Radio Antenna

[mrosser]

I was camping in a remote mountain area recently & I could not pick up any radio stations. I assumed it was because of my location. The folks we were traveling with were picking up several stations. My question is this, is a 2004 3255 suppose to have a antenna on top of the trailer for the radio. Mine does not. Anybody else have this problem.

[OntMont]

No, its not supposed to have an external antenna.

Yes, many people are having that problem.

An external antenna would be a good idea, I have thought of doing it to our 3255RL. I would simply mount it on the outside of the slide, directly behind the stereo. I mentioned this problem during our factory tour.

Some people have found that the internal antenna supplied with the reciever has not been deployed properly at the factory. Might be worth taking a look behind the set. Check your manual to see what sort of antennas your model receiver is supposed to have. There may be separate ones for AM and FM reception.

(Your 2004 probably has a different receiver than ours, so my comments about an external antenna may not apply to your rig).

[Montana_657]

First off I have the RCA ... you stereo may differ.

The FM antenna is a wire about 2 feet long, the AM is a loop wound over a plastic loom.

The stereo was held in the cabinet by driveing wood screws into the sides from the adjacent cabinet.

We unwound the FM antenna but AM was still poor.

We added an automotive antenna to the outside which made quite a difference but....(you knew this was coming).

The aluminum frame of a Montana forms a Faraday shield. You know, if you drive the car through one of those old style metal cage type of brideges how your AM radio fades?? That's what it's like inside a Montana. The trick is to allow the rf (radio waves) to enter the trailer on a wire, not over the air.

Radio antennas work best over a large flat metal surface, like a car body. We don't have one.....

So, installing an antenna and grounding it to the Montana frame helps, but like everything else has some limitations.

[NJ Hillbilly]

You can look at a marine supply store for a radio antenna that's designed for a fiberglass shell. They are self grounding and do work better than an automotive style one.

John

[OntMont]

Thanks for these responses. I will keep them in mind when I get around to upgrading my antenna.

[Montana_657]

Marine antennas aint' "self grounding" Yeah, they mount on glass, but they depend on the fact the boat has an electrical system grounded to the H2O. When I did the marine thing for Fredrick Goertz Electronics back in the 60's getting a decent ground on those old boats took a lot of effort. Lower frequencies just above the AM band gave us the most trouble.

[Dental Floss Tycoon]

I had the same problem with my stereo. I removed (trashed) the Quest unit and installed a Sony system. For the antenna I installed a cable TV splitter from after the amplifier so both the TV and the FM radio use the antenna on the roof. Works like a charm.

[NJ Hillbilly]

Gruffy, don't many of them adverstise "No ground Plane Required"?

[Northstar]

Thanks for the great post. Nice info to know. Happyrving....

[Montana_657]

Yep they do....because they play tricks with the shield between the radio and the antenna... but the radio is still grounded. They are also not AM antennas... or at least I haven't run across any.

[Montana_1280]

Don't know what kind of radio you have, but the one that came in our unit was useless. Would only pick up very strong stations and then only marginal. Lots of hissing and static. Replaced with Panasonic unit DVD/Radio combination that had in my stick house. It was some better, but still marginal. Wife had a Bose unit that she won. When I put that in the 5er it blew me away. Picks up as station just about every click of the dial and we are in a fairly remote area. Sooo..yes, the metal frame is a deterrent to good reception, but the radio receiver quality has a lot to do with it. Of course, I would not have ever purchased a Bose at around $500.00. Since it was free...Hallelujah.

[mrosser]

Thanks to all for the info, I had been thinking of upgrading the sound system anyway, now i just have to convince the wife.

[Jeff Heiser]

Here's another approach to music when radio cannot be had. I have XM Radio and I dont even have to have it installed in my rig. I have the XM receiver installed in my truck connected to an always on power source (the battery). I have an FM modulator plugged into the output jack. I tune the FM receiver in the trailer to which ever station I have the modulator tuned to and whola I have radio anywhere I have a view of the southern sky. I have not been anyplace so far that I could not get XM. Many people mount the XM receiver inside their rigs which makes it easier to tune but I like keeping it in the truck becasue we use it in both places. And, I usually listen to only one channel and dont channel surf much.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[w4nfr]

Most of the Good Time AM/FM/CD/DVD radio / sound systems don't perform well on AM radio. Even with a good antenna outside, the AM is crappy. The FM will usually work pretty good with most any wire inside or outside antenna. But don't look for AM to be very good outside a major metro area, where there are lots of strong stations nearby.

The best AM/FM receiver I ever had was a SONY AM/FM/CD that I had in my old trailer. It was a car radio receiver that I adapted for use in the RV with a traditional outside antenna on top of the RV.

[Thunderman]

Hello Gruffy,
Did you have a difficult time connecting the antenna wire to the wire in the trailer?

[snow]

I have the same poor radio reception in my 2980 Montana....a lil-fm wire n a hoop for am....I brought my house Bose radio in when camping.....I get all kinds of stations.....save me the trouble of trying to put in an outside antenna......the factory should address the poor radio reception thing.....

George & Joan Berlinger
2004 Montans 2980
2004 Duramax 2500 HD Ext. Cab
Allision Tranny
Prodigy Brake Controller
Lapeer, MI.
American Eskimo (13 yrs. old)