OEM Factory Radio Antenna

[Ludville1]

I just ordered a OEM factory radio antenna (31.8" tall) to replace the 15" short antenna that came on the truck. The FM reception is crap, so I am hoping that the OEM antenna improves FM reception.

 

[rotwiler]

I added a short 16 inch antenna but had crap reception either way. I just bought a farka antenna booster, so going to try that, worst case I just remove it.

 

[Darth]

Mine came with the 31" antenna, no problems with FM and AM reception

 

[Harvo]

My OEM Sirius antenna was not working and I was still under warranty. Dealer keep telling me it was Sirius problem and not the antenna. dealer would not look at it or fix the problem. I was so passed I installed a Sirius antenna and Shazam everything worked
BS dealership


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[erictomlin]

Hey Ludville1 and rotwiler...any update on your antenna/reception situations? My new-to-me 2016 Big Horn with Uconnect 8.4 system is also experiencing lousy FM reception. Thanks.

 

[rotwiler]

Hey Ludville1 and rotwiler...any update on your antenna/reception situations? My new-to-me 2016 Big Horn with Uconnect 8.4 system is also experiencing lousy FM reception. Thanks.

The fakra booster I bought needed different connector and a solder came off so never installed. The OEM and now I think I have a 16 inch antenna, still either way reception is kinda bad. I live in rural area, in town is fine. My SS Camaro has a windshield antenna stock and gets better reception even where I live.

 

[erictomlin]

The fakra booster I bought needed different connector and a solder came off so never installed. The OEM and now I think I have a 16 inch antenna, still either way reception is kinda bad. I live in rural area, in town is fine. My SS Camaro has a windshield antenna stock and gets better reception even where I live.

Thanks for the reply. I recently picked up a 2016 RAM Big Horn and I love it...except for the FM radio reception. It sucks! I live in a rural area as well, but every car I have ever had while living in this area has had good reception. This truck is the only vehicle I've had any issues with. I saw talk of a 31" antenna. I'm not sure what size my current antenna is. I'll have to check it when I get out of work today.

 

[rotwiler]

Oem antenna is 31, it's the radio I am pretty sure, worst reception I ever had, no other car I have is this bad.

 

[erictomlin]

Oem antenna is 31, it's the radio I am pretty sure, worst reception I ever had, no other car I have is this bad.

UGH! Well, that very discouraging. I guess I'll be looking into antenna boosters, which I know nothing about...

 

[RamCares]

Hey Ludville1 and rotwiler...any update on your antenna/reception situations? My new-to-me 2016 Big Horn with Uconnect 8.4 system is also experiencing lousy FM reception. Thanks.

Hi erictomlin,
We’re sorry to hear about this. We certainly understand how frustrating this may be. Please feel free to let us know via private message if you decide to address this with your dealer and we will gladly assist you during that process.
Lydia
Ram Social Care Specialist

 

[erictomlin]

Hi erictomlin,
We’re sorry to hear about this. We certainly understand how frustrating this may be. Please feel free to let us know via private message if you decide to address this with your dealer and we will gladly assist you during that process.
Lydia
Ram Social Care Specialist

Hi Lydia,

Thanks for reaching out. Based on the many similar posts I'm seeing on this issue (both in this forum site and others), I'm guessing that this is a fairly common (and known) issue. Can you shed any light on how others have resolved this in the past? I don't mind working with the dealership to get it addressed, but it would be most helpful if I had some information and ideas to open the conversation with. Thanks!

Eric

 

[muddy12]

Sounds to me like it’s more of a radio issue, rather than an antenna issue.
I’m running a 12” flexible (parts store special) antenna on my 2012, and I still get what I think is decent reception. I can typically pull in the local fm station clearly from about 30 to 35 miles out(relatively flat, rural area). I do however, have just the basic am, fm, xm, and cd. No navigation or touch screen of any kind.





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[TigreST]

Sounds to me like it’s more of a radio issue, rather than an antenna issue.
I’m running a 12” flexible (parts store special) antenna on my 2012, and I still get what I think is decent reception. I can typically pull in the local fm station clearly from about 30 to 35 miles out(relatively flat, rural area). I do however, have just the basic am, fm, xm, and cd. No navigation or touch screen of any kind.

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You may be on to something there Muddy. I had the same antenna as you on my 03 QC SLT with the Alipine Nav/AM/FM/CD player and got very good reception on most every station out of the "Motor City" Detriot...and I live near Port Huron...bout 60miles out of D town. New 2018 Sport with the Alipine full house NAV/Uconnect yada yada yada..and the short antenna don't seem to cut it. I still program my own tunes via iPod Touch anyway..but would like good reception for emergency monitoring type stuff. Maybe I'll go back to OEM 31" mast I guess for the summer. I like the shorty rubber flex unit of winter when scraping the windshield off, etc.

