Poor Radio Reception/Info on Antenna(e)?

[Kazz]

My '18 GT2 has had poor radio reception since it was purchased. When they told me they would have to remove the entire dash in order to get to it I said, "no". I resumed the conversation on my last visit. I'm told that if they remove it, test it, and find nothing wrong I'll pay for the new head unit. Yes, at purchase I extended the warranty to include electronics. Anyway...

Does anyone have technical and/or routing info for the antennae? I would like to try to check there first. Thanks for any assistance!

 

[D.J.]

Have you tried another stinger in the same spot to determine if yours is actually not behaving normally?

I attached 3 files with my or may not help.

 

[JSolo]

^^Does getting at the antenna require dropping the headliner in some manner?

Is TMU (from components.pdf) the lte antenna? I wouldn't mind disconnecting that.

 

[Kazz]

Have you tried another stinger in the same spot to determine if yours is actually not behaving normally?

I attached 3 files with my or may not help.

I have lived here over 20 years with decent time spent with at least 8 automobiles. AM reception is fuzzy and local FM stations fade in and out. Thank you for the docs!

Last I knew modern vehicles were coming with multiple antennae (diversity antenna?). It was about near vs. far or AM vs. FM or something. That's before the satellite antenna became a thing. So is the roof antenna the only one?

 

[D.J.]

So is the roof antenna the only one?

to my knowledge - yes. But this is not a confirmed statement.

 

[suburbazine]

I have lived here over 20 years with decent time spent with at least 8 automobiles. AM reception is fuzzy and local FM stations fade in and out. Thank you for the docs!

Last I knew modern vehicles were coming with multiple antennae (diversity antenna?). It was about near vs. far or AM vs. FM or something. That's before the satellite antenna became a thing. So is the roof antenna the only one?

The Stinger only has a small digitally amplified FM antenna in the combination sharkfin. Many other vehicles still use dedicated traces in the rear glass for FM/AM reception, but they're hardly superior. Typically if you have a sharkfin problem all the other services that rely on it (like GPS/Satellite) go out too.

With the advent of Digital AM/FM stations the signal quality issue in spotty areas is even more prevalent, because the car will step in and out of HD mode depending on the signal quality and you can really hear the difference.

 

[Kazz]

You're describing much of my problem. I'm about down to android auto. lol

So any way of improving reception? I assume I'd have to go through the headliner to get into it.

 

[suburbazine]

You're describing much of my problem. I'm about down to android auto. lol

So any way of improving reception? I assume I'd have to go through the headliner to get into it.

Well, not so much improve as keep it permanently degraded. I'd have to dig to show you the setting, but you can disable HD Radio entirely. This would keep the obvious signal jumping from being as obvious.

 

[Kazz]

But that wouldn't solve the root problem. Only the symptom that HD radio doesn't come in well. These stations are in my own town.