Radio Reception Issues

KCG · March 26, 2017

I'm going to ask a stupid question...

I have a 2015 Silverado and the FM radio seems fine to me. This "HD" radio you are referring to: Is it just what our trucks have, or is there a setting I need to turn on? I don't see any radio tagging on my screen (which I believe I used to in my 2013 GMC Terrain).

Thanks.

Glad yours is working ok. Do you live close to the stations you listen too?

I live about 40 miles north of Baltimore Md, and about 40 miles south of Philadelphia Pa. I know where I can drive to pick up certain stations to the north or to the south. This radio in my 2014 doesn't pick up anywhere near as good as my work truck, '12 F450 or my '15 Traverse....or any other vehicle I've been in around here.

I don't know if all the new truck radios are HD compatible, but on mine you can turn it on and off in the settings menu.

Its basically the same idea as Digital Tv a few years back....Before, everything was an Analog signal. Now a Digital is available on the radio just like Tv. And then the next best thing is HD. Its improvement to sound quality is comparable to seeing the difference between Analog & Digital Tv. Also with HD, stations can broadcast up to 4 different broadcasts on the same channel. So say you listen to 97.9, if they are an HD station, they could be transmitting 4 different programs...97.9-1, 97,9-2, 97.9-3, 97.9-4....All different types of music, or weather, traffic whatever they want. Sorry for rambling, but wasn't sure exactly what you were asking.

SilveradoSaver · March 26, 2017

Glad yours is working ok. Do you live close to the stations you listen too?

I live about 40 miles north of Baltimore Md, and about 40 miles south of Philadelphia Pa. I know where I can drive to pick up certain stations to the north or to the south. This radio in my 2014 doesn't pick up anywhere near as good as my work truck, '12 F450 or my '15 Traverse....or any other vehicle I've been in around here.

I don't know if all the new truck radios are HD compatible, but on mine you can turn it on and off in the settings menu.

Its basically the same idea as Digital Tv a few years back....Before, everything was an Analog signal. Now a Digital is available on the radio just like Tv. And then the next best thing is HD. Its improvement to sound quality is comparable to seeing the difference between Analog & Digital Tv. Also with HD, stations can broadcast up to 4 different broadcasts on the same channel. So say you listen to 97.9, if they are an HD station, they could be transmitting 4 different programs...97.9-1, 97,9-2, 97.9-3, 97.9-4....All different types of music, or weather, traffic whatever they want. Sorry for rambling, but wasn't sure exactly what you were asking.

Thanks KCG. I was mostly wondering if this was a feature that could be turned on/off in the settings menu. I will have to take a look shortly!

The main stations I listen to are 45-50 km's away from where I live and they sound fine. When I drive away from where they are located, I can still get pretty good quality until I'm maybe 100 km's away from them. I think other factors play into this as well, considering driving "away" means driving towards the mountains where there's an increase of hills/mountains on either side of me.

Edit: I just went out for a drive and checked my settings for my radio. I see "RDS" was "off" - I switched it on and now I have more info on my screen about which songs/artists are playing on the radio. I assume this was the setting for HD radio?

Edited March 26, 2017 by SilveradoSaver

KCG · March 27, 2017

No, Radio Data Systems. From what I understand, its a standard that was written for broadcasters to transmit data such as time, station ID or name of the artist, song title...

Next time in my truck i'll see exactly what menu the HD on off is in and let you know.

SilveradoSaver · March 27, 2017

No, Radio Data Systems. From what I understand, its a standard that was written for broadcasters to transmit data such as time, station ID or name of the artist, song title...

Next time in my truck i'll see exactly what menu the HD on off is in and let you know.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

I'm still glad I stumbled across the RDS setting as I was wondering why that info wasn't popping up.

