Analog Air Waves?

Question

Everyone knows that analog has to be gone soon. I just have a question.

The radio's that are in cars...are they analog air waves? (I'm not talking about satellite radio.)

If so, are cars just not going to be made with regular radio's anymore?

Answer 1

Television is getting away from analog, not radio.

Answer 2

Technically both in the US

All broadcast radios (am/fm) are analog only radios. The new HD radio hyped on some stations is actually a digital signal "riding" at the same time with the analog signal.. so technically they are both.

But it was done for TV going digital so more space can be made for police and newer emerging technologies that need the space as there was a lot of wasted space in the analog TV to keep stations from interfering with each other, something that is way less likely on DTV

Answer 3

TV is required to go all digital in Feb 2009.  And analog cell phones will be useless after Feb of this year (2008).  

But analog radio is not going away any time soon and there is no law requiring radio to be digital.  The analog radio you have in your car or in your house will work fine for many years down the road.  

However, there is a new format in radio called HD that offers CD quality sound and there are no subscription fees like satellite radio.  It also offers multiple formats on one frequency.  

If you are not intrested in HD, you don't need to upgrade your current analog radio because HD stations will still broadcast in analog in addition to digital.  Not every station is in HD yet and some don't have any plans to convert due to the cost to upgrade the studios and transmitter.

Answer 4

i think eventually all analog air waves will be done away with. we will have to subscribe to satellite radio.