Australian here, also find it bizarre that this is a problem in the US.
Biggest problem I have in my Android phone requires the head-phones to be plugged in to listen to FM...as it acts as the aerial.
Biggest problem I have in my Android phone requires the head-phones to be plugged in to listen to FM...as it acts as the aerial.
I've had phones that needed the headphones to be plugged in, which is an annoyance but understandable. The new Moto G 4th Gen works without them so that might be changing.
Also if you really don't want to have wires around you can buy a jack tap antenna (not sure about the naming, making it up sorry) or.. just plug in the headphones and cut the wires away from the jack (and as a precautionary measure insulate it).
AM antennas are smaller because they are generally not very good. Most I gave see in cheap radios are wire wound around a ferrite core. That matches the impedance but the loss is high. It's usually ok for AM broadcast though because the power levels are HIGH and there is minimal multipath distortion.