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by matheusmoreira 1643 days ago
> Each car radio sends out a signal at a frequency higher than the one it is receiving from the radio station.

Why would it do that? I thought car radios were merely receivers, not transmitters. This is insane...

4 comments

It is a result of the mechanism used for operation. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver especially the section on Local oscillator radiation
Most radio receivers transmit a very weak signal slightly higher than the carrier frequency of the station tuned as a result of how they enhance received signals. Look up superheterodyne for details.
It's a side effect of how tuning works (local oscillator), and the signal is extremely weak, very little of it radiates out due to some components / PCB traces behaving as an accidental (poor) antenna.

Still, with good enough equipment it can be detected even from some distance.