Car radio antennas - better reception?

[thestrangebrew1]

I just cancelled my Sirius sub and I'm noticing my radio reception is not great. Most of the stations come out of the bigger cities that are anywhere between 30-70 miles from me and in this truck the reception is pretty bad. When I drive my wife's car around town her car gets better reception for the same stations. I always assumed antenna's were kinda just built the same and there wouldn't be one that would obtain a radio signal any better than another (for vehicles anyways) but now I'm wondering if I should try a different antenna?

Edit: I usually use car play for longer drives and my commute is only 4 mins so I don't plug my phone in when heading to work.

 

[nakedfrog]

Does your car have any kind of physical media capacity? For the effort involved to upgrade your antenna, I suspect it would be much more worthwhile to use a flash drive or SD card or CD.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Does your car have any kind of physical media capacity? For the effort involved to upgrade your antenna, I suspect it would be much more worthwhile to use a flash drive or SD card or CD.

It's got a USB port that I could probably play from but I'd probably just plug my phone in and use CarPlay before I'd load a bunch of files onto a thumb drive. It's just annoying turning on the car and hearing static in the middle of a song or news broadcast on the way to work.

 

[nakedfrog]

Loading the files onto the flash drive is kind of a one-and-done versus plugging your phone in every time, but you do you.

 

[lxskllr]

4 minutes? I'd just listen through the cell phone speaker. That's /barely/ even worth unlocking the phone for. I'd be just as likely to listen to road noise.

 

[dullard]

Loading the files onto the flash drive is kind of a one-and-done versus plugging your phone in every time, but you do you.

That is what I do. One USB drive with everything that I want to listen to preloaded.

But, it was a bit more than one-and-done for me. I quickly found out that music that I like a lot is not necessarily good music for driving. Anything too slow or has sections that are too quiet had to go. I wasn't about to put myself to sleep while driving. So, at least for me, it took a few iterations.

 

[dullard]

There are car radio boosters. I haven't tried them. There are also USB Bluetooth Receivers for under $20. Lets your phone play music without plugging it in. But again, I haven't tried them so I can't recommend one.

 

[deadlyapp]

With a four minute commute why wouldn’t you just walk lol

 

[WelshBloke]

With a four minute commute why wouldn’t you just walk lol

Yeah. Wtf OP?!

 

[Paperdoc]

The difference between your two vehicles may NOT be the antennas. It may the the RADIO system installed in each. A more complex and expensive radio may feature more powerful amplifier sections with sharp narrow bandpass filters to get better results from weak stations. In most vehicles now the radio actually is built into the mass of other electronic parts buried deep somewhere so you cannot really replace that!

 

[highland145]

Not that you want to swap stereos for 4 min but....get one with a better FM sensitivity.

 

[sdifox]

Yeah. Wtf OP?!

With a four minute commute why wouldn’t you just walk lol

His car has the only radio he has access to.

 

[Brainonska511]

Presumably your car has Bluetooth - why not just do audio from your phone via BT. No need to do any plug in for car play stuff then, just let it auto connect.

 

[Paperdoc]

Oh, by the way...

IF you follow some of the suggestions above for how to connect your PHONE to your car's audio system, then another option MAY emerge once that connection is made. Many phones include a radio in them! You could use the PHONE's radio app to feed audio to your car.

 

[manly]

Oh, by the way...

IF you follow some of the suggestions above for how to connect your PHONE to your car's audio system, then another option MAY emerge once that connection is made. Many phones include a radio in them! You could use the PHONE's radio app to feed audio to your car.

I don't think it's that common on modern phones, and the reception isn't gonna be better. But if he's using his phone, then he's already gonna have Internet radio and streaming services as superior options anyway.

 

[nOOky]

Did you cancel Sirius because of cost or because you don't use/like it? I always renew it yearly for about 5 bucks a month for the platinum package.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Did you cancel Sirius because of cost or because you don't use/like it? I always renew it yearly for about 5 bucks a month for the platinum package.

I cancelled it because I signed up for the $6 promotion and they ended up charging something like $24 according to the wife.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

With a four minute commute why wouldn’t you just walk lol

I normally ride my bike to work but it's been super hot here. Like over 105 for 20+ days in a row!

 

[nOOky]

I cancelled it because I signed up for the $6 promotion and they ended up charging something like $24 according to the wife.

Yea that's full price per month, you have to call them and tell them you'll cancel unless they drop the price. I'm surprised they didn't offer.

 

[Brainonska511]

Yea that's full price per month, you have to call them and tell them you'll cancel unless they drop the price. I'm surprised they didn't offer.

A lot of services are annoying like that.

Every year, need to go through the rigamarole of pretending to cancel newspapers or select streaming services to get the promo rates.

 

[manly]

A lot of services are annoying like that.

Every year, need to go through the rigamarole of pretending to cancel newspapers or select streaming services to get the promo rates.

SiriusXM had a particularly bad rap because you had to call in to cancel (pre-pandemic, not sure about after). Any service where you can sign up online should have online cancellation. I didn't have a problem with them because each time I wanted a promo, it was an easy < 10 minute call. Historically their promo term was 6 months, although sometimes it's a year.

My local cable monopoly used to be Time Warner Cable, and they could play ball if you called asking for a new promo. But since Charter bought them out (now Spectrum), they don't play that game. The only workaround is to actually cancel, and then sign up a different person as a brand new customer.

 

[Muse]

Oh, by the way...

IF you follow some of the suggestions above for how to connect your PHONE to your car's audio system, then another option MAY emerge once that connection is made. Many phones include a radio in them! You could use the PHONE's radio app to feed audio to your car.

The radio app on every phone I've ever had is inferior to this device. I have 3 of them. ~$15, uses a couple AAA's, great sound and exceptional reception.

Amazon.com

I don't use the included earbuds, I use Etymotic Research high quality earbuds, of which I have many. They are all I use for headphones.