Can radio FM reception be improved? 2017 RT

My two cars (2018 Rav4 and 2011 128i) both get FM stations that my 2017 RT does not. The wonder wheel just skips over the ones I would like to get.

I tried a ridiculously long 28" after market antenna and that didn't help. Today I tried a powered antenna signal booster and that actually made reception worse. I checked all my connections for continuity and the antenna ground, all are good. The bike has only 2200 miles on it and is virtually new. Not sure what else if anything can be done, but figured I'd ask.

Is my experience typical, that FM reception is subpar compared to car radios?

I don’t know the radio system on that bike.....but I have a background in radios. It sounds like you have done some of the most important testing with the addition/swapping of different antennas.
The next thing I would try is a side by side comparison of reception with another bike. You could also check if there is a “local/distance” setting in one of the menus. Past any of that, it could be the radio.
Post up what you find.
OM

It's been 45 years since I had a course in electromagnetic theory, so my memory may be fuzzy, and I only spent about a minute on Google, so take that into consideration:

The auto antenna benefits from the surrounding horizontal areas of metal which serve as a ground plane, increasing the received signal. A motorcycle has essentially no metal to serve as a ground plane, and no room to to use radial wires as a substitute.

Google found a similar situation, where someone wanted to use an auto antenna in their house:

"If I understand correctly, you have an antenna intended for a car body, but you'd like to use it loose in your house.

A solid ground plane will work, and it should be a quarter wave radius. For FM Radio, wavelength is about 3 m, so the ground plane should be 1.5 metres in diameter.

Instead of a solid ground plane, you could use four radial wires, 0.75 m long, extending at right angles to the whip antenna. They should all be connected to the ground bolt or metal base of the whip. You could use coat hangers or any other stiff wire - diameter and type is not important so select something that is mechanically strong enough. This will be a lot lighter and cheaper than the solid metal ground. It is what's done when mounting a whip on a fibreglass vehicle, or through a tile roof."

My '06 RT's radio prep package has the antenna grounded to the frame with a thick braid, but I suspect the shape and orientation of the frame is far from ideal for radio reception.

I'm not saying there is no room for improvement, but a bike has a handicap when it comes to FM reception.

Sure, ground plane is important but not so much if the radio is receiving only. I’ll bet the shield of the coax used to connect the antenna to the radio is attached to the frame (theoretical ground) as a matter of course.
OM

The rt radio is the worst radio I have ever used. I’ve had an 08, 11, 17, and a 19 - each bike could find only 1 station when auto seeking 20 miles out of Boston. When I added Denali LED lights I couldn’t get any stations. (Called twisted throttle and they confirmed their lighting/wiring is unshielded) I have brought it up to dealer they said there is nothing wrong with the radio. If you buy a bike off the floor it’s hard to not get a radio.

I wonder what brand (hopefully) the radio is? Radio reception is really very simple.......the signals are there to be captured.
OM

Omega Man said:

I wonder what brand (hopefully) the radio is? Radio reception is really very simple.......the signals are there to be captured.
OM

Click to expand...

2016 R1200 RT is a Alpine system. Every BMW I have owned with a radio has been Alpine...

wetboxerrt said:

2016 R1200 RT is a Alpine system. Every BMW I have owned with a radio has been Alpine...

Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. That would have been my guess. Alpine has always been top-tier car audio. If there is no “local” resolution, I would bet Alpine could provide some input.
OM

Grounding plane

Omega Man said:

Sure, ground plane is important but not so much if the radio is receiving only. I’ll bet the shield of the coax used to connect the antenna to the radio is attached to the frame (theoretical ground) as a matter of course.
OM

Click to expand...

I wonder if it would help if I moved the grounding point from where it is now on a vertical member of the forward frame back to the frame in the center of the bike, say under the seat? I don't have a braided unshielded cable that long but I could use a heavy long wire to try that out. Just strip the shielding off it.

Is there any particular reason why ground cables are always braided?

Instead of "moving" the grounding point, I'd think it easier and more beneficial to simply add the second point to it with an additional wire (essentially making it parallel) - and that would make a difference only if the original point was not an optimum ground (I hesitate to use the phrase "perfect ground"...) to begin with (certainly a possibility, since bolted-together structures are not famous for electrical success).

