Elkmont Radio

[Shandysplace]

Has anyone had any luck w/it? Ours is totally non-functional on AM and barely on FM. Has anyone installed a power and/or external antenna?

[Bigbit]

Has anyone had any luck w/it? Ours is totally non-functional on AM and barely on FM. Has anyone installed a power and/or external antenna?
I haven't tried AM; my FM works OK, but I'm usually somewhere not far from civilization when I use it. I tend to use the AUX input jack and feed music from my iPod through it.

[Wavery]

The radio on our 2720 gets great reception on AM and FM.

I don't know if the Elkmont has an antenna booster or not. Ours has a booster.

Maybe it's just a loose connection.

[ShrimpBurrito]

I don't really understand how these "boosters" can be effective. You can't "pull in" any additional signal with any sort of electrical device compared to using the antenna alone. Pre-amps, which I'm guessing is what these are, are typically mounted near the antenna and simply amplify the signal, but they only make a difference if there is a long wire run (like 50+ feet) from the antenna to the receiver. Why? Because it simply compensates for the signal loss in the cable, but if the cable is short, there's little loss to begin with, so it doesn't add anything.

If you can receive a much better signal on your car radio while parked next to the TM, I think something is wrong with the installation. As Wayne suggested, a loose or no connection between the radio and antenna would be my guess....I wouldn't even be surprised if someone at the factory forgot to plug the antenna into the radio. If you can get access to the rear of the unit, it would be easy to check. I doubt the unit has an external AM antenna, so only FM performance would improve if you found something.

Dave

[brulaz]

We haven't used ours much, but when we have it worked fine.

[Barb&Tim]

Had weak reception, am & fm, on our 2720SL. I traced it to the coupling coming partially apart where they used an extension cable between the radio and the outside antenna (inside the cable mesh).

[Beak12]

Has anyone had any luck w/it? Ours is totally non-functional on AM and barely on FM. Has anyone installed a power and/or external antenna?

We had a problem with both AM and FM. Only 1 station would come in. Took it back to Custom RV and the got permission to replace the old/new antenna with a (power?) one. The old/new antenna ran through the kitched cabnets as far as the stove. But nothing. The new/new one was installed outside the trailer. They had to drill a hole on the side and pulled the wire in.
Now that I'm posting this I rememer I ordered the TM with the radio moved from the factory install location on the end of the sink cabnet to the upper cabnets above the sink. So installing the new antenna was easy. ;)

[Shandysplace]

Ed Lytle sent us an external antenna he says are now being installed on all new Elkmonts. He sent us a picture and we had it installed about 2" down from the roof about a foot forward of the stove exhaust vent. Reception on both AM/FM dramatically improved. Warranty paid for labor.

[brulaz]

Hmmm, inside? Between the sink and stove or ... ?
Maybe a picture?

[Shandysplace]

Sorry. Here it is. The factory installation is a few inches more toward the rear, but the same distance down from the roof. It was easier for our installer to bring the cable into the leftmost overhead cabinet and run the antenna wire along the cable race through the other cabinets to the radio. Adequate shielding is a must since the antenna will pick up a lot of electrical noise from the TM wiring. The antenna comes from the factory complete with hardware and preinstalled cable.

[Beak12]

Looks like the same place Custom RV installed ours.

[cochise]

Adequate shielding is a must since the antenna will pick up a lot of electrical noise from the TM wiring. The antenna comes from the factory complete with hardware and preinstalled cable.

On our Elkmont 24 we had the factory mounted antenna on the side of the entry door. It gave reasonable reception, but nothing to write home about. It had a tendency to lay down as we drove along.

However, the antenna should use a shielded lead -in from the antenna to the radio, and for better rejection of noise, it should be grounded at some point. The antenna lead-in is similar to a piece of coax but with a different resistance between the core and the jacket. Check that out.