GeorgeMJ · March 27, 2017

KCG, please refer to my post of 29 June, 2016. It is on page 81. The best radio that I tested was the Sony and it had a rating of 7dBf sensitivity. This is dB above a femto Watt. Strange measurement but some kind of standard, but they don't tell you what you get at that level so I just compared against FM quieting. I would imagine that most radios with a rating of 7 or 8 dBf would be OK. There are some other receivers that I tested there and how I tested them. You'll find that most manufacturers don't even publish their sensitivity specs. I got inside the Sony radio and cut the tracks supplying power to the audio output chips to save power and cut down on the heat. I operated with this radio for a while but again, after the Android Auto upgrade, the FM performance was somewhat better, still kind of sucks but works out good enough for the stations that I use. I plugged the audio from the Sony into the truck's aux input and all other functions of Mylink stayed the same. I mounted the radio on the center hump back near the dash. The adapter antenna cable fit just right. If you look for my other posts I believe I gave model numbers for the adapter cables.

SilveradoSaver · March 27, 2017

After doing a quick Google search, it looks like some 2015 model vehicles may have had HD radio removed. Not sure if there's a way to tell this or not. Not a deal breaker for me, but would be a nice "hidden" surprise if my truck had this feature.

tnchevy · March 27, 2017

After doing a quick Google search, it looks like some 2015 model vehicles may have had HD radio removed. Not sure if there's a way to tell this or not. Not a deal breaker for me, but would be a nice "hidden" surprise if my truck had this feature.

It is not that great of a feature IMO unless you live very close to the HD stations. The nearest HD stations to me are 120 miles away and until I get within 20 miles of them the stations will switch back and forth between HD and regular. I just turned HD off and have never turned it back on even when I am in those cities that have HD.

SilveradoSaver · March 27, 2017

It is not that great of a feature IMO unless you live very close to the HD stations. The nearest HD stations to me are 120 miles away and until I get within 20 miles of them the stations will switch back and forth between HD and regular. I just turned HD off and have never turned it back on even when I am in those cities that have HD.

I live pretty close to a major city so HD may be beneficial to me.

KCG · March 27, 2017

After doing a quick Google search, it looks like some 2015 model vehicles may have had HD radio removed. Not sure if there's a way to tell this or not. Not a deal breaker for me, but would be a nice "hidden" surprise if my truck had this feature.

When you have the radio on, on my 8" screen there's a MENU button on the bottom right. When you press this, the option to turn HD on or off is on that next screen.

KCG, please refer to my post of 29 June, 2016. It is on page 81. The best radio that I tested was the Sony and it had a rating of 7dBf sensitivity. This is dB above a femto Watt. Strange measurement but some kind of standard, but they don't tell you what you get at that level so I just compared against FM quieting. I would imagine that most radios with a rating of 7 or 8 dBf would be OK. There are some other receivers that I tested there and how I tested them. You'll find that most manufacturers don't even publish their sensitivity specs. I got inside the Sony radio and cut the tracks supplying power to the audio output chips to save power and cut down on the heat. I operated with this radio for a while but again, after the Android Auto upgrade, the FM performance was somewhat better, still kind of sucks but works out good enough for the stations that I use. I plugged the audio from the Sony into the truck's aux input and all other functions of Mylink stayed the same. I mounted the radio on the center hump back near the dash. The adapter antenna cable fit just right. If you look for my other posts I believe I gave model numbers for the adapter cables.

George, Looks like you've done some great testing on this and confirmed my worst fears. This really sucks to have such a simple issue like this in this day & age. Ridiculous.

Ok so, looks like i'm going the booster route first. Which ones did you try or suggest to try?

I searched Amazon and come up with several but if there's a definite NO GO then I won't waste my time on that one.

Thanks for everything.

One more thing I forgot to ask... does anyone know exactly what this is or have tried one?

it was on an earlier post

http://www.pac-audio.com/productDetails.aspx?ProductId=1198&CategoryID=26

Edited March 27, 2017 by KCG

SilveradoSaver · March 27, 2017

When you have the radio on, on my 8" screen there's a MENU button on the bottom right. When you press this, the option to turn HD on or off is on that next screen.

Thanks. I looked under the menu option last night but did not see anything to do with the HD radio

KCG · March 28, 2017

ok, so to answer my own question above, I did some searching and found these PAC interface modules are used to replace your factory radio with an aftermarket unit but still retain things like Onstar, steering wheel controls, NAV if you have it, rear camera, etc....

