstown NJ! Born and raised.

Thanks for the video, Kevin.

AM Stereo?! I never knew that existed. Mind blown!

I remember when you posted that am stereo technics toyota radio. I was so happy to get that same model when i bought my 86 cressida years later

1010am from Toronto is what I play everyday, which is were I'm from, it used to be CFBR 680AM all music and news back in the 80s. Now it's 680 NEWS ALL DAY AND WITH THE WEATHER.

Great video as usual. I still love radio.

My dad had a Sparc-o-matic stereo in his truck in the late 80’s. I remember sitting in the driveway listening to stations in AM stereo. I think that at the time there were at least a couple of stations in Chicago that broadcast in AM stereo. (Now I’m gonna have to look up Sparco-o-matic car stereos to see which model it was.)

Well, that's an audio first for me. I have never heard AM stereo before and I have been around a while. Interesting. Thank you.

I had a similar Sony AM stereo over 30 years ago, and when I visited a friend back then, near Boston, MA, and I heard WQXR, 1560, from NYC, at night, then in AM stereo. I also remember, WNBC, 660, NYC, before it changed to WFAN in October 1988, had AM stereo in the 1980's.

AM was always terrible in the UK the day stereo FM BBC Radio 1 started was heaven

3:32 - "Yes, we have no bananas"! :) Let's PARTY!

i had one and thought it was great at the time, very happy with it.

First time in me life. i hear about AM Stereo 😲

The joy I felt at saying "capacitors" lol

2 of my most watched channels 💯

11:00 VW sounding like the god of radio repair.

Didn't know Stereo AM existed and can also sound that good. I only remembered AM as whistling lofi sound.

I'm sorry you didn't fix your favorite radio model man. R.I.P to another AM Stereo receiver.

Oh man... I must have been living under a rock... I didn't realize Chis Cuff passed away. I was friends with him on Facebook through the Antique Radio Forum, though I am not very active on the forum, and left Facebook several years ago. 😢

Great video, never realised am stereo was a thing tbh , only ever thought it was fm

🤗 "Mine has a glow in the dark sticker on top" 🤗 😭😂🤣

Great to see the bigger KZfaqrs in this scene are acknowledging Ben's existence. It was already surprising to see Mat from Techmoan watch Oddity Archive, and I'm glad to know that you watch the silly fool behind the cardboard box as well Kevin. If you happen to read this, what do you think of his (past) music? I think it's not that bad.

thanks bro! greetings from austria ;-)

That coil part of the wideband sidebands pass. The lock range is set by a potentiometer. That coil and it's counterpart adjust symmetry of your sidebands. The distortion adjustment is probably the lock range. When I go into mine, I'll post the video soon.

I was admiring your range of Radio Shack stuff. I worked at Tandy in Toronto right when CFRB started transmissions in stereo. So, the TM125, the 1000 & monitor and all the other stuff. I had a 2000. And a Coco3. Man, heady days.

The late Chris Cuff explains why I haven't seen a video from him in a long time. I was thinking about his channel the other day and figured it was lost to the times when KZfaq was more fun. Sad to hear he passed but glad he can live on in some way with the radio you have.

The late Chris Cuff? I didn't realise he'd died, I used to watch his videos and I can't remember his KZfaq handle, I think his videos are still on KZfaq. I liked his content.

very necessary crossover

Very cool video 💯⚡📻📻

here i am, watching this video with one airpod in.

Hi Kevin the AM Stereo sounds really good. We never had AM Stereo in the UK.

Liked the old Chrysler car head unit

AM Stereo? Wow I had no idea that even existed!

"Yes, we have no bananas We have no bananas today."

I think this is the clearest I think I’ve even heard AM.

Even though AM stereo seems redundant these days. I remember when Radio Disney was on AM stereo!

try a guitar pick to remove the knobs . also works great when opening walkmans.

Even though you weren’t able to fix Ben’s radio, the fact that it still sounds excellent in AM mono makes up for it. It’s really shocking how good a well-processed AM station can sound with the right equipment and the A100, even switched to narrow bandwidth mode, still blows new AM tuners out of the water Do you run your AM station continuously or only on an as-needed basis for testing?

The FCC had adopted C-Quam as the standard, when Leonard Kahn sued the FCC instead of biting down the FCC said "let the market decide" this is why he SRF-A100 has switches, it was the swiss army knife of AM Stereo receivers, was a great radio if you can find one without paying an arm and leg, I had one as a kid, it accidentally got left outside and that was the end of it. most modern AM broadcast transmitters will pass C-Quam, Nautel I believe its built in and Broadcast Electronics (BE) with a add on card. by the time I became broadcast engineer in January 2022 at a cluster of stations in North Carolina we had sold our AM signals by that point, one of them was running AM Stereo, I believe its been switched off.

I am so sad that there is no AM in Germany anymore. In my car I sometimes get faint reception of French or some Eastern European channels and the French one is sometimes even somewhat audible and listenable to, even though I am like 1,000km from the French border. I wish we still had the Long, Medium and Short Wave AM here im Germany 😢

Haha that's funny I used to sub to him on my channel that got deleted by KZfaq 2 years ago.. so thanks for posting him .

To me it looks like all the dial drive wheels and pulleys are mounted on a single plastic part. Maybe it's possible to remove that part without having to unstring the cord?

Hi I have just bought an 8-watt AM broadcast TX I cannot get any range on it though the aerial to the end of the garden signal fades out before the end of the road what's wrong thanks? its not a bad TX as this is the second one I try to.

The single best crossover just happened. And I was wondering if the AM Stereo uploads on You Can't Download Vinyl was related to this...

I was in the UK, and don't think AM Stereo was ever a thing there. And these days I think AM stations in the UK are mostly talk, rather than music.

Vwestlife & Ben, I Was Always Told AM Stereo Was Just Another Channel Of Noisy, Unlistenable Audio..."There's No Bandwith, Ect...I Heard 2 C-Quam Cuts From Japanese Skywave (About 500 Miles). While I'm Sure This Is The ABSOLUTE Limit Of The System For Demo Purposes, The Clarity And Lack Of Noise Blew Me Away!!! There Is 1 Track Of Boston - More Than A Feeling & Every Breath You Take by The Police. 🤩

AM and AM stereo is awesome. I wish we had it in Europe. I have this very small AM transmitter for just 1 meter away from ebay. Sounds pretty good though.

I wonder if KLAK will ever convert to AM Stereo? It'd make Sergei sound considerably more rich and timbrous.

He should send it to Shango for an End of Life video 🤣

Wow I never knew about stereo AM, that's very cool. Looks like here in the UK it just never got going in the first place which is a shame. Though there is someone on a forum thread from 2018 claiming their local station was broadcasting in stereo (and then an update a few years later saying the regulator told them to stop)!

i do have the full top of the line version of that infinity stereo you showed. it is the infinity 2 stereo by Mitsubishi. the cassette deck still works fine. the big difference to the equalizer is that it uses buttons rather then sliders. it came out of a 1990 chrysler new yorker not a bad radio by any means.

i like very much the topic AM stereo. maybe because in italy it has never existed. never heard about it and narrow/wide band also

I have both the a1 and the A100. Bought them both in 1984.

Glad my radios are working and not junk lol the dents give it caracter