Improving FM radio reception

mcanderson

mcanderson

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I have a 10 year old Beneteau Oceanis which suffers from reduced FM performance in our spot in the marina and when I have the shore power on. I have tried a splitter to use my VHF aerial, but no joy. The fitted fm aerial is a thin band which is behind the instrument panel.

As most of the wiring is hidden I can run a separate power cable to try and clean up the power supply, but would dearly like to have better reception.
 
Just to clarify..
When you say "FM" do you mean broadcast band commercial entertainment radio? (Marine radios are also FM)
And when you say "VHF" do you mean marine band radio? (Commercial entertainment radio is also VHF)
Assuming so...
You say "...when I have the shore power on...". Is it only when the shore power is on?
and "...in our spot in the marina..." Do you get the same problem elsewhere?

If only with shore power, then suspect that this is changing something. Mains voltage to 12V converter desensitising the receiver?
If confined to a specific spot, then could be lack of signal there (in which case need more antenna, but you did say the splitter and marine antenna didn't improve it), or some local interference blocking the signal?
In most cases of poor reception, antenna is the issue, and increasing the size often helps. In theory an exact length dipole, but in practice, almost any length of extra wire should improve matters.
 
I had similar issues with the VHF entertainment radio. Switch everything else off and then back on one at a time. In our case it was those 12v to 5v usb converters we use to charge phones etc from the lighter sockets around the boat. It can also be interference from cheap led lighting bulbs. .
 
No LED light will not affect much on VHL band. I would suggest to check any main socket( for some cheap one, it could be very simple circuit without filters). Good Luck.
 
For less than a tenner you can get a usb TV reciever dongle which can also be used as quite a versitile software defined radio receiver:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...=rtl+dongle&sprefix=rtl+dongle,stripbooks,279
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
http://www.qsl.net/yo4tnv/docs/The Hobbyists Guide To RTL-SDR - Carl Laufer.pdf
http://sdrsharp.com/

Using free sdr sharp software you can have a display of quite a chunk of frequencies, wander about with the antenna, switch things on and off - might track down the source(s) of and interference.

For the price those dongles are amazing, receive ais, weather satellites, aircraft data. Loads of almost free fun :).
 
>I have a 10 year old Beneteau Oceanis which suffers from reduced FM performance in our spot in the marina and when I have the shore power on.

Our MW/FM was on the top of the mast as was the marine VHF.
 
GHA said:
For less than a tenner you can get a usb TV reciever dongle which can also be used as quite a versitile software defined radio receiver:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...=rtl+dongle&sprefix=rtl+dongle,stripbooks,279
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
http://www.qsl.net/yo4tnv/docs/The Hobbyists Guide To RTL-SDR - Carl Laufer.pdf
http://sdrsharp.com/

Using free sdr sharp software you can have a display of quite a chunk of frequencies, wander about with the antenna, switch things on and off - might track down the source(s) of and interference.

For the price those dongles are amazing, receive ais, weather satellites, aircraft data. Loads of almost free fun :).
Click to expand...

Presumably you plug the dongle into a PC to receive radio programmes etc on the PC you mention free software do know lf this system is compatible with android (nexus7)
 
mjf107 said:
Presumably you plug the dongle into a PC to receive radio programmes etc on the PC you mention free software do know lf this system is compatible with android (nexus7)
Click to expand...
Sorry, don't know if there are android apps to get into rtl dongles yet. If it can be done, some kid out there will be staying up late doing it :)
 
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