Switched Diversity for Mobile FM Broadcast Reception

A simple two-antenna, switched diversity system has been developed to reduce multipath interference in car stereo reception. Conventional car antennas are used and no circuit modifications are required in many current receivers. The use of frequency-selective fading for the primary control of switching greatly speeds the decision process and the audible transients usually associated with switched diversity are minimized. Performance is enhanced by incorporating sequential sampling to select the lesser disturbed antenna when both are simultaneously corrupted. The reception improvement generally accords with predictions based on typical fading statistics and is very substantial in many multipath conditions.