Problems with reception and radio (1 Viewer)

[Mike Baldwin]

I have everything hooked up right. I have a coax going into the antena look thou. I was going to go buy a nice external unit but before I spend the money wanted to ask the Forum.

Pretty mcuh there has to be some kind of interference, but I don't know how to resolve it. I have the unit on and sometimes when I walk in the general area like within 15ft of it it will just cutoff. No overload or anything so the wires are not a problem. It will normally cut back in once i move or leave the room. Its never in the same spot either. Should I just go buy a big antenea and try it. LMK what you guys suggest for getting the best reception with local radio channels. Thanks

Mike

 

[John S]

You have tried repositioning the one you are using and it has made no difference?

 

[LanceJ]

Mike: for the past five years or so most receivers in general have been equipped with lousy tuner sections (and that's no surprize--what is there to listen to anymore on the radio anyway? Just about all they play these days is Stairway To Heaven, smooth jazz and the latest uber-slut's synthesized pop garbage track).

Anyway, when you get into the subject of antennas you're getting into a tricky area. Unfortunately they aren't neat-n-tidy things to deal with. You basically have to try:

* different antenna orientations
* different antenna designs
* go to an outside model if nothing seems to work inside

If you find a good combination of location and antenna, FM radio sound can be very good. But this also depends heavily on how good the transmitting station is. On a college station and one listener supported station in my city, the sound can be good enough on my system to fool people into thinking a CD is playing if they aren't analyzing the sound itself. Because better stations don't usually jam up their volume levels or use lots of compression to make the sound seem more "exciting" (overcompression can make any kind of music sound like cow poop--the same reason so many CDs these days can cause listener's fatigue). Read about this destructive practice here. If you don't want to read the entire article, scroll down to the all-caps paragraph--this is an excellent visual aid that explains how nasty overcompression can be.

BTW: if you have one of those Pacifica stations in your area, they play music of every type, and I do mean EVERY type. Metal, (real) country, jazz, world music, punk, rap, electronica, you name it. And the DJs actually know about the music they're playing!! And there are no commercials of course. One of my favorite shows (each music classification seems to be played in big chunks) is "Soular Grooves" on Saturday night from 9pm to 12am. Cool trippy/hip-hop/funky stuff. But the news shows can be very liberal-oriented so be prepared.

LJ

 

[John S]

Well in Denver you have KUVO the public jazz station...

No smooth jazz there ever!!!!!!

 

[RobCar]

What's the frequency for kuvo? I'm in boulder ...

 

[RobCar]

Although I should add that I've discovered the music channels on digital cable, and I might never go back to the radio. It's 24/7 music, no ads, no station identification, never a single crackle of repection problems.

 

[John S]

RobCar they are at 89.3 Give them a few chances, they play everything really. But seem to stay clear of all the crapola smooth jazz modern junk.