Thread: Increasing FM Radio Reception on an aluminum boat - any tricks to try?

Originally Posted by artcarney_agr

No, aluminum.

Antenna is probably grounding out on the box.

Originally Posted by artcarney_agr

I've got a radio on my boat, AM/FM/Weather, it has a short stubby antenna that's about 9" long. Are there any tricks I can try to get better reception?

My boat is aluminum, I'm wondering if running a jumper wire from the antenna to a bolt on the hull would help - would that basically make the whole hull act like an antenna and help with reception?

Is there some little gadget on the market that boosts radio reception?

How good is the AM/FM/ tuner on the radio,a good tuner will pull in the signal better, just like it does for a home stereo.

Originally Posted by Techno2000

How good is the AM/FM/ tuner on the radio

How would I know? It's a Boss MGR350B

I had this same unit on a different boat, a Ranger bass boat, and it did pretty well with an antenna zip-tied up under the dash.

Originally Posted by artcarney_agr

How would I know?

You would have to compare it to other tuners. They have FM tuners for home stereo that go for $1,800 and that's just for the tuner...Lol.

The aluminum box is shielding your radios internal antenna(or at least the tuner) try a plastic lid for the box. The car radio in my tracker came in a plastic mount.

Originally Posted by shuorc

The aluminum box is shielding your radios internal antenna(or at least the tuner) try a plastic lid for the box. The car radio in my tracker came in a plastic mount.

Not going to do that. Plastic won't last, this boat also gets hunted out of in the winter.

Clint is on to something, and I must agree with him. The fact that it works with the lid off is a huge clue. It suggests to the RF-savvy that the antenna, or the transmission line connection between the receiver and antenna is bad, such that the transmission line (coax, board traces, etc) inside the box from ant to input is picking up the signal, not the antenna. When the lid is put on, the line acting as an antenna is now inside an RF shield (or at least inside a wave guide below cut-off frequency of FM which is 87-108 MHz), so no signal. This is what I'm thinking. It is probably quickest to try another antenna first.

I bought a different antenna yesterday afternoon, and the guts of it look a lot beefier. I installed it last night and it appears to have solved the problem. I feel like this new antenna is better shielded than the other one was.

I think I must of had a Faraday cage thing going on with that crappy antenna.