reception with a car arial

[famefm]

To Albert? I am sure you know how come with just a single pole for an arial is reception so good on car radios in certain places better than the house stereo even with a good outside arial?

[teckniqs]

Dude this is a public forum, if you just want to address a question to one particular person without the risk of someone else answering then use the private message feature....

[shuffy]

I'll keep my trap shut then!

[famefm]

Sorry anybody can answer this one?

[teckniqs]

Ahh haha OK well in that case, the reason is because your domestic outdoor aerial is fixed in one place and the car is moving around into better spots and will hear the weak signal better.

....A standard car radio is better than the average domestic tuner in terms of reception performance however if you parked your car outside the same house with a decent domestic tuner and nicely placed outdoor antenna then it should no doubt out-perform the car.

[shuffy]

That's an important point - decent car radios are designed to have better than average sensitivity and selectivity to make up for being in a car. Antenna wise, a car's body is a pretty good ground plane, too.

[Albert H]

Also - car receivers have a very wide dynamic range to overcome the peaks and troughs in field strength as the vehicle moves. Look up "FM picket-fencing" to read about coverage issues and how to mitigate them.

[famefm]

Thanks people ? So that is why my Ford radio model 7000 rds from 1997 with excellent selectivity is a lot better than the indoor technics?

[Albert H]

Yep!

One of the very best receivers I ever owned was a "Sharp" car radio - analogue tuning with mechanical presets - back in the 1970s. Sadly, I sold it with a car I was selling, and I've never found a car radio that's quite as good. Some of the modern Blaupunkt stuff is OK, and the usual Japanese suspects turn out some decent kit, but nothing quite matches up to that old Sharp!

[teckniqs]

Before using the mighty Sony XDR tuner I was actually using a Blaupunkt Casablanca car unit at home with 12VDC supply with what was back then the 3 element up on the chimney....

[famefm]

Yeah I had one (sharp) 1985 and it was £80 and I remember picking up solar 102.5 and horizon 94.5 60 miles west of London easily in my car?

[dualspeed]

A BW RBRX-1 works well, might look odd taped to your dash though....