Not what I'm looking to do yet. Bummer

Edited March 28, 2017 by KCG

GeorgeMJ · March 28, 2017

KCG, on the boosters, this type works well but has no bypass switch and may block AM. I forget so I'll have to check it again: http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-CAR-TRUCK-STEREO-ANTENNA-FM-AM-RADIO-INLINE-SIGNAL-AMP-AMPLIFIER-BOOSTER-/381665641317?hash=item58dd0b8365:g:o3IAAOSwqBJXWmI9 It is an amplifier on a small board with a band pass filter, not bad and lots of gain, like 20 to 30 dB.

This type works well, less gain, 12 to 15 dB, but has a switch to bypass it, necessitating that cables reach to the bottom of the dash, not a real problem for the cables that I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AB150-Anti-Static-FM-Radio-Signal-Amplifier-Antenna-Booster-15dB-Gain-Auto-Car-/331612371926?hash=item4d35a33bd6:g:YYoAAOSw4CFYrjcH&vxp=mtr There is a way to snake the cables down to the switch and back up through holes in the front of the dash behind the dress plate.

Look at my post of 4 July 2016 on page 81 for a description of cables and how it is done, (video from YouTube of somebody else). Be advised that there are some boosters that are not boosters, the cylindrical ones especially, they do nothing but put DC voltage on the cable to the antenna. Two of my switch types had a solder blob in the wrong place making a connection that burned up a resistor. There may be a worker making a mistake soldering these so if you get smoke, let me know and I'll tell you how to fix it.

Now, be advised that the poor sensitivity is likely not the only problem. Part of it may be, as with the LG radio in my truck, that there is very little or no "noise reduction" as was applied in the old Delco designs. If you look at my other post, 18 September 2016, page 83, I rambled a little bit but I tried to explain noise reduction. The LG radio in my 2016 Silverado LT could definitely use some noise reduction. Of course I could be wrong, (disclaimer), but those folks with the Bose systems are complaining of the "static" sound and I believe that is a combination of poor sensitivity and little or no noise reduction in the radio. Delco radios would attenuate the high frequencies in weak signal conditions so you wouldn't hear the static. Not the best fidelity but didn't get on your nerves either.

I wonder how much money they saved by not using quality Delco radios any more? When you saw the Delco name, you knew it would work and work well. I only spent a little time on the HD radio but it is cool, and this is something that should be in a vehicle as expensive as a truck with a digital type radio in this day and age. Nice feature, sometimes there are AM stations put on the FM subchannels and sometimes lots of desirable music with no commercials! I understand that 2014s may have had HD but many of the 2015s don't, maybe they turned it off with programming due to sensitivity problems. Good luck!

KCG · March 28, 2017

George, again, thanks for all the great info you're providing.

Just to clarify, is the second one you have listed the one you had the issues with? The one with the on/off switch?

If so, I think I may try the first one. I could attenuate the output if needed.

I should say that my radio is non-Bose and I'm referring to only FM through all this. In my case, I don't have a static noise problem. I simply just loose the reception, radio quiets, then gains volume as the signal increases. IF it locks on HD, it sounds really good. Its just amazing the difference between FM & FM-HD. It reminds me of the old days when your radio would switch in and out of stereo reception.

Once I get a booster, I'll find out what brand this radio is. I haven't popped it out yet.

Morpheus · March 29, 2017

Same here. Not more than 10 miles out and it's like I'm 100 miles out. I don't understand how my FM is so bad.

sk · March 29, 2017

It is not that great of a feature IMO unless you live very close to the HD stations. The nearest HD stations to me are 120 miles away and until I get within 20 miles of them the stations will switch back and forth between HD and regular. I just turned HD off and have never turned it back on even when I am in those cities that have HD.

I had an aftermarket HD radio in my 1994 Silvy and LOVED it. As a matter of fact it was one of the reasons I bought my 2015. However, as stated above the 2015 literature showed HD radio as standard. Mine turned out to be a late-build 2015 and it was removed . I argued with my dealer about it and he ended up knocking off a few hundred more dollars. I loved the truck so I took it but I still miss my HD radio ...