No FM Reception???

[CLBeerbower]

New Coleman CTU281BH and when I went through the PDI I checked everything...everything except the FM radio. I have turned the amp on and off and nothing works. I am assuming that there is NOTHING attached behind the entertainment center.

Anyone lease have this issue? Any recommended fixes? I was thinking about using a motorola to F type adapter and using the feed off of the roof antenna. Thoughts?

[sundancer 87]

Might be as easy as pulling the radio and see if the antenna wire is connected or even stuffed behind the radio.

Some have simply had an automotive antenna added to the trailer to overcome this problem.

[vwgtiman]

Same issue on my Kodiak. I pulled the radio and there was... nothing connected. No antenna. The dealer insisted it has one. After they had it for a few weeks I got it back and the note says it fell off... and was down behind the radio. I looked in there. It appears they just connected it to the TV splitter. Now I get some reception but guess what... no more local TV reception. This is with the amp turned on. It has to go back but this will wait till after the season now. I think I will be better off getting a real FM antenna and undoing the dealer fix.

[prm99v6]

Just figured out mine is connected to the TV antenna and it works better with the booster on although I don't have a TV so there is no impact in TV reception.

[CLBeerbower]

I am afraid that mine will be the same. Two issues I see here are poor quality control at the plant and also poor planning. The ribbon antenna will work poorly even when connected correctly. This is a design issue. I do listen to the radio and this lack of attention to detail is disappointing.

I am curious about the splitter and why if you have it you can't watch tv. I would not need to do them both at the same time. But I would like the ability to use the power amp for both

[pdonoghu]

The radio in our V 3105 is also connected to the TV antenna, and needs the power booster to be on to get reception. That works fine with the TVs, as long as you are watching over the air TV. Most campgrounds we stay at have cable, we prefer to watch the cable TV. Turn on the power booster, and it kills the cable picture. We like to leave the radio on for the dog when we go our, or if just relaxing and reading.

I wonder if turning the antenna booster on while connected to cable also impacts others in the campground. I suspect it could.

The other issue with this setup is internet access. We're in a campground for 5 weeks at a time, and get internet over the cable. Turning on the antenna booster for the radio to work not only disrupts the cable TV, but it kills the internet that also comes in over the cable. Our solution when we have internet is to connect an iPod Touch to the stereo, and use the iHeart radio app to get stations. All our prior RVs had antennas to allow the radio to work independently. Just short sighted, and cheap to do it the way Dutchmen did.

[CLBeerbower]

Thank you very much for the info. I think I am going to see what options I have for a separate fm antenna so I just skip this issue entirely.

[DesertRat]

Interesting I don't need to raise the TV antenna or turn on the booster to get great FM.

[Plapper2000]

Turned on booster and got better FM than no booster. Raised antenna and got improved reception. Rotated antenna and it got even better. Never as good as my car radio.