Fm Antenna

[JAMES10]

I Was Wondering Why There Is No Exterior Fm Antenna, The Reception Is Poor With The Wire That Comes Standard.

 

[BluegrassMan]

Radio Antenna

Hi Gang:

Yeah, I was wondering that too when I took delivery of our Landmark. My Sea Breeze had one on the rear near the corner of the luggage rack. It even had a spring so limbs wouldn't break it. We should have one !

 

[Scott]

Good Idea

I don't disagree that those types of antennas are superior to the standard antennas that come with the stereo system. I will suggset it at our next product improvement meeting.

ST

 

[nemo45]

Now that Scott has answered let me tell you what I did with my Open Road which has the same rinky-dink antenna. I put a splitter in the antenna line behind the TV and ran coax up to the surround sound tuner and used a transformer (like you used to use on old tv's that didn't have a coax connection)on the end to hook it up to the antenna connections. I get much better reception thru the TV Antenna. Now I don't know how the Landmark and Big Horn are wired, but I have seperate hook-ups for satellite and cable. The cable hook-up runs through the same line as the antenna. So I would have to have the antenna down and the signal amplifier turned off if I was hooked up to cable. Then I wouldn't get the benefit of the TV antenna for the tuner. I have a dish so I won't be using cable, anyway. Hope you guys don't mind me butting in here, but this works really well for me and is an inexpensive fix. Arround $10 for a splitter and a six foot piece of coax and the transformer.

 

[cdbMidland]

I am not finding any AM antenna on my Bighorn. Reception is lousy. Any ideas?

 

[meanderingman]

Radio antenna

My 1986 Alfa had an external antenna. My 2006 Bighorn has a little wire thing lying in the radio compartment--not even installed properly. In a major metropolitan area I was only able to get 3 FM stations.

 

[gawelsh]

Has anyone put satellite radio, like Sirius or XM, in their RV ? We're looking at the "plug and play" models , so we can move it from truck to Landmark, while camping. If you've done so, how did you install it?

 

[dieselengineer]

I have the XM unit installed in my unit. I have a cradle in the truck and one in the camper. I can move just the receiver. The satellite antenna works the best on the roof. Since it is only the size of a half dollar it was easy to place it up there. I have an entertainment center I installed in the storage bay. With the satellite unit, I have radio at the storage bay outside and also inside at the TV entertainment center. Some place like (Col. denning state park) normal radio is not very good and forget TV, however the satellite radio is good and strong.

 

[gawelsh]

Two questions 1) how did you fasten the antenna to the roof and 2) how did you route the antenna cable to the XM receiver inside the RV ? THANK YOU so much for getting back to me.

 

[Retyred]

Satellite Radio

I installed a Sirius radio in my truck. The antenna has a strong magnetic base.
I did not want to put the antenna on the roof so I used silicone to attach a large washer to my dash near the windshield, it works great. I also have the boom box but have only tried it in the house. I had the antenna for the boom box inside the house near the window and it received a signal.

 

[dieselengineer]

Okay, Just a warning! This is going to be a little more then most will want to handle. I routed the antenna inside the camper via the same path the washer/dryer drain and power are routed. In the bighorn, the washer is located in the front closet. From there I fished the antenna to the front nose cap. Then by removing the shoe rack to access the area behind the front cap, I was allowed access to the area where the top clearance light is located. There is a little flat surface for the light pocket, I mounted the antenna with a little RTV. Also while I was fishing some wire, I install the surround speakers to the area where the LP tank is. Then by opening the LP tank door I have outdoor speakers to listen to my XM tunes by the campfire!

 

[HappyKayakers]

From there I fished the antenna to the front nose cap. Then by removing the shoe rack to access the area behind the front cap, I was allowed access to the area where the top clearance light is located.

Hey Diesel,
Just curious. Did you find any insulation in the front cap while you were snaking wires?

 

[gawelsh]

Thank you, DieselEngineer !! I have to mull this one over, though, before tackling anything that complex....although it sounds like you did it RIGHT ! I'm not an engineer by trade, so this is probably beyond my talents. But I'm gonna think about it...

 

[dieselengineer]

It has been sometime since I did the install. I do remember a black house wrap type material that got in the way of the fishing process. That is all you see when the rack is removed. Insulation, that is a good question. I would need to look again. I plan to take a few infrared photos of the camper when the weather gets cooler. This really shows where the insulation is missing.

 

[tdharley]

Too much trouble for me.....


I just did the splitter into my TV antenna , it works great.

 

[BluegrassMan]

Hi All:
Another way to get good radio rececption in your trailer is to get a "home" docking station for your satellite radio. The FM signal that is emmited from the Sat. radio is strong enough to come in on any radio in about a 200 ft area of the Sat. tuner. I have fellows listening to my Sirius in the parking lot at work. They know what frequency it emmits and voila they're listening.... only "I" am choosing the channel. Most of the time, they don't like what I'm listening to.

 

[ct0218]

I haven't done anything to my Landmark yet, but on my previous unit I installed a Metz AM/FM antenna (marine) and it worked great. As I remember though that had a car stereo antenna input, and I had a car stereo installed. I think they have a coax version available also. I also installed the same antenna on my boat and could pick up stations 80-100 miles out in the Gulf just like I was in town.

 

[Fordsd250]

Cheap & Lazy Way

Okay don't laugh to hard, but I find in most cases I leave the XM on in the truck and tune the radio in the 5th wheel to the same fm station that I use in the truck and listen to music. I know you can't change stations, but we have our favorite music station we listen to. Oh yeah, I have the cheapie XM radio from wally world in my truck.None

 

[gawelsh]

Well, it's clever enough to hear the music and that's all that really matters

 

[Chulinw]

When I have my TV antenna up and the booster on it seems to help with the reception on the FM side. I am going to install the spliter like tdharley said and that should really improve the signal.