Radio Reception help

[Radio Flyer]

We have a shop stereo that gets awful reception.

There are several issues:

The roof is steel

There are alot of trucks and aerial devices in the shop

Nothing permanent can be attached to the building.

The nearest door to the stereo is about 30 feet.

We already have a Radio Shack signal booster, and it does not help.

We were thinking of putting a car antenna on a magnetic base and sticking it to the steel door frame. The issue with that is adapting the car antenna to co axial cable.

Would the signal be lost in 30 feet of cable?


Any other ideas? The shop is only 16 miles from a major city and we can only get about 2-3 stations.

 

[bgott]

Look into Sirius satellite radio. As long as you can get a southern exposure you can stick the antenna in a window.

 

[Ray-CA]

Don't CB antenna's have a coax cable and come with a magnetic mount?

Ray

 

[Azmotorhead]

Everybody there pool your MP3's put them on a external drive. Hook ext drive to stereo receiver. set playback to random.. Never have to listen to another radio ad again

 

[Gary S]

Pretty much every "house" radio I've ever seen gets lousy reception, especially when you put it in a shop that has any metal in it.
The best solution I've seen it to take a hammer to your radio and enjoy smashing it into little pieces.
Then, pull a radio out of a junk car. Wire it up with speakers and a car antenna. Grab an old low amperage battery charger and wire an old filter capacitor across the charger to filter the crappy voltage it puts out. Then connect it to the radio and enjoy perfect reception anytime you want to listen to it.

 

[Radio Flyer]

Look into Sirius satellite radio. As long as you can get a southern exposure you can stick the antenna in a window.

One of the guys had it, $$$ and reception on it was just ok also. always cutting in and out and movig the antenna.

no wireless around either.

 

[thdewey]

I ran Direct TV coax into garage just for the radio stations.

 

[nehog]

We have a shop stereo that gets awful reception.

There are several issues:

The roof is steel

There are alot of trucks and aerial devices in the shop

Nothing permanent can be attached to the building.

The nearest door to the stereo is about 30 feet.

30 ft is not a problem if you can route the (coax) wire.

We already have a Radio Shack signal booster, and it does not help.

They never work, because if the signal is poor, and has a lot of noise, the amp will just amplify the noise, and add more noise of its own.

We were thinking of putting a car antenna on a magnetic base and sticking it to the steel door frame. The issue with that is adapting the car antenna to co axial cable.

They make adapters for this. Only problem: I'm not sure who stocks them now. I have one that I use for testing.

Would the signal be lost in 30 feet of cable?


Any other ideas? The shop is only 16 miles from a major city and we can only get about 2-3 stations.

My all-metal building was a radio dead zone! I ended up with an outdoors big antenna (I'm a long way from any radio...) and I've been happy with that setup. I'm sure you could fabricate something that will work, can you do outdoors if not permanently attached to building?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Any vents inthe roof you can run a cable out of ? Stick an antenna up on the roof and hold it down with a couple of sandbags.

 

[padstack]

anyone there have a smartpone with unlimited data? Pandora is all I use in my garage now and I get perfect reception on my radio. I'll probably never listen to OTA radio again. I just have a "y" cable I plug into my headphone jack and the other ends into the Aux-in on the stereo.

 

[Cosmop]

I've got satellite radio and it works great. The home docking station has an antenna that has a long ~50 cable that would let you run it out a window or door.

 

[drmoonshine]

If you don't already have a computer in your shop I would get it's an incredible resource and you can use Pandora and post on garage journal.

 

[brownbagg]

cable tv works for radio too

 

[gatchel]

I have made many makeshift "antenna" using coax and other wiring. Try using the coax and just run it outside the building. On the end of the coax cut off the outer shield and braiding on the last 30 inches or so. Run the last section vertically using the center core as the antenna. The only loss is time and a few bucks for coax. I have been suprised how well it has worked for me in the past. Now, if your distance from radio towers is pretty far then you may need a proper antenna.

If you have internet:

Pandora
Lastfm
Iheartradio

All of these free and internet based radio services can be accessed via the internet if you have a connection.

You could also use a Sonos receiver to access them. Sonos will also access the internet based local radio feeds from anywhere in the country. Just put in your zip code and you're there.

