I have a
Sony CDX-GT570S[1] in my 2000 VW Passat. Pulled out the old Monsoon radio, got a harness and tried the factory active antenna.
On MW, there's a lot of noise, nothing on SW, and FM worked fine.
Put a 31" whip on an NMO mount on the trunk (the standard antenna length its made for) and MW, SW, and FM work great.
As far as overall performance:
On MW its pretty good. I'm satisfied with it. Not picking up any noticeable noise from the car.
On FM its fine. Same as on MW, no noise from the car.
On SW is another thing. When the car is parked, not running, and lights off, SW is fine from 4800-18150 (I haven't explored much below 4800). I listen to R Australia (9580), V of Korea (15180, 11710), V of Greece (15630. Radio doesn't get 9400-9500
, so 9420 is out), R Romania (9700), R Serbia (9685), V of Croatia (9925
), The Mighty KBC (9925), R National da Amazonia (11780), Firedrakes on 13 MHz, Japan somewhere on 15 MHz, and other random stuff I find scattered around. I'd say its probably comparable or a bit better than a portable with a whip as far as sensitivity, but
far better in audio quality. Wish it had AM sync...
When the car is running, there is ignition noise from ~11MHz through 17MHz. If the station is strong enough, its not a big deal.
When the headlights are on, can hear what sounds to be a whine from the computer system through most of the SW band. In places, it is strong enough to make a strong station unlistenable (e.g. 4840 in the evenings). Do not hear any of this on MW nor FM.
Going to try replacing the spark plugs with RFI-suppressed ones. That should help, I hope, but it won't do a thing for when some cars are next to me, as it'll pick up their ignition noise. Noticeable, but not very strong and all I have to do is get away from them.
I put this in a year ago using the factory antenna, and last winter finally got the second antenna hooked up. Even with the noise, I still love it and have fulfilled a dream I had since 1988 when I bought my Sony ICF-2010. Listening to the 2010 in the car was possible, but not elegant nor all that great. Listening to SW through the whole system is nothing short of fantastic.
As far as the GT570S itself goes- It does the job and it sounds good. The faceplate is gaudy, buttons & interface are a PITA, too few memories, and no direct entry. Its not a radio in which to scan the bands with, especially while driving. At some time, there may have been something better out there, but got this new off of eBay from Israel and now his supply dried up. Hard to find anything similar as of late, so while the interface sucks, yet sounds good, I'm fairly happy with it since there isn't much choice. And even a year ago when I found it, it was the only one I could find (he had 10, so I got one. Wish I would've picked up a spare).
My car is 13+ years old and still runs well. I've driven a few other new cars for a day (while mine is in the shop). The factory radio on a 2013 Passat or a Toureg is
fantastic on MW, even with the little microscopic stub of an antenna. Touch screen, sensitive & selective. I was amazed. But no SW. And with the size of that radio vs my single DIN Sony, not sure what I would do with a new car. Hard to give up SW, even with a nice touchscreen & sensitive MW radio. So I keep my car with SW & no car payments.
I'm also a ham, so have various transceivers, but none of those have a nice bandwidth for SW listening other than the Yaesu FT-847, but that thing is not going in the car on a daily basis. Plus, with the factory VW radio, never had a way to hook it into the stereo system. With the Sony, it has an aux jack, so could use from an external radio, but then, what's the point? Then have to pack it all up & lock it in the truck when not by the car. And if I use an amateur transceiver, the bw will suck. Car stereo is a lot more convenient and sounds really nice.
If you're considering doing it, do it. Search high & low for receivers now, as it may take a while (if you want a car stereo with SW). As with anything with a limited antenna, it won't be a hardcore DX machine like Chris' 635' loop+SDR, but it certainly will be well worth the effort.
While there are still broadcasters on SW...
[1] Interestingly, Sony seems to have scrubbed the SW portions of the radio from their sites. No idea why, but the box says GT570S and it certainly has SW.
[2] Poking around a bit more...
Kenwood KDC-MP149That model is for sale online in Australia.
Seems as though this may have SW:
Pioneer DEH-4450BTFound some on eBay, but no mention of SW with that part number.
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