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Great antennas give car radios an edge
Q: Why does my car radio pick up a remote station much better than the
radios inside my house? My classical music station (KHFM) recently moved
its antenna and now the static is so bad I can't stand to listen to it. How can I
get better reception inside? (My house is in a mountain valley in Sandia Park
about 20 miles northeast of Albuquerque; my radio is a Bose Wave radio.)
--Lanney A., Sandia Park, NM
 The KHFM antenna.
Image courtesy of KHFM
A: Car radios receive better than most house radios because they have effective antennas, mounted outside
the car. Radios inside a house have weaker, built-in antennas.
All radios receive the FM station fairly well within roughly a 50-mile radius.
Click
here for a great map, showing radio reception. Car radios, however,
receive pretty well about 20 miles farther. Between the 50-mile and 70-mile
radii, the reception is weak unless you have a good car radio or a good stereo
with a good antenna.
Albuquerque sits right
at 50 miles, so its reception is marginal. Sandia Park, however, sits well inside the
50-mile radius. You should receive the station well, except for one thing. You sit in a mountain valley.
The best solution to your problem is to get an outside antenna and point it at the station. You can buy an FM
antenna but a roof-top TV antenna will work. In fact, the FM band sits between TV Channels 6 and 7.
Maybe you can get by with less. Bose will send you a free FM dipole antenna, says Joanne Scafidi of Bose
(800-637-8781).
Both the power cord that Bose uses as a built-in antenna and the dipole work best if oriented perpendicular to
the direction of the station. The station is mostly north from you. So run the dipole mostly east/west.
By the way, the same splendid map exists for practically any station in the United States
and also for many stations in other countries. See radio-locator in "Further Surfing" below. To get the map:
Enter the call letters you want in the prompt box. Then click on the "i" in the yellow circle under the heading
"Info." This brings up useful station information. Then click "View Coverage" to get the map.
(Answered Aug. 23, 2002)
Further Surfing:
radio-locator.com: radio coverage maps
Prairie Public Broadcasting: Better FM reception tips
Jim Perry, WFLN: FM reception tips
That Home Site: Electronics Forum
Dave Cline, KVNO: Antennas
WonderQuest: Radio signals bend in the ionosphere's soup
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