 

[aczr2k]

This is the antenna I have. After adding T8 HO lights (all steel building) the radio went nuts, added this antenna, now I have excellent reception. Threw the old boombox away and used a home reciever. Can pick up stations from 100+ miles away.

http://fmdxantenna.com/proddetail.php?prod=FMDipUS

 

[Poltax]

Another post for Pandora. If you have wifi or internet hook up, you can use the computer or your iphone. Iphone can be used by cradle, stereo set up for Iphone hook up, or you can purchase a $5.00 adapter at Wal-mart and hook up to your current stereo.

 

[Stuart in MN]

All you guys recommending satellite radio or internet radio - maybe the original poster just wants to hear his favorite local station.

A simple dipole antenna taped to the wall may do the trick, they're only a couple bucks at any stereo store or you could make your own with a piece of wire: http://www.kgnu.org/ht/helpfm.html#makeantenna

 

[Mattlt]

Maybe I'm missing something? Is there any remote corner of the shop where the radio will work? Put the radio there and run speaker wire to various speakers throughout the shop. You could have pots on the speakers so everyone could adjust their volume accordingly.

Don't run the antenna wire, run the speaker wire instead.

 

[Radio Flyer]

The radio is in the center of the shop. With 4 speakers attached with chain from the rafters. ( 20 -30 feet in the air). It sounds great with the few stations that do come in.

If i move the radio by the door, there is no outlet close to plug it in, and really no good spot to put it anyway.

bosses will not let us hook to their network, I would love it if they would.

For now I bought an adaptor to go from an ipod to the Aux input of the stereo.

 

[e-tek]

This thread reminds me that I worked for my Dad from the time I was 9 until he died when I was 21. He had a few rules: (1) NO RADIO (2) NO HANDS IN POCKETS (3) NO SITTING DOWN.




RIP Dad. You where an ******* to work for, an ******* for a husband and an ******* for a father, but you did teach me one important thing: Don't be an *******! LOL (Kinda)

 

[Bear]

Used to work for an ahole like that - (almopst 50 yrs ago now) he would yell at me 1/2 block from work - "GET YOUR HANDS OUT YOUR POCKETS" - hell I had not even punched in yet! Today I'd tell him to F himself and probably be looking for work tomarrow.

 

[Radio Flyer]

After all the recommendations for Pandora, I tried it in my garage at home. ITS AWSOME!

I was in the garage for about 4 hours this weekend. I took the itouch with and plugged it in the stereo. I downloaded the pandora app. and have enjoyed it since.

One question though, can you just let it go? What happens if you don't use the thumbs up or thumbs down?

 

[fordbroncodave]

a way around it completely,

what ever your favorite radio station is, they probably have a website and probably have live streaming. just hook up a computer with internet and some computer speakers. then listen

 

[rcayot]

Old television 'rabbit ears' are good FM antennas. They also help by being 'aimable'

Roger

 

[Azmotorhead]

After all the recommendations for Pandora, I tried it in my garage at home. ITS AWSOME!

I was in the garage for about 4 hours this weekend. I took the itouch with and plugged it in the stereo. I downloaded the pandora app. and have enjoyed it since.

One question though, can you just let it go? What happens if you don't use the thumbs up or thumbs down?

It'll just keep playing. You dont need to give it a thumb.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Pretty much every "house" radio I've ever seen gets lousy reception, especially when you put it in a shop that has any metal in it.
The best solution I've seen it to take a hammer to your radio and enjoy smashing it into little pieces.
Then, pull a radio out of a junk car. Wire it up with speakers and a car antenna. Grab an old low amperage battery charger and wire an old filter capacitor across the charger to filter the crappy voltage it puts out. Then connect it to the radio and enjoy perfect reception anytime you want to listen to it.

We have a winnah! That's what I did a long time ago. I used a AC/DC power supply converter instead of a charger, and hooked the car stereo to some home speakers. The system is quite old, now, and I get a lot of crackling noise as I turn the radio on and turn the volume to a preferred volume, but all's well after that. I haven't used it in my metal shop yet, but it worked great in two different garages without even an antenna.

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

 

[rickycobra]

After all the recommendations for Pandora, I tried it in my garage at home. ITS AWSOME!

I was in the garage for about 4 hours this weekend. I took the itouch with and plugged it in the stereo. I downloaded the pandora app. and have enjoyed it since.

One question though, can you just let it go? What happens if you don't use the thumbs up or thumbs down?

