Trailer AM radio reception
My FM radio works fine but can't seem to get anything on the AM dial in the trailer. Are the antennas that bad for AM or maybe something is disconnected. Anyone else have bad AM reception?
Forum Discussion
- This year I'm going to bring along a portable radio and compare reception. I'm betting on the portable.
Lynnmor wrote:
Since most people don't use an AM anymore, the quality of the radios made today is very poor.
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Yup, this is your answer. Too bad really. There is nothing worth listing to on FM Radio in my area. I used to have a antenna on the roof of my house for FM so that I could get stations. The nearest decent ones are 75-120 miles away. But, I don't have it anymore and just set around the house in silence often.
Am and FM use different antennas. Sometimes the AM antenna is built into a radio and there is no external antenna for AM . If you can get to the back of your radio look for a screw to put a wire on to get better AM reception. There may in fact already be a wire back there just bundled up. Spread it out further and you will get better AM reception. If there is no screw or no wire I'm sorry but, your out of luck.Dick_B wrote:
This year I'm going to bring along a portable radio and compare reception. I'm betting on the portable.
You can get better AM reception with a portable radio, provided you place it in front of a window; even better outside the trailer. ;)Reception for a NOAA weather radio is abysmal as well if the radio isn't in front of/near a window.
My own guess to add why AM reception is so poor in a towable RV is: A)Electrical interference generated primarily by the converter, and B)Unlike a mast type antenna mounted on a car fender, as far as I can tell a towable's antenna is mounted into wood, not metal which causes the antenna to lose its "ground plane" effect.- If you have a jensen or similar antenna ,it is only good for over the air TV and FM. not AM. Put a splitter into the motorola jack and add a car antenna and put the antenna anywhere behind the radio and you will get AM.
Worked for me. n7bsn wrote:
TheGriswolds wrote:
My FM radio works fine but can't seem to get anything on the AM dial in the trailer. Are the antennas that bad for AM or maybe something is disconnected. Anyone else have bad AM reception?
Assuming your radio is connected to it's antenna, and it probably is if you are getting lots of FM stations since most use the same antenna. The problem may, and probably is, not with your radio but with the other "stuff" in your rig.
Your AC to DC puts out a LOT of radio interference (RFI). Unplug your rig and see if the AM radio is better. Make certain your inverter (if you have one) is off too, they also can generate RFI.
It is possible that the control board on your refer is to blame, but this is less likely.
Also your blower motor on the furnace can generate RFI.
Weather affects AM much more so than FM, as does EMI. I have tried a lot of different things to improve AM reception in the trailer, but too many electronic systems with their own electric fields make AM reception on the camper radio poor at best. (I'm on my third system in the trailer, but that's a problem with poor products).
Also IIRC from USAF radar school, there are no radio waves that follow the curvature of the earth. radio waves are line-of-sight. If conditions are right, AM signals reflect off the ionosphere back to earth, then back to the ionosphere, etc. True story...a few years back while we were traveling through NW Arizona during the lunch hour I was surfing through the AM band looking for Paul Harvey's noon broadcast and found a clear strong signal. At the end of the broadcast the news station identified itself as a Traverse City MI station. I started surfing the dial and found other strong signals from the upper Great Lake region. That day AM was "FM" (freaking magic!)- Used to listen to Cousin Brucie from New York City in Gainesville, Fl. on the"skip". Happened during really clear nights.
Major Dad wrote:
n7bsn wrote:
TheGriswolds wrote:
My FM radio works fine but can't seem to get anything on the AM dial in the trailer. Are the antennas that bad for AM or maybe something is disconnected. Anyone else have bad AM reception?
Assuming your radio is connected to it's antenna, and it probably is if you are getting lots of FM stations since most use the same antenna. The problem may, and probably is, not with your radio but with the other "stuff" in your rig.
Your AC to DC puts out a LOT of radio interference (RFI). Unplug your rig and see if the AM radio is better. Make certain your inverter (if you have one) is off too, they also can generate RFI.
It is possible that the control board on your refer is to blame, but this is less likely.
Also your blower motor on the furnace can generate RFI.
Weather affects AM much more so than FM, as does EMI. I have tried a lot of different things to improve AM reception in the trailer, but too many electronic systems with their own electric fields make AM reception on the camper radio poor at best. (I'm on my third system in the trailer, but that's a problem with poor products).
Also IIRC from USAF radar school, there are no radio waves that follow the curvature of the earth. radio waves are line-of-sight. If conditions are right, AM signals reflect off the ionosphere back to earth, then back to ther ionosphere, etc. True story...a few years back while we were traveling through NW Arizona during the lunch hour I was surfing through the AM band looking for Paul Harvey's noon broadcast and found a clear strong signal. At the end of the broadcast the news station identified itself as a Traverse City MI station. I started surfing the dial and found other strong signals from the upper Great Lake region. That day AM was "FM" (freaking magic!)
X2 what Major Dad said. AM signals will skip off the atmosphere, especially at night in clear weather. I have been able to pick up AM stations as distant as Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, Cincinnati, & New York City at night on a portable radio from my home.
And, on our first RV (fifth wheel) the radio antenna was an automotive type antenna (typical towable RV installation) mounted on the entertainment slide exterior wall surface (our current TT's radio antenna is a roof mount) and the AM radio reception was worse than what we currently experience in the TT; I guess the additional height gained by the roof mount antenna marginally improves reception.- When I was a boy, my grandmother gave me a crystal set that had belonged to my great-grandfather. My father showed me how to hook it up. It was right beside my bed so I used to listen to it at night(when I was supposed to be sleeping). I used to listen to Arnie (Woo Woo) Ginsburg from a station that I think originated in Fort Wayne Indiana. The remarkable thing is that I was on the east cost in Massachusetts! The other remarkable thing is that a crystal set has no external power source; it operates solely from the RF input coming via the antenna.
But to get back to the original question. I think AM radio is a nearly forgotten step-child. None of the radios I currently own including the one in my camper get AM reception worth listening too. - As I stated earlier ...AM still is there and works with your trailer radio .You just need the right antenna. The roof top antennas are a combination television/FM antenna ...not an AM antenna.
To test it ,pull he radio out and put a car antenna ( or a piece of wire) into the motorola jack and you will get AM.
