Very weak FM radio reception

[Connerkip]

I have a Cutwater 30, 2014. The FM radio reception is almost nil. It is a Fusion Series 700 radio. I spoke with Fusion tech support who said it should have a Shakespeare-marine antenna. Any thoughts?

 

[Scuffy]

We just installed a Digital Yacht TV and FM antenna with amplifier. Pictures are in our album the thread is just a couple days old it's noted on the thread listing Digital Yacht antenna. On our boat the FM antenna consisted of a plugged in coil of wire antenna that is just not worth very much. On our previous boat I used a 4" Shakespeare white fiberglass FM antenna on a ratchet mount to a rail on the roof. It worked well. Since our TV reception was pretty much non existent for whatever reason we installed the new FM /TV combo antenna up on the radar mast of our boat. and are pleased so far with the result. I wish Ranger would have left off the desk and chair and mattress out of the cave on our R-27 and supplied our boat with better antennas for both the FM and the TV. The sound on your TV if you have one, might want to be run through your stereo as the TV speakers on our boat were a little light as with most flat screens.
Safe Travels

 

[Connerkip]

The boat has a HD TV antenna on the mast from the factory. Not sure if this would double somehow for FM.
I see Shakespeare has an on glass antenna strip, which would attach to the windshield. Any experience or thoughts on this.

I like the thoroughness of your install. Very impressive.

 

[Scuffy]

We just completed a loop from Camden N.C. down to the Albemarle sound and back up the inter coastal waterway, back down through the Dismal Swamp and the Pasquotank river and back to Camden N.C. where we started at Lamb's Marina. Great food and free truck storage here. Nice ramp close by the people from Lamb's will help you with that. Where was I ? Oh, the new antenna. What we do is turn on the TV and click menu on the remote. Then using the side button to the right of the OK button click until you have high lighted the globe. Hit ok and do an Auto Scan. This will scan for all the local TV and FM radio channels. Use the down bar to get to the auto scan and click ok, then it will prompt you yes or no I use the side button to highlight yes and press ok. The scan will take a couple of minutes. In our current location Camden N.C. we pick up 69 FM radio stations and 27 TV HD stations. Of the 27 probably ten or so are actually received. Some channels will come and go but the antenna seems to adjust and while it might go to a no signal message in some cases it will return to a clear picture. A definite improvement over what we had with the standard antenna. The FM side of things with the new antenna is clearly amazing. The scan reported 69 stations. I breezed though a bunch and they come through clear as a bell. So I give the Digital Yacht TV / FM antenna a big two thumbs up.

 

[R Baker]

I had the same weak signal problem. In tracing the antenna cable from the back of the radio, I found it disappeared into a bundle of wires and I could not get it free. I have abandoned the factory cable and installed a rubber ducky type antenna. I fished the wire up along side the st'bd window and set it vertically. It works ok, but I've since unsecured the rubber antenna part and connected the screw in part to a window frame screw - as well I've connected all front frames with short bits of wire. This seems to work better, however I am considering a an vhf-fm antenna splitter for next year. If you search the forum there is more on this subject.