What is best radio for a motorhome that is not expensive?

I second (or third) the recommendation of going with a better antenna. Motorhomes make decent Faraday cages, so having something outside which can get a decent signal might be what is needed.

Car audio is so commoditized that if you buy a name brand, you should be good to go.

I feel old, because I'm still used to the times where people would spend $2000 for a car stereo only to have some hoodlum break in and steal it the next day, even though the faceplate might not be present. Now even the crackheads don't bother with the radios in cars. Plus, the factory one on my vehicle is as good as anything else out there, and one would pay more for a lifetime subscription to XM radio for the vehicle ($800 last time I checked) than the rest of the audio system.

I've had good luck with Best Buy. Bought receivers on sale and they had the kits to adapt my 1 1/2 DIN to 1 DIN and make it look factory installed. I've had 5 total installations like this and all were done very professionally. I think the most expensive receiver I installed was an Alpine for $129. The others were Motorola and were $99 and $35 for installation. I wouldn't get into some of the positions that they did, not that I could, for a $100.

Search around, look at open box at best buy, open box on cruchfield. Even amazon warehouse or places like Frys will have lots of options. I bought a new one for my old Monaco and it cost me all of 90 bucks including a 10 dollar additional USB/30 pin cable for my ipod. It was a sony, had USB and Aux in the front, and option to add XM radio if I bought the permanent mount reciever.

SLOOP SMITTEN, You are right,,, I will probably be using the Sirius once I get an Aux port to plug it into.... thanks everyone for your ideas and suggestions.

John,
I recntly picked up a Kenwood KDC-255U from Fry's.com for $69.99 with free shipping. Came with USB and Aux inputs on the front. I would check both Fry's and Crutchfields for items going on sale.

If FM reception is an issue check the unit you intend to buy for it's FM sensitivity rating. The lower the rating, supposedly, the better the ability to receive FM stations. However since there is no uniform code for rating stereo's I am not sure comparing one brand to another is an accurate way to compare, but it is something to look at. If you have USB and Aux inputs you will probably be listening to a lot less FM anyway.

Stop by a car audio shop and see if they well sell you a "take-out". They often upgrade factory radios and they will probably be happy to get $20.00 for one. They are not in demand and usually just find their way to E-bay or, in some cases, the dumpster.

I've bought a couple of DIN 1-sized Kenwood units off Ebay and am very happy with the features/quality for the price. They have 200W output, remote control, and both USB and AUX inputs and were purchased for around $120.00. An installation kit is sold to adapt your chassis' plugs directly to these units, and they include the long thin tools used to remove your old radio. It's a lot easier to do than you think, and the kit saves time splicing all the wires.

My new MH had bad reception. Turned out to be a bad coax cable to the antenna. As previous post mentioned check that first.

Often, lousy reception is the fault of the antenna and not the radio. Have you checked that out?

John S wrote:
Since I get such lousy AM and FM reception with the radio I have in my Class C rig and I need some sort of aux input port to be able to plug my Sirius Radio receiver into it, so I can get audio through the regular speakers, I am thinking of replacing the radio.

Any suggestions as to the type of radio to get.. Brand and Model and Features, etc... Anythig to improve the AM and FM signals?

And, where could they do the replacement?

Are there some other features I should look for besides an Aux input port?

The existing radio has a CD player but no Aux ports of any kind.

Figure I might be able to play the Sirius radio through the Aux port or maybe my ipod at times with some of my recorded music.

What works good for you?

TIA

my S/XM radio allows me to run the audio thru the built-in MH speakers one of three ways.

- directly connecting to a port on the rear of the dash am/fm (my dash radio does not have that). strike 1.

- running a patch cord from the S/XM radio to the AUX IN port on the front of the dash am/fm (again, no such port). strike 2.

- or...by tuning my dash am/fm to an unused FM frequency and setting the S/XM radio to transmit it's audio on that frequency. I hit that one outta the park. downside? every hundred miles or so I need to change the frequency but I've programmed 5 of them into the S/XM and it only takes a few seconds to find one that's clear.