Bedside radio reception

[Tonyz]

our AM clock/radio has very bad reception ...
rather it did have until I moved it from bedroom to middle of house. Now the bedroom would be metal stud, Hardie panel wallboard outside and gyprock on inside walls. I suspect the reception or lack f is due to the metal stud frame because as soon as its moved to middle of house its great reception.

The radio does have a wire coming out that would be earth or ariel dont know which advice on keeping it in bedroom but improving reception, personally Id be throwing it in the bin (what a crap way to wake up in morning) but wifey would argue who would go in the bin.

[Bohdan]

You didn't say if it is AM or FM. Try extending the aerial wire by a large amount. I have an FM radio with a small stick aerial and reception is terrible, when I rest an extended broken off car radio aerial against it the reception becomes quite reasonable.

[q9]

If it only has the internal antenna, then you will find they can be quite directional, and chances are reorienting it in the room would help. External AM antennas are loops and you can move them about, but not every radio has one. I fixed an AM radio here, and at first I thought it was a lost cause, but put it in lounge (3 meters max away!) and it picks up stations all over the dial. There tends to be a LOT of steel in the concrete here, so more of an issue. Getting it close to the window really helped, but it is a bit fussy which way it is facing and that's been my experience with AM for as long as I've had an AM radio.

[China]

The wire would almost certainly be a aerial/ antenna, you could try extending this buy stripping a short length at the end twist this to a longer wire even to the outside and my help

[russ57]

No help to op, but my dab+ cuts out when I close the wardrobe mirror door...

(I suspect it moves to act as an out of phase reflector..)
Radio is a black art. (spoken as a former communication engineer). Try the long wire. If you have a metal bedframe try connecting to that. Try rotating the set 90 degrees.

[malb]

In addition to the metal stud wall frame and Hardie panel, there is quite likely a metal foil vapour barrier behind the Hardie panel. With this in contact with the meta studs, it effectively creates part of a faraday shield, one of the more effective radio frequency sheilding systems. Or, if you or an immediate neighbour has a solar system, the inverter could be creating interference if the inverter is close to the bedroom wall.


Once upon time, it was a major offence to create radio interference that disrupted someones reception, these days it is virtually unenforced as the authorities don't give a hoot about broadcast reception, only the big boys like telcos who buy sprectrum in big blocks. AM receivers have also declined in quality since the 70's, with a tendency toward single chip systems rather than well optimised discrete circuitry.