Forum Discussion

ken0304's avatar
ken0304
Explorer
Aug 19, 2016

poor radio reception

I have a 2005 class c motorhome on a ford e450. I have poor radio reception out of the city. I replaced the radio with a new one, but still lose the signal. I have checked the antenna and everything looks good. Has anyone had the same problem.
  • Is the antenna on the right front fender? Thats your problem.
  • I had a 1998 Ford E350 and the antenna was mounted on the right front fender and never lost reception. I would check the wiring from the antenna to the radio. Simple things like is the antenna wire loose to the radio or is a bit of rust interfering with the antenna's ground.
  • Hopefully it's just a ground that needs buffing up, but it's amazing the trash coming out of the engine CPU these days, and that antenna is awfully close
  • Our 2014 is the same. The people who have solved it have installed an antenna on the roof of the MH. I'm thinking about it.

    We had a trailer that had the radio antenna attached at the upper sidewall, with a 90* mount to point it skyward. That worked too. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know how high above the roof the antenna needs to be.

    I also don't know if it needs to be on a metal ground plane, such as a fender.
  • I'am sure the higher the antenna is the better, but I don't know where to buy one with a long enough cable. Anyone knows where please let me know.
  • If you haven't already done so, can I suggest that you seriously consider using satellite radio, such as XM or Sirius? We live in the Colorado mountains and have had XM radio for close to 18 years. It is in all of our vehicles, the house and the RV. We would never go back to regular commercial radio again. Reception is never a problem and there is an abundance of program choices. Just an idea.
  • ken0304 wrote:
    I'am sure the higher the antenna is the better, but I don't know where to buy one with a long enough cable. Anyone knows where please let me know.
    higher is not necessarily better on AM, but distance from the interfering source is.
  • Some RV manufacturers move the antenna forward on the front fender, to get it more distant from the cab-over framework. I thought this might have been part of Ford's RV Prep option package.