Radio reception improved
Radio reception improved
Author
Discussion

davidf4

Original Poster:

152 posts

245 months

Friday 20th November 2009
quotequote all
Background: My S1 has recently been to car hospital for HGF correction and a spruce up.
Radio reception has long been a lost cause. The radio (Radio 2, God's own channel...I don't tend to listen to anything else...don't go Terry!) did seem to work reasonably well when I first got the car 4 years ago, then one day reception became very patchy and was never the same again. I put it down to letting the engine cover drop, disturbing the aerial wiring, but always wondered if a radio transmitter up at Winter Hill had been removed or had had a power reduction.

Anyway, of late I've been using the radio on my mobile phone, plugged through its headphone jack into the Aux input on my car stereo, to get my Radio 2 fix. Why the phone can get great reception with a few feet of cable as an antenna, whilst the car aerial is all but useless I don't know, but I digress.
Last week I came out of work to find the phone charge was too low to allow the radio to operate, so I put the phone away and thought what the hell and turned on the actual car radio...and lo, radio reception was fantastic and has been ever since.

I'm up in the North Cheshire/Wigan area under the gaze of Winter Hill. Anyone else notice a similar reception improvement over the last few weeks, or has the recent engine work perhaps disturbed something and sorted the aerial out?

I'm thinking there's been a transmission power boost (perhaps since the digital switch over), but either way it's great to be able to listen to the radio properly again!

bounce

AdrianR

822 posts

307 months

Friday 20th November 2009
quotequote all
Has it got dark? The radio in my S1 has always worked better with the headlights on.

AdrianR

TIPPER

2,955 posts

242 months

Friday 20th November 2009
quotequote all
AdrianR said:
Has it got dark? The radio in my S1 has always worked better with the headlights on.

AdrianR
DING!

LotusEater666

187 posts

223 months

Friday 20th November 2009
quotequote all
I tracked my poor reception down to noise from the MFRU... put a big wad of tin foil between it and the chassis and wrap round the connectors. Also if your stereo has a mono setting try using it.

davidf4

Original Poster:

152 posts

245 months

Friday 20th November 2009
quotequote all
The improvement is all the time morning and evening.
Flexi-time means that sometimes I have a lie in and don't need the lights by the time I drive to work.
Just thought that folk out there who'd given up on the radio might want to give it another chance and see if it's better.

Gooby

9,269 posts

257 months

Saturday 21st November 2009
quotequote all
The ariels in the R are very different but I improved my signal for both analog and digital buy re routing the ariels to the front of the clam, and routing them away from possible interference items like looms, fuse boxes, windscreen wiper motors, fans, lights etc etc. Much better. I also re located the GPS antenna to the front of the clam and now I can lock on to 6-8 satelites in no time. While the clam is off, it is a must do job.

LivinLaVidaLotus

1,626 posts

224 months

Saturday 21st November 2009
quotequote all
Can only listen to my radio when it's properly dark if I have light on - seems to stop the interference from the HID ballast (couldn't be bothered to move the aerial) when it's dark (either that or it's a stronger FM signal when it's dark).