AM radio reception?

[Magumba]

AM radio reception in our motorhome is very poor. Stations I can listen too in the car are totally lost in the motorhome. I guess I need a better antenna.
Also we have a lot of feedback from the florescent lights. Does anyone know of a filter that will help with that?
Thanks.

[hooverbill]

First thing I'd check is to be sure the antenna is hooked up.

[BA-in-Mich]

Chances are it is the antenna. If the outer shield breaks (ground) it really screws the reception up. If the antenna is adjustable ( The length of the rod ) Make as long as possible. AM because of the frequency works better the longer the rod is. Where ever the antenna is mounted make sure the mounting base of the antenna is grounded that will help with some of the interference issues. You really won't find any filters to get rid of local noise.

[ctpres]

Is ant. parallel to ground or vertical? Some mfg's, including Damon installed them parallel to ground. AM needs vertical antenna. If you do replace it, get marine type with spring base and built in ground plane.

[Dland1937]

While slipseating in an 18 wheeler I used an auto ignition condenser to suppress alternator noise . Just tapped the hot wire and grounded the condenser case to the radio

[wa8yxm]

I answered this in another forum it seems:
AM radio over the years

Some older cars (Roaring 20's) had wire antennas that went the full length of the car.
By the 1950's we had these multi-segment pull up things often 6-9 feet long

By the 1990's we had these fixed length (3/4 meter) things that are in fact tuned to the FM band

Now on the motor home you have this little rubber ducky thing (coil of wire with rubber over it) perhaps a foot long if that.

A tuned antenna for AM radio is 25 meters long (More or less depending on where in the band) Any antenna shorter is going to have reduced performance.. The shorter the antenna the "Shorter" the performance.

This is why you have bad reception in motor homes.. You basically do not have any antenna worthy of the name on the AM band.