Poor Radio Reception

[wyatt]

I recently swapped my car radio with a tape deck for a newer radio with a CD player, USB port, and HD radio. Unfortunately, the radio tuner seems to be really bad, and I can no longer listen to my favorite radio stations to and from work .
I have been looking at options for improving the radio reception, and came across a radio signal amplifier. Has anyone used one? If it helps, it would be worth the money.
Also, my antenna is broken off (and has been for years), so replacing it with one of these would also help (if it fits). I never had this much trouble getting radio stations in my life! I effectively took out my radio and installed a USB MP3 player... Are there any good antennas out there that would do the job (on the cheap)?
I was thinking I could go to a junk yard and poke around looking for a Geo Metro and take it's OEM antenna (it should fit my Suzuki Swift)... but if I would be better off looking at antennas from different car antennas, perhaps I would start there. Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[dcb]

I would start with a straightened out one of these:

[daring4]

If you only listen...never mind try the coat hanger!

[SVOboy]

You did plug your antenna back in, right?

[dcb]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...XM radios used much, much smaller "tuned" antennas.

XM is for chumps (why listen for free when you can pay money for morons like stern?) Why bring up XM anyway?

[dcb]

But the OP doesn't have XM, and now you bring up cellphones. Think precision/relevancy.

If you want to make the point that antenna lengths are dependent on the frequencies being used, and have a suggested length for this instance, that would be infinitely more precise.

[wyatt]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

You did plug your antenna back in, right?

Yes I did! The problem is that the antenna is snapped off, and it was repaired once, and that snapped off... leaving me with no hole to put a hanger down. I was able to pull in stations to program (automatically) by touching a length of wire to the nub that is left, and I got the rest manually. The problem isn't when I am sitting in front of my house, it's when I start moving. I guess maybe I should start in a junk yard looking for a "new" antenna, see what the improvement is and go from there.
So nobody has experience with the "antenna signal boosters"?

[daring4]

Hit up the junkyards for stock parts, sounds like alot of yours is missing or broken.

But on the bright side I just found out I'm a chump! I dont listen to stern though...where I camp there are no radio stations available.

I'm guessing your new radio has a less sensitive tuner where your old one would work ok without external antenna. I'd give you mine off the Fiero if it would fit, I don't use it just the Xm

[Arragonis]

I replaced my VAG radio with an aftermarket one with USB stuff because I have a lot of MP3s and I hate burning them to CDs. I had a similar issue in that I couldn't get a lot of the stations I used to get and adding a signal booster sorted that out. It turned out the original unit had a SB built in - worth the money, or at least worth a try.

[dcb]

Originally Posted by daring4

But on the bright side I just found out I'm a chump! I dont listen to stern though...where I camp there are no radio stations available.

LOL, I thought of some locales where XM would probably be an improvement after I typed it Around Shi-town it doesn't make much sense though.

C'mon wyatt, piece of wire sticking in the air, you can do it.