T.

 

[erictomlin]

You may be on to something there Muddy. I had the same antenna as you on my 03 QC SLT with the Alipine Nav/AM/FM/CD player and got very good reception on most every station out of the "Motor City" Detriot...and I live near Port Huron...bout 60miles out of D town. New 2018 Sport with the Alipine full house NAV/Uconnect yada yada yada..and the short antenna don't seem to cut it. I still program my own tunes via iPod Touch anyway..but would like good reception for emergency monitoring type stuff. Maybe I'll go back to OEM 31" mast I guess for the summer. I like the shorty rubber flex unit of winter when scraping the windshield off, etc.

T.

How was your reception with the 31" mast prior to replacing it with the shorty?

 

[TigreST]

I’m going to say it was good, that would be without much conviction, because I bought the new (color matched) IPod Touch to make use of my own music library as already stated. A test is required. Gonna put the stock OEM unit back on right now and test drive it for a week. Shouldn’t take long to get some (no pun intended) feed back on its performance. I’d just assumed that it worked fine and that any shorty unit suffers with lack lustre reception.

T.

 

[TigreST]

The test subjects:

Left to right.
31” OEM.

13” flex from Canadian Tire (this worked fine on my 03 SLT)

13” Anten X. (just removed this one)

6” flex (got this one at Murray’s Auto Parts)

3” billet “Stubby”.

I might just tune in a weak fm station then swap them out and use that as the test. The 6” and 3” Stubby will not be tested, I know they fail right off the bat. The pods the primary music source with almost 7000 tunes set to “shuffle” mode. Never a dull moment. I’ll report back tomorrow, I hope.

T

 

[erictomlin]

The test subjects:

Left to right.
31” OEM.

13” flex from Canadian Tire (this worked fine on my 03 SLT)

13” Anten X. (just removed this one)

6” flex (got this one at Murray’s Auto Parts)

3” billet “Stubby”.

I might just tune in a weak fm station then swap them out and use that as the test. The 6” and 3” Stubby will not be tested, I know they fail right off the bat. The pods the primary music source with almost 7000 tunes set to “shuffle” mode. Never a dull moment. I’ll report back tomorrow, I hope.

T

Oh...this is getting good! I'm on pins and needles waiting for the results!

Kidding aside, thanks for helping me figure out if this is radio or antenna related.

 

[TigreST]

“I can’t hear ya. Lot a static at yer end. You radio-active er sumpin?” LOL


T.

 

[TigreST]

OEM 31” mast test: weather conditions: cool and overcast with low cloud. So, dial’d in fm 101.1 WRIF in Detroit on the coffee run this morning. Approx 60 miles away is the (W)RIF Detroit Rock station. Radio after a fashion went from fm reception to FM(HD) with the station logo and song info displayed with their colourful logo and“buffering” tag displayed. Not sure what that means. Music sound was still not what I’d call old school Hi Fi or ultra sharp or locked in, in either the basic FM mode or the FM(HD) mode. Got the coffee and on the return run home the HD signal never came up, just standard FM signal display. Reception was still somewhat lack luster IMHO. I did cycle through the local stations and reception was very good, what I would call normal sharp clear reception.

Test 2, 13” flex x2: This test was simply done in the driveway, radio tuned to the same WRIF. Removed the 31” mast. With no antenna there is of course no reception what so ever, just static. When either 13” flex unit is installed you do get some reception. I’d say it’s less than half as good as the 31” OEM mast. Interesting, when you touch/grab the flex antenna the reception improves markedly (your body becomes the antenna?).

So, if you want reception at its best stick with the OEM antenna I guess. I might try getting a second OEM unit and start trimming it down inch by inch and see what happens (most likely me wasting my time and money again). My wife likes the radio (pretty much hates everything in my IPods library) but rarely rides in the truck.

HTH,

T.

 

[16Ram4x4]

The one thing I will say is that the quality of the radios reception wise deals with how sensitive the tuner is made to pull in the broadcast signal from any station near or far away.
The factory infinity stereo in the 2001 Dodge Dakota I had was and still is far superior to that thing they call a base radio/media player in my 2016 Ram.
The FM radio reception on that factory infinity stereo would pull in stations that were over 50 miles away with no or very little static.
I can get only a third of those stations with that radio/media player and it doesn't take much to block the signal as the FM receiver is not that sensitive.
My thought is that they want to shove satellite radio down our throats as that is a paid for service.