HogTunes Fail
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Banned
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From: WI
I'm really not sure what is up with the FM, the wife and I were out riding yesterday you you could scan the whole range of FM and were lucky to get in 1 or 2 stations and the ones that came in, came in very poorly. I live in a pretty populated area and we have a lot of FM stations in the area.
Road Master
Joined: Jan 2015
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From: SF Bay area
Very interested to hear the comclusion to this. I put in the RF 300x2 amp, which is supposed to be FM proof, & lost half of my FM capability. As with your setup, stations that were clear now are fuzzy, most don't come in at all. This is in the SF Bay area so there's no shortage of signals.
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From: WI
Very interested to hear the comclusion to this. I put in the RF 300x2 amp, which is supposed to be FM proof, & lost half of my FM capability. As with your setup, stations that were clear now are fuzzy, most don't come in at all. This is in the SF Bay area so there's no shortage of signals.
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2012
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From: Indianapolis IN.
Ya, I don't understand this at all. Why would adding an AMP cause you to lose your FM Signal? I thought all it should do is amplify the signal coming in? I guess I don't understand all the electronics behind this, but when talking to Bill at BT he said they use digital processing to try to make sure it has no effect on FM Signal. All I know is I put an AMP and speakers in my Tahoe and have also lost "some" FM signal in it also. But my bike is a complete different story. I couldn't get anything to come in and the one station that did I can normally pick up 40 miles + away from the station they put out such a strong signal. That came in barely and was very fuzzy. I'll take the fairing off and get back to Bill, but I'm willing to bet that there are no wires causing the interference. I know he did say the HK stock radio does put out a dirty signal as volume increases, but even he said I should NOT have any lose in FM Signal. I told him 90% of my riding is listing to FM and I need to make sure that works first and for most. There is no shortage of FM signals around here either.
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From: WI
Very strange. I've had two of those amps on my bike at one time and never lost FM. Same with the PBR. I've also had two of those on my bike as well. No FM loss. Now when I run the class D amps I lose some FM but not all. I'm not an FM guy so I might have missed something. I'd start with all your FM connections if I were you. I've known many guys with both amps and have not lost FM.
I'd be interested if anyone else out there has the HK radio with the 4180 amp and 7p1... At what volume level does your system start to puke out. Distort beyond being able to listen to it... I'm just curious if mine is acting the same or if there is just some other issue going on.
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From: WI
Ya, I just did a little experiment. Went 5-7 miles west out of town with my main station that always comes in. 5-7 miles out of town it got to fuzzy to listen to. I'm going to go out and pull the fairing off and see if I notice anything. By the way, yesterday I was North of town. But I've been able to listen to my main station going around the lake that is west of me. That is where I was going to ride. It's 25 miles to the west side of the lake, then down and around. Never had any issues listening to my main station going around that lake.
Oh, but on the way back I was just jamming Avanged Sevenfold CD and got a huge thumbs up from a bunch of bikers sitting outside a local tavern... ;-). Now if I can get to the bottom of what is causing me to lose my FM...
Oh, but on the way back I was just jamming Avanged Sevenfold CD and got a huge thumbs up from a bunch of bikers sitting outside a local tavern... ;-). Now if I can get to the bottom of what is causing me to lose my FM...
Last edited by jamala00; Apr 18, 2015 at 01:56 PM.
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From: WI
Very strange. I've had two of those amps on my bike at one time and never lost FM. Same with the PBR. I've also had two of those on my bike as well. No FM loss. Now when I run the class D amps I lose some FM but not all. I'm not an FM guy so I might have missed something. I'd start with all your FM connections if I were you. I've known many guys with both amps and have not lost FM.
Anyway... I did find some things. So I did have one of the RCA cables wired tied in with the antenna wire for the FM. I also noticed that I must of at some time pulled the antenna about 1/2 way out of the back of the radio. So I fixed that and went for a ride. It's better, but still not getting the signal I used to. So I am wondering if it might be something with a bad ground, that it's drawing ground from the antenna and interfering...?
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Joined: Aug 2008
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From: S. FL
- Ground to the battery. It works.
- The 4180/2180 design is to be power efficient, so that's why it works with thinner cables and triple tree ground. Still, I grounded mine to the battery.
- even with the PBR I lost some FM. Don't know of any 100% solutions. I don't listen to FM either and if I did, I have a shorty antenna stuffed in my fairing so I lose reception regardless. There's been work arounds of putting the power cable opposite of the antenna. I've also read guys putting a layer of aluminum foil or space tape between the amp and radio and power cable. Some guys have said it helps. I'll defer to BT on FM solutions as I hardly listen to FM
- if u have a bad ground it will affect sound quality.
Hope that helps man. I think this is all fixable. Just gotta get it right.
- The 4180/2180 design is to be power efficient, so that's why it works with thinner cables and triple tree ground. Still, I grounded mine to the battery.
- even with the PBR I lost some FM. Don't know of any 100% solutions. I don't listen to FM either and if I did, I have a shorty antenna stuffed in my fairing so I lose reception regardless. There's been work arounds of putting the power cable opposite of the antenna. I've also read guys putting a layer of aluminum foil or space tape between the amp and radio and power cable. Some guys have said it helps. I'll defer to BT on FM solutions as I hardly listen to FM
- if u have a bad ground it will affect sound quality.
Hope that helps man. I think this is all fixable. Just gotta get it right.
Thread Starter
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From: WI
- Ground to the battery. It works.
- The 4180/2180 design is to be power efficient, so that's why it works with thinner cables and triple tree ground. Still, I grounded mine to the battery.
- even with the PBR I lost some FM. Don't know of any 100% solutions. I don't listen to FM either and if I did, I have a shorty antenna stuffed in my fairing so I lose reception regardless. There's been work arounds of putting the power cable opposite of the antenna. I've also read guys putting a layer of aluminum foil or space tape between the amp and radio and power cable. Some guys have said it helps. I'll defer to BT on FM solutions as I hardly listen to FM
- if u have a bad ground it will affect sound quality.
Hope that helps man. I think this is all fixable. Just gotta get it right.
- The 4180/2180 design is to be power efficient, so that's why it works with thinner cables and triple tree ground. Still, I grounded mine to the battery.
- even with the PBR I lost some FM. Don't know of any 100% solutions. I don't listen to FM either and if I did, I have a shorty antenna stuffed in my fairing so I lose reception regardless. There's been work arounds of putting the power cable opposite of the antenna. I've also read guys putting a layer of aluminum foil or space tape between the amp and radio and power cable. Some guys have said it helps. I'll defer to BT on FM solutions as I hardly listen to FM
- if u have a bad ground it will affect sound quality.
Hope that helps man. I think this is all fixable. Just gotta get it right.
Sound quality is there, If I play bluetooth or CD, I get some pretty awesome sound. So this is just something to do with FM only... So probably not the ground... I'll see what Bill says on Monday.