Oops - in fact I have a Pioneer KE-A433AM. Can't find the manual but I do have an EA article from April 1985. The radio had a LOC.S switch to cut AM & FM signal strength in high signal areas, and a WIDE switch to apply wide or narrow band operation in the AM band. Probably the same for the Clarion.

Duplicate Post..DELETED.

I really liked AM Stereo when it hit WA and bought a Dick Smith AM Stereo car radio to replace a dud Pioneer AM receiver (very poor AM and only soso FM).
When I disposed of the car in around 1993 I swapped the dud Pioneer unit back in & kept the Dick Smith unit as a bench unit until we moved house in 2002.
So now it sits in my junk box unused despite trying to fit it to the 2 utes I have since had.

It WAS a VG performer and I never experienced any signal drop outs with me mainly tuned to the ABC and 2 of the Commercial AM stations that were best received in the spot were we then lived.

Would be good to hear it once again but I doubt WA will go at it again.

When I was up north at Hedland many people had Clarion units which were OK close into the towns up there that had transmitters but as you got a few kms out of town a 2kW transmitter really struggled to put a decent signal into a moving car.
At that stage we had an XW Fairmont wagon and whatever that radio was it beat the pants off many of my co -workers radios who had all bought Clarions mainly for the cassette deck inbuilt. That XW unit would pickup 6PH at Hedland (which we maintained) as one left Roebourne heading north...the Clarions all bombed out at the Yule River bridge about 30kms south of Hedland.

Currently make do with the local Community Station I volunteer at but even their music is a bit much for me at times so I resort back to what I like on a USB drive inserted in an InCar FM stereo transmitter which is really GOOD.

"Why do AM stereo radios have have that AM-st button ....?"

AM/FM radios once sported the same feature. A black slider switch with the selections AM, FM, FM Stereo.

The junker Clarion I have is a PN-20331 made at their US plant located in low wage non union Kentucky, Jan,1993 build. Have not heard it in stereo yet as AM-St is now in small outlying towns/cities according to http://meduci.com/stations.html. Search says these were used in some better Nissans. There is a service manual on ebay, will pick up for circuit insights & wiring. Am making an adapter cable from junked Delco radio for my '91 GM Lumina (which didn't have AM stereo and had blown left channel.)

When the idea was popular, I had two AM Stereo radios.
One, a Kmart special for the car and the other was in my home stereo.
Both were very good as I recollect, although my mates wondered what I was on about and my family were very ho hum about it.
So what dad. Just listen to FM..

The Kmart car radio is now my garage radio although I dont use the AM stereo very much, I just use the thing as an amp for my cheap tablet using the internet to listen to any AM or FM station I like from anywhere in the world!

But re: " "Why do AM stereo radios have have that AM-st button ....?"", the Kmart radio had both AM Stereo on/off and a wide/narrow switch- on separate switches.
When driving in the country the AM stereo would drop in and out as you get to the limit of the range. Switching that off stopped the popping. The wide/narrow switch was effective when there was interference etc that disturbed one's listening pleasure. Switching to narrow made radio sound like any other AM radio. In the wide position it was comparable (WRT frequency response) to FM.

But I recently made the switch to a digital car radio. That move was prompted by that car radio having a DVD player, USB, bluetooth phone integration, reverse camera, AM, FM and Digital radio, 13-band equalizer, the list goes on.
The digital radio impressed me the most. There are just so many stations on digital! Range is comparable to FM! The AM radio is way better than the standard Commodore radio it replaced - with a better range.

The AM radio is way better than the standard Commodore radio it replaced - with a better range.

I'm not surprised that it's better than the Commodore (Holden hasn't had good AM since it stopped using Eurovox radios) but I am surprised that a modern radio has good AM. Usually the manufacturers just use any old AM chip that may be OK for o/s but doesn't cut the mustard in Oz.