The best part of Pandora is finding new bands that are awesome. I found the Black Keys this way. If you ever go back to radio the best way it to radio cable from the radio to the roof.

 

[Keep]

Have you tried just wrapping some wire around your antenna and stringing it along the floor? Easy, cheap and usually works like a charm.

Other ideas:

Jumper cable to the antenna, then to the nearest metal post, use the whole building for reception.

There really is nothing to it, no reason to get all complicated.

 

[floyd]

I have a 30x40 shop - two stories, wood with a metal roof. I bought one of these and mounted it high on a wall on the second story. It did the trick and definitely improved my radio reception. Its been awhile but I think I paid around $60 for it.

http://terk.com/#/radio_antennas/radio_antennas/indoor_outdoor_dual-drive_<br__>amplified_fm_antenna

 

[bilko1]

I have a 40x50 steal bulding ,No windows(yet) only a large over head door.
It sits on the west side of the HILL and the local station I like to listen to is EAST. So no local reception at all.
I stuck an old auto ant. on an old CB mag. mount and used some old solid speaker wire as coxal cable. This was placed as high up the roofline that I could get.
WORKS LIKE A CHARM, I pick up more stations then I thought were around.

 

[tdkkart]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned lights. Try the radio with the lights off, certain new electronic flourescent ballasts can completely wipe out radio reception.

 

[Radio Flyer]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned lights. Try the radio with the lights off, certain new electronic flourescent ballasts can completely wipe out radio reception.

I never thought of that. There are some funky 270 lights in the shop.

 

[cowboyjosh]

I never thought of that. There are some funky 270 lights in the shop.

I just TODAY replaced 9 T8 ballast in my garage after I started having radio reception issues a couple weeks ago; along with the distinctive electrical smell (I have a keen nose that can pick up the slightest of electrical distress) I replaced one ballast initially that quit, but the smell persisted and the reception on my Bose radio kept getting worse, so I replaced all the ballast, don't know which one was the culprit, but I now have all new Advance ballast and the smell and the radio picks up nearly every Denver and Colorado Springs FM, so I'm back in business. In your metal building, pretty unlikely you'll narrow down your reception woes but radio reception is NEVER stellar in metal buildings.

 

[alamerang]

If you had an Android platform or Iphone phones you can use a ton of streaming apps to listen to radio. Almost every station now days is streaming online. I use Flycast, Iheartradio, Pandora and Last FM. Best thing is you can listen to stations from out of your area. I listen to Alice 105.9 in Denver and I live in Texas. I love my Android phone setup in my shop. Just make sure you have an unlimited data plan though.

 

[z28toz06]

Don't CB antenna's have a coax cable and come with a magnetic mount?

Ray

CB antennas are cut to pick up 27 Mhz. Car radios are 88-108 Mhz. You have to look at your antenna as a receiver and your building as a ground plane. An FM antenna needs to be 31" long (or high) for that frequency bandwidth.

Go to radio shack and get an fm flat lead 300 ohm antenna, place it on the outside wall with tape, facing the city where the signal is coming from. Get a balun, or 75 to 300 ohm matching transformer. That will give you your flat lead to coax adapter.

 

[JayClay]

This thread reminds me that I worked for my Dad from the time I was 9 until he died when I was 21. He had a few rules: (1) NO RADIO (2) NO HANDS IN POCKETS (3) NO SITTING DOWN.

RIP Dad. You where an ******* to work for, an ******* for a husband and an ******* for a father, but you did teach me one important thing: Don't be an *******! LOL (Kinda)

Wow, I thought I was the only one who had that Dad. With the exception that he is a good husband to my mother. She is the only one he is nice to. I remember when he moved out of the neighborhood we lived in, I heard they had a block partly to celebrate.

 

[z28toz06]

Sounds like the guy down the street.

 

[Radio Flyer]

Thanks to all that posted suggestions.

You would not believe it, but on the way to work I found a 1000 ft roll of coaxial cable out by the trash. Only about 1/4 of the roll was used. Anyway, when I got to work I ran some cable from the receiver, along the wall, towards the door. I was getting ready to strip 31 inches and got called away. While i was out I found an antenna from a car that the fire department was using to practice the jaws of life on. came back and attached the two. WOW it seems to be working great.

Thanks again!!

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

The Radio Flyer is flying again!