Radio reception

[Bayouboy]

Hello all. Does anybody else get crappy radio reception. I have a new 2016 RT-S Special Series, and I can only get like 4 fm stations. I can't even get our local station. Any suggestions? Since I am a new owner (2 weeks), I may have a lot of questions in the coming weeks. Thanks in advance.

[Dray]

You are not alone!! Evidently there are a lot of us with the same complaint.
I have a 2017 F3 Limited with the same crappy reception. Spoke with my dealer
and there are several things that can cause the problem, but it is covered
by the warranty. Of course it is no telling how long it will take to chase down
grounds, shorts, loose wires, loose connections, a bad antenna or even a faulty radio.
Hang in there.

Dray

[Bayouboy]

I guess I will talk to my dealer Monday. Thanks for the response

[Bayouboy]

I've been doing some digging here and it seems that it may be an issue with too much thread lock on the antenna. I'll try to remove the antenna and clean it off to see if that fixes the problem.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

You are not alone!! Evidently there are a lot of us with the same complaint.
I have a 2017 F3 Limited with the same crappy reception. Spoke with my dealer
and there are several things that can cause the problem, but it is covered
by the warranty. Of course it is no telling how long it will take to chase down
grounds, shorts, loose wires, loose connections, a bad antenna or even a faulty radio.
Hang in there.

Dray

Have you added LED lights to the bike?

[Ben Burped]

Take the speaker assembly off by removing two t-30 bolts in the trunk and lifting it off. Look to see if the flat, braided ground wire is touching the brass block that the antenna is screwed into or the center of the coax that is connected to the brass block. If the ground wire touches the center conductor it will drain off the signal on the center conductor resulting in very poor reception on all but the strongest stations. Your dealer can check this for you if you don't feel comfortable trying it. The reason that I know about this problem is that my dealer put the ground and the center conductor on the same terminal and it only got strong FM signals and no AM signals. No joking.

[Bayouboy]

Take the speaker assembly off by removing two t-30 bolts in the trunk and lifting it off. Look to see if the flat, braided ground wire is touching the brass block that the antenna is screwed into or the center of the coax that is connected to the brass block. If the ground wire touches the center conductor it will drain off the signal on the center conductor resulting in very poor reception on all but the strongest stations. Your dealer can check this for you if you don't feel comfortable trying it. The reason that I know about this problem is that my dealer put the ground and the center conductor on the same terminal and it only got strong FM signals and no AM signals. No joking.

I all definitely check that out tomorrow. Thanks for the info!