I'll look into all that for sure.  The cell phone bombardment theory
might hold water if our other two cars had the same problem.  I think
this is Vanagon(ie my Vanagon)-specific issue.  Where would the Radio
shack filter go?  In line on the power wire from the battery to the
radio?  I do have 2 big amps driving a stereo and maybe they re
causing some trouble.  Who knows!

BTW,  Gas is 2.69 a gallon in "beautiful" downtown Huxley Iowa.

thanks for the help.

DM&FS

At 09:32 PM 9/12/2005, Dennis Haynes wrote:
>Most likely the radio is picking up the noise from the alternator. Make
>sure the factory suppressor is in place and consider getting a filter
>from radio shack. AM is susceptible to noise do to the modulation
>characteristics. FM is inherently much more noise resistant.
>
>Dennis
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
>Of Max Wellhouse
>Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:19 PM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Radio Noise Problem on AM
>
>I have had a consistently inconsistent problem whe3n listening to my
>AM tuner in my 90 GL.  The head unit is a Sony XR-C6100 but
>I'm  pretty sure it's not the Sony's fault.  BTW, it has two Rockford
>Fosgate amps driving the stereo speakers, so the Sony chip amp
>doesn't get heard very often.  The radio makes the same noise whether
>the R/F's are thumping or not.
>
>Symptoms are as follows:  I will turn on the unit on and be listening
>to either a local or far away station and after a few minutes, there
>is a very annoying sound that resembles someone taking a signal
>generator and running from about 100hertz to about 2k hertz.  it
>oscillates some and is intermittent.  The reason I don't initally
>bame the Sony is that when I take my hand out of the driver's side
>window and touch/ wiggle/massage the antenna shaft, it changes pitch
>or briefly goes away.  Other than bad grounding, what could be
>causing this strange nosie.  If it were bad ground, wouldn't it also
>affect FM performance too?  The FM side is fine.  FWIW, the antenna
>is the model that has the really skinny black solid shaft and it
>threads into othe unit attached to the body.  Any help would be
>greatly appreciated.
>
>DM&FS