HD Radio Stations Dead

[Donn]

Has anyone had an issue with losing their HD stations?

I have a 2017 Ram with the RA4 8.4 Nav radio. The last couple of days when ever I tune to one of the HD stations, they will never connect with a signal. They just keep buffering for a long time and then show the message that their is no signal.

Am I just dead in the water as far as HD radio?

Or is there a work around?


TIA

Don King

 

[crazykid1994]

Bad antenna? Not sure how to test that but it’s not a hard swap. It’s on the roof

 

[Donn]

That would be an easy fix maybe. I'm not sure how you would go about checking that either.

Hmmm.

 

[SitKneelBend]

Bad antenna? Not sure how to test that but it’s not a hard swap. It’s on the roof

The HD signal comes from the standard AM/FM antenna on the passenger front fender. SXM is on the roof (which is also cell and GPS)

That would be an easy fix maybe. I'm not sure how you would go about checking that either.

Hmmm.

The white connector on the back of your radio is the connection to check, but if you get normal AM/FM reception it likely is fine. If you have anything shorter than the factory antenna, HD reception will suffer. In addition, LED and HID lights in your headlights or fogs can interfere with HD reception when they are turned on. Certain ones will cause just enough EMI to kill HD reception.

 

[crazykid1994]

The HD signal comes from the standard AM/FM antenna on the passenger front fender. SXM is on the roof (which is also cell and GPS)

The white connector on the back of your radio is the connection to check, but if you get normal AM/FM reception it likely is fine. If you have anything shorter than the factory antenna, HD reception will suffer. In addition, LED and HID lights in your headlights or fogs can interfere with HD reception when they are turned on. Certain ones will cause just enough EMI to kill HD reception.

My bad. I figured HD and XM were the same. I just have am/fm in my truck.

 

[Donn]

The HD signal comes from the standard AM/FM antenna on the passenger front fender. SXM is on the roof (which is also cell and GPS)

The white connector on the back of your radio is the connection to check, but if you get normal AM/FM reception it likely is fine. If you have anything shorter than the factory antenna, HD reception will suffer. In addition, LED and HID lights in your headlights or fogs can interfere with HD reception when they are turned on. Certain ones will cause just enough EMI to kill HD reception.

I don't have any LED's or HID's so that shouldn't be the problem. I have the factory antenna and all of the regular stations come in just fine.

I've read about some people doing a soft reboot to fix some problems. Would that clear all of the updates on the radio (like uconnect and radio, NAV udates.)?

I know it will clear the radio presets or custom settings. I'm good with that and can reprogram those things. I just don't want to do all the the IOS/Sotware updates because I know sometimes it can glitch.

-Donn King

 

[GTyankee]

How close is the nearest FM stations broadcasting in HD ?

List of radio stations in Arizona - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Donn]

Out of the stations that I listen to, the longest distance is 10 miles.

 

[GTyankee]

To me, the radio is just background noise

Today i hopped in the Ram after remote starting it, i must have bumped the volume knob yesterday as i was getting out.
The clarity sounded pretty good for an FM HD1 station

I saw for the first time, that on the screen it read HD

I normally listen to Country music, but i allowed my Sirius to expire

 

[SitKneelBend]

I don't have any LED's or HID's so that shouldn't be the problem. I have the factory antenna and all of the regular stations come in just fine.

I've read about some people doing a soft reboot to fix some problems. Would that clear all of the updates on the radio (like uconnect and radio, NAV udates.)?

I know it will clear the radio presets or custom settings. I'm good with that and can reprogram those things. I just don't want to do all the the IOS/Sotware updates because I know sometimes it can glitch.

-Donn King

Nope, the firmware update will not roll back if you do a factory reset. It only clears the user options of the radio. It couldn't hurt to try. You could also unscrew the factory antenna and check for corrosion and try to clean the threads. Digital reception is greatly effected by even small signal loss.

 

[Donn]

Ill give that a try to see.