Braid is used to keep the parasitic inductance of the conductor to a minimum, by having more surface area within a defined space. (The "BEST" grounding is had with solid, wide copper sheet!) Solid wire, stranded wire, and even welding cable (huge gauge with lots of strands) all have low DC resistance, but their inductive reactance and capacitive reactance all change depending on the actual frequency (AM, FM, phone, satellite, etc.) at which the measurement is made.

I spend quite a bit of time messing with antennas....... Apple rotation issue aside
In receive, the more antenna the better. Remember “rabbit ears”, portable battery operated radios with a fold down antenna?
For the most part, I have found at these frequencies, the flat braid has been of connivence of attachment points.
I’m still going with the side by side bike comparison and if, as it has been mentioned, “all the radios have poor reception, contact Alpine. Harley and Honda’s radios seem to be working.....I can hear them a long ways off.
OM

There is one thing you may not have tried.....

Notice that the RT antenna lays rather flat to the fairing......

It also can be lifted more vertical......

In my experience lifting the antenna to the most vertical position dramatically improves reception........

And it costs nothing!

FM Radio Experience - Boston Area - 2015 RT - Stubby Antenna

I read through the posts about FM reception, then took my RT out for a ride. I have the stubby antenna on this bike, laid flat.

I live about 5 air miles from downtown Boston which is east of me. I think most of the FM antennas are spread around with a heavy concentration 4 miles west of me. I cruised around a bit, ran through the gamut of stations and managed to pull in about 25 stations. I noticed I could not get WCRB (99.5). I know that the transmitting antenna for that station is on the North Shore area of Boston which is about 20 miles away.

Looks like the OP is south of the Denver metro area. Is maybe distance a problem?

Anyway, that's my story.

Funny this conversion came up at this time. I just got a cover and used it on a trip the other other day. I was thinking of a stubby antenna. You should be able to receive FM radio signals within 60 miles if the topography allows. I live in the country over 50 miles from most of the tower/antenna locations. The stock antenna doesn't bring in all stations but does a good enough job. After hearing about the reduced reception with a stubby antenna, I'll deal with the stock one.

Omega Man said:

Sure, ground plane is important but not so much if the radio is receiving only. I’ll bet the shield of the coax used to connect the antenna to the radio is attached to the frame (theoretical ground) as a matter of course.
OM

Click to expand...

I worked as a Radio Engineer for five years in my youth. There is nothing more important than the ground plane for both reception and transmission. I spent a whole summer draining a swamp, then plowing copper wires every .5 degree for a full 360 degrees out .75 Km, silver soldering them all into one giant plane and then refilling the swamp with water on the transmit side. I then drove out with several radios every five degrees to all points of the compass until I lost signal. The radio receiver qualities that I tested with were of three types (poor, average and exceptional) and the difference in reach was measurable but when I attached the antenna to a full sized van roof instead of my economy car the extra ground plane made a very significant difference - literally 30 to 50 Kms more reach (for FM) in every direction. AM would be considerable more.

So perhaps a marginal receiver could be the cause so comparison with a club member of friend who has the same setup is worth trying, but also any improvement in the ground plane will definitely make a difference (connections to ground and the plane itself such as crash bars). Kind of hard to ride with a sheet of copper around your waist though...

P.S. Braids give more surface area.

Hopefully the OP does a bit of searching around the web to sort out some of these answers.

In the "old days" AM radios used to have a "trimmer" slot in the back of the radios which would help bring in or "tune" (adjust the theoretical length) of the vehicle antennas.

OM

I tried a second grounding point today, under the seat. Didn't seem to improve anything. I attached and detached the ground while listening through earbuds and no change. I'm not sure there is much more I could do as adding a grounding plane doesn't seem practical given the bikes dimensions and lack of metal panels. Maybe the next time I have to remove the nose tupperware I can poke around up there.

Just for the record I am comparing the bike radio to my two other cars radios, which seems like a reasonable comparison to me. And I always have the antenna pushed forward, not flat back. It didn't make any difference as far as I can see. I'll probably revisit the powered signal booster as that strikes me as most promising. Amazon seel some universal Fakra connector adapters that are reasonably priced and would make it easy to do this.

I am also a little surprised and disappointed that this radio doesn't have the ability to receive digital AM, AKA HD radio. Even my 2011 BMW car has that.