Radio reception

You get better reception when you touch your stck antenna because your body increases the effective size of the antenna.

You could increase the size of the stick antenna by using a telescopic stick, like all cars had in the 50s and early 60s, when radio reception was more important to buyers, who had few options to bring their own audio entertainment along. There may be times when you have to collapse the antenna.

For FM, the best antenna you could fit inside a RV would likely be a horizontal 1/2 wave, drawback of that being that it is directional like your VHF TV antenna. For AM, you would have room inside the RV for a long wire. But I don't think many automotive radios have separate antenna inputs, thus they use a compromise size vertical whip for both.

That's for radio reception. But it you are thinking about satellite radio, then maybe what you want is more programming, not better reception. Broadcast radio is not what it used to be, programming usually focused to local interests, rather than entertainment programming.

For learning what is going on around me, 30-50 miles, I turn on broadcast radio. For entertainment, I bring my own music with me, CDs, flash drives, iPod. iPod can play about 2 weeks without repetition. That's a lot better than genre programming from a satellite provider with a much shorter playlist, repeating much of the program every 2-4 hours.

For satellite, I would go with a portable, rather than installation in the vehicle. That would be if I wasn't interested in doing my own programming, wanted to let someone else pick the music or talk shows for me. Even at that, I'm more inclined toward Internet radio, where the choices are spread over several providers.

We have the same problem. It strikes me that a vertical antenna on the roof would be very high, making the rig 15 feet high. That might risk connecting the radio to a power line or something. I wonder if a long horizontal wire would work? Or for FM, a half wave antenna, about 5 feet long with a cut and radio connection in the middle, I think. That used to work well in a college dorm.

How much does satellite radio cost?
I hate monthly bills. As a senior, I tend to total up the cost for the rest of my life and think that is the real total cost since it must come out of savings. It really adds up - $80 a month for TV is a thousand dollars a year and I could live another 30 years! I personally would rather have a new car than TV.

Several years ago Pioneer offered a neat unit called Inno. It had an enclosed battery, so portable. But you could also get home and vehicle cradles. We have two of them plus cradles in the car, truck, and RV. It allows us two subscriptions and still be used in four places. The neat thing was that it also had the ability to record music. This is great when traveling in places with poor or no reception and still have music. I think that XM/Sirius still offers a version of that unit sold as the Roady. If we were shopping for a new unit, guaranteed that would be my choice.
As for the radio antenna? Is this a class C? Then yes the antenna is in the wrong place. In the old days people used to mount a second antenna on the roof of the RV and run the wire down and attach it to the original antenna with an alligator clip. Seemed to work then. Personally I would mount a new ground plane antenna up near the roof and figure out how to get the wire down to the back of the radio. Usually can be done after a fashion.

Thanks for the input, we also thought about that, we know we need a receiver and antenna of some sort to use just in motorhome.
Roy

Sirius ready? That usually means that you have to buy a dedicated receiver and mount it under the dash someplace. Had that on my Dodge Ram and after the free period expired I wired my portable XM radio in and never looked back. I hate a dedicated item for a vehicle that probably sits for 9-10 months a year. Get a portable you can transfer to different locations.