External Radio Antennae?

[sailsmen]

Anyone install an external antennae for better reception while on the road?

[Mad1]

Install an external antenna. Gods no!

Why would I want to listen to what passes for radio programming, even here in so-called Music City, which boasts exactly "ONE!" independent (Non-corporate chain owned) radio station.

The rest, run by by Clear Channel and their ilk, are so lacking even the rudimentary knowledge of what takes to play good music that I wouldn't mind if the MM came with no antenna at all.

Thank goodness for the CD changer ... I put a trunk load of discs and haven't looked back. Goodbye airwaves for ever.

Mad1
BTW, I'm not a professional music critic, just a listener with eclectic tastes unserved by the mass-marketing machine that is the music industry.


P.S. I'm sorry if I hijacked the post, but I suddenly felt the need to vent.

[gja]

I just got XM radio. I cannot tell you how great it is!!!!!
Less than 2 minutes of commercials/hour.
Yeah, it costs $10/month, but it is SO worth it.
The sound quality is very close to CD and the selection is very wide.


Oh yeah, the antenna is a little puck that can stay INSIDE the car.

[sailsmen]

Living in New Orleans I appreciate good music. I do my critical listening at home, on the road it's the news and entertaining DJ's.

I also get exposed to on a very rare occasion some music that is new to me.

[Dennis Reinhart]

You can buy a FM signal booster and it does work

[Ross]

Anyone ever tried an AM signal booster? I drive a lot through the Piney Woods of East Texas where radio stations are few and far between, and I would like both better AM and FM reception.

[duhtroll]

Whenever I have a question about something like this I just go to Radio Shack. Sure their stuff is more expensive than Wal-Mart, but at least the one near me almost always has the right answer. They probably have ten.

Remember the joke about the guy who billed the large corporation $1,000,000 for putting one screw in a machine?

One Screw: $0.05
Knowing where to put it: $999,999.95

I would think DR has the right answer - a simple signal booster should do the trick. I was actually going to ask the same question as I am noticing that I cannot get the same stations I got in other cars on my way to/from work. Must be the in-glass antenna.

Thanks,
-A

[RF Overlord]

The in-glass antenna is a major POS...that concept was tried and abandoned in the late 70's/early 80's; all the car manufacturers went back to mast-type antennae because the in-windshield ones never worked properly...it's even worse in the MM as the antenna is in the BACK window (more loss in the long cable to the radio)... :shake:

duh, I have the same issue as you...stations that came in fine in my T-bird, come in poorly in the Blackbird... :mad:

[gja]

Like I said, the reception with XM is SUPERB!

[warren]

Dennis is right boosters do work,
however I installed the XM set up from
Crutchfield (on sale 1/2 off -Alpine) a bargin.
Used it in the mountains at Lake Tahoe
California and bingo I had 101+ stations
and the local AM/FM had only about 9.
The XM was really worth it.
Look at...
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3802&highlight=XMradio

Enjoy,
Warren B.

[marauder307]

I never had any luck with XM...the Pioneer FM-modulated setup never "booted" properly, even after Circuit City's attempts to fix it; furthermore the XM personnel took the snooty 'tude with me of "oh, it must be YOUR fault, our stuff NEVER fails." When it failed for the second time, I replaced it with Sirius.

Since then, I've had to go back to Circuit City twice: once when the Kenwood FM-modulated display quit working (never did find out what caused it; CC's theory is vibration killed it...it stopped working after three months), and once to replace both the antenna (went from a Terk adhesive mount to a smaller Terk magnet-mount---only diff I notice is temp loss of signal under the I-55 bridges, they're pretty wide, normal two lane bridges don't blank it) and the signal processor (dead of overheating; CC had put it unsecured under the trunk mat, in the open space next to the spare and under the sub, and it suffocated). CC DID adhere to their warranty, and although they had to order in the parts, I still didn't get any hassles over the replacement job.

Sirius vs. XM: XM's cheaper, Sirius has better quality. XM has strong market share, Sirius not so high-visibilty. Service MUCH better with Sirius tho. Might have been interesting to hear the Playboy Channel that XM offers---I did request the option:P ---but I've been pretty happy with Sirius.
Listened to it all the way from Montgomery to St. Louis w/o a hitch. Good stuff! The Comedy Channel had me laughing so hard I almost had to pull over.:banana:

STL has decent FM stations, haven't checked out AM. 104.1 is weak in South County, might be better out by STL's west end, where LML is...Would like FM a hell of a lot better if we could shoot all the DJs...:flamer: