Hey all... I was up doing sealant work around my tv and fm antennas. The fm antenna doesn't seem to have the greatest reception so I took it off to investigate. Questions: Does anyone know what this white wire is in there (which does not appear to be a part of it)? Is the bare strand of wire a ground? Is there a better antenna I could use? Thanks a million!

I believe the white wire is unrelated to the antenna. The antenna wires are usually a single black "coax" looking wire. The braided wire is a ground. Don't know of a better antenna, I've got the same as you, but I'm sure something better exists.

I'm thinking it might be the TV wire.. Thanks for your help. Maybe a better receiver will pull in a signal better?

mdprowash wrote:Maybe a better receiver will pull in a signal better?Are you talking radio or TV?

pconroy328 wrote:mdprowash wrote:Maybe a better receiver will pull in a signal better?Are you talking radio or TV?Radio.. TV antenna works great.

your "big finger" is in the way... :-)If I am seeing your picture correctly, the white cable and the portion of "bare copper" is from the same cable. It would appear that perhaps some one might have found that the antenna was not working correctly and thought that perhaps running another wire might help... which looks like they appeared to want to run as some form of ground. The crimp on the coax connector looks somewhat "suspicious" (ie. poor). Disconnect that end. Find where the other end goes (ie. radio)... disconnect at that end. Temporarily make a connection between the center conductor and the outside portion of the connect at one end of the cable. At the other end, get a meter, set it on resistance readings and measure the resistance between the center and the outside (ie. sheath / ground). See what the reading is... I suspect that the connector at the antenna is not made properly and has NO / open ground. It may not actually matter as I do believe most antennas are "single wire" but perhaps the "ground" is actually shorting the main conductor somewhere along the route.

FM Antenna help | Good Sam Community

Hornnumb2
Explorer
Oct 23, 2015
The white wire is probably just under the hole hooked to something else. On mine you could unscrew the microwave and get to all those wires inside for the stereo and antenna.
mdprowash
Explorer
Oct 23, 2015
I found the braided wire is tied into the white cable with a wire nut. Where the white cable goes.. Don't know. It doesn't come out at where all other wires do. I'll leave it for now and try a new digital tuner as the original one with rotary knob is still in there.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 23, 2015
A new tuner should help. RV radios are quite cheap and if you have the old analog style it is probably wore out.

Some people put car radios in their RV's. They work better then the factory radio and run on 12 volts just like the original does. You have a lot of options if you decide to so this.

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