Improving reception of under-cabinet kitchen radio

June 22, 2013 12:13 PM

I have a Sony ICF-CD543-RM kitchen radio/CD player that mounts under a cabinet. It has poor FM radio reception for stations that come in fine on other radios.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31P6TKD01NL._SX342_.jpg

It has a two-foot-long power cord, and moving this and/moving myself around the kitchen affects the reception.

Is there any way to improve the reception without opening the case and modifying things? I'm not handy with electronics.

posted by 4midori to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

The Amazon page indicates that there is no external antenna input. The AM antenna is internal. The FM antenna is the power cord. So you don't have a lot of great choices other than positioning the power cord where it gets the best reception.

Perhaps the best of your bad choices is to plug the radio into an extension cord (a cheap extension cord is fine, the longer the better) and play around with placement of the extension cord. Positioning the cord higher, closer to the outside wall, should give the best results, but the mere fact of increased antenna length should make the biggest difference.
posted by Dimpy at 12:33 PM on June 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Several Amazon reviewers complain about the poor FM reception of this model. This one suggests a way to add an external antenna. I'd try Dimpy's suggestion first!
posted by Snerd at 12:42 PM on June 22, 2013

since it's acting as antenna, as long and straight as you can make the cord, the better (ie dont roll it up)...horizontal is fine (up under the cabinet)
posted by sexyrobot at 12:50 PM on June 22, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks all. Looks like it's extension cord city.
posted by 4midori at 11:24 AM on June 23, 2013