Bad AM reception from radio... Where are the ground connections in the engine bay?

[CarlosHRNYC]

Hi,

I have really bad static coming from my AM radio stations. Along with the static I can hear the whine coming through the speakers when the engine revs up as it increases speed.

I was thinking of cleaning all my ground connections in my engine bay to see if that would help alleviate the poor reception. The antenna is OEM. Are there any aftermarkets that I should be looking into?

Anyone out there have conquered the poor AM reception in their radios?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[96firephoenix]

Not to be rude, but why on god's green earth are you trying to use your AM radio? Car antennas just don't have the size to pick up AM stations more than about 10-20 miles away in my experience.

A quick search shows less then 30 AM stations in the entire state of NY, which puts the odds of you being in a strong broadcast area pretty low. Even on my Hi-Fi AM radio 8 years ago, I wasn't able to pick up more than a dozen stations, 4 of which I know have stopped broadcasting since then. Granted I didn't have a large antenna, but it was larger than what you'd find in a car stereo. On clear nights though, it was worth it, with the skip signal - I picked up a Mexico City station in Indianapolis.

Considering the semi-mountainous terrain near Pine Bush, NY, I think your issue is lack of broadcasted stations with sufficient strength to overcome any other signal or geographic barriers. The car's alternator puts out a relatively strong EM field that would account for the increase in static with engine speed.

If you really want to pursue strong AM Radio signal, you're best off just making your own antenna. When I was briefly into AM radio, the most effective "down and dirty" antenna was to just take a ton of speaker wire, make a huge loop and get it as high off the ground as possible, then connect to the speaker port. You might be able to just wrap some speaker wire around your roof rack securely (Go down one side, cross to the other side, back up, then connect the two strands of speaker wire), then run it to your antenna plug.

Adding into the issue is digital tuning. If a station is broadcasting at nominally 1070, it really could be anywhere from 1068-1072 depending on a lot of factors including atmospheric conditions (and in the lower bands, whether you're driving away from or towards the antenna), but your car will only accept input at 1070 if it has a digital tuner. The 85 Ram I learned to drive on had a fine tuner that was analog, which made picking up AM stations and keeping them pretty easy.

 

[TechGuru]

I listened to KLIF which is AM during Harvey as it was the best source for continuing coverage and not music.

Some static here 80 miles from the station, but no engine noise. Using a aftermarket Kenwood headunit.

I remember back in the day the sparks from distributors wrecked havoc with AM radio, but a distroless ignition system should not have this problem. Could be the brushes in your alternator sparking...

My advice is if a lot of talk radio is your thing invest in XM satellite radio or stream the channel via cell phone and Bluetooth.

 

[Joe in NY]

I can attest to the fact that it sounds like something is not right. My dad has used my car a few times and was amazed with AM reception in my car. It hold stations very well and can pull far more than I would have expected.

There are capacitors to suppress noise from the alternator, ignition coils, and injectors as these generate huge amounts of magnetic and static noise. Capacitors are known to fail and being that these are only used for noise suppression they do not effect the operation of the car.

 

[BeWith]

Hi,

I have really bad static coming from my AM radio stations. Along with the static I can hear the whine coming through the speakers when the engine revs up as it increases speed.

I was thinking of cleaning all my ground connections in my engine bay to see if that would help alleviate the poor reception. The antenna is OEM. Are there any aftermarkets that I should be looking into?

Anyone out there have conquered the poor AM reception in their radios?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

I have a 2003 Ford Explorer Sport with stock radio/tape/cd player. On weaker am stations found radio almost unusable because of ignition noise that followed the engine rpm but almost went away at idle. The fix required using an ohmmeter and here is what I found:
I pulled the factory radio forward using the Ford factory tool and then removed the antenna connector from rear of radio. The connector was very secure, not loose at all. Using ohmmeter I checked the inner conductor to antenna and found continuity normal. I then checked the outer connector (shield) and found no continuity to vehicle frame. I removed the antenna base plastic cap and checked continuity between the antenna base and the frame and found no continuity, meaning the antenna itself was not being shielded by the steel body from the ignition system, nor was the steel body acting as a ground plane for the antenna. I replaced the pan-head sheet metal screws with screws that were one size larger and again measured continuity to frame. Continuity was restored. Reconnected the antenna to radio and found a huge improvement in reduced ignition noise and am sensitivity. Though there was still a little ignition noise on the weakest out of town stations it is now definitely usable.