I have just installed a Jensen (#MCD 9424) AM/FM CD player with 3 weather bands on my CD 28 1984. Reception is fine for the am and fm but no weather stations are being received. I can receive 2 weather stations on my VHF with no problems. I am using an auto type antenna for the new stereo. I tried connecting the antenna lead of the stereo to the VHF antenna and the reception was no better. However, if I connect a wire to the antenna lead from the stereo and hold it in my hand i can get 1 weather channel. At least this lets me know that the new radio is capable of receiving the weather band. I cannot understand why connecting the antenna lead from the stereo to the VHF does not do the trick. All help appreciated.
Mac Taylor / Wind Bairn CD28 '84
RADIO RECEPTION PROBLEMS/CD28
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Larry DeMers
Re: RADIO RECEPTION PROBLEMS/CD28
I am not familiar with your Am-Fm Radio, so will take a guess here:
Check to see if there is a second antenna input for the weather radio portion of the receiver. Since you did get reception with just a wire antenna, I suspect that they tried to include the VHF rcvr. (weather freq's.) in the Am_Fm section. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
Assuming that the above is true, you may very well be getting about all there is to get from that radio. The VHF band is a different frequency than the Fm band, although not that far apart. Using the same antenna for both frequencies is not an ideal situation, as the rig is tuned for Fm, so weather freq. will be attenuated a bit.
Another consideration, which is probably the greater contributor to your problem, is the fact that VHF is a predominantly Line-Of-Sight band. With your VHF antenna located up top the mast, you have the very best signal available. Your 'car antenna' is probably mounted down low, making the distance to the horizon for that antenna markedly less than it is for the VHF antenna mounted up top the mast.
Short answer is that you have about all that you will get out of the system without either getting closer to the transmitter, or raising the Am-Fm antenna to the mast head.
Why the VHF antenna did not work on Am-Fm is not clear as there are a mess of things that would effect the signal. Did you use a good connection between the VHF coaxial cable connector (the PL259 conn.) and the am-fm radio? The connectors are different from each other so you had to adapt one to fit the other, and this effort may have been inadequate.
Hope this helps a bit!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
demers@sgi.com
Check to see if there is a second antenna input for the weather radio portion of the receiver. Since you did get reception with just a wire antenna, I suspect that they tried to include the VHF rcvr. (weather freq's.) in the Am_Fm section. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
Assuming that the above is true, you may very well be getting about all there is to get from that radio. The VHF band is a different frequency than the Fm band, although not that far apart. Using the same antenna for both frequencies is not an ideal situation, as the rig is tuned for Fm, so weather freq. will be attenuated a bit.
Another consideration, which is probably the greater contributor to your problem, is the fact that VHF is a predominantly Line-Of-Sight band. With your VHF antenna located up top the mast, you have the very best signal available. Your 'car antenna' is probably mounted down low, making the distance to the horizon for that antenna markedly less than it is for the VHF antenna mounted up top the mast.
Short answer is that you have about all that you will get out of the system without either getting closer to the transmitter, or raising the Am-Fm antenna to the mast head.
Why the VHF antenna did not work on Am-Fm is not clear as there are a mess of things that would effect the signal. Did you use a good connection between the VHF coaxial cable connector (the PL259 conn.) and the am-fm radio? The connectors are different from each other so you had to adapt one to fit the other, and this effort may have been inadequate.
Hope this helps a bit!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
mac taylor wrote: I have just installed a Jensen (#MCD 9424) AM/FM CD player with 3 weather bands on my CD 28 1984. Reception is fine for the am and fm but no weather stations are being received. I can receive 2 weather stations on my VHF with no problems. I am using an auto type antenna for the new stereo. I tried connecting the antenna lead of the stereo to the VHF antenna and the reception was no better. However, if I connect a wire to the antenna lead from the stereo and hold it in my hand i can get 1 weather channel. At least this lets me know that the new radio is capable of receiving the weather band. I cannot understand why connecting the antenna lead from the stereo to the VHF does not do the trick. All help appreciated.
Mac Taylor / Wind Bairn CD28 '84
demers@sgi.com
-
Mac Taylor
Re: RADIO RECEPTION PROBLEMS/CD28
Larry,Larry DeMers wrote: I am not familiar with your Am-Fm Radio, so will take a guess here:
Check to see if there is a second antenna input for the weather radio portion of the receiver. Since you did get reception with just a wire antenna, I suspect that they tried to include the VHF rcvr. (weather freq's.) in the Am_Fm section. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
Assuming that the above is true, you may very well be getting about all there is to get from that radio. The VHF band is a different frequency than the Fm band, although not that far apart. Using the same antenna for both frequencies is not an ideal situation, as the rig is tuned for Fm, so weather freq. will be attenuated a bit.
Another consideration, which is probably the greater contributor to your problem, is the fact that VHF is a predominantly Line-Of-Sight band. With your VHF antenna located up top the mast, you have the very best signal available. Your 'car antenna' is probably mounted down low, making the distance to the horizon for that antenna markedly less than it is for the VHF antenna mounted up top the mast.
Short answer is that you have about all that you will get out of the system without either getting closer to the transmitter, or raising the Am-Fm antenna to the mast head.
Why the VHF antenna did not work on Am-Fm is not clear as there are a mess of things that would effect the signal. Did you use a good connection between the VHF coaxial cable connector (the PL259 conn.) and the am-fm radio? The connectors are different from each other so you had to adapt one to fit the other, and this effort may have been inadequate.
Hope this helps a bit!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
mac taylor wrote: I have just installed a Jensen (#MCD 9424) AM/FM CD player with 3 weather bands on my CD 28 1984. Reception is fine for the am and fm but no weather stations are being received. I can receive 2 weather stations on my VHF with no problems. I am using an auto type antenna for the new stereo. I tried connecting the antenna lead of the stereo to the VHF antenna and the reception was no better. However, if I connect a wire to the antenna lead from the stereo and hold it in my hand i can get 1 weather channel. At least this lets me know that the new radio is capable of receiving the weather band. I cannot understand why connecting the antenna lead from the stereo to the VHF does not do the trick. All help appreciated.
Mac Taylor / Wind Bairn CD28 '84
Thanks much for your well written and informative reply. I am still uncertain as the the exact cause of the problem. You may well be correct about the reception capabilities of my am/fm system. Do you think that the VHF has greator recieving capabilities than a typical am/fm?? This would make sense to me, but I am not as well versed in these matters as you seem to be. Do you think that a VHF - AM/FM splitter would help or would this yield no better result than my holding a wire between the two antena lines as I did before? In other words is a splitter simply a way of switching from one unit to the other while using the same antena or does the splitter have some other function as well?
Thanks Larry