I live in Arizona and frequently run out of radio range for the station I am listening to. I have one antena on a rear fender.would instaling a second antena on the other fender improve the reception
The reception range is determined by station signal strenght, distance from transmitter,atmospheric conditions,obstacles in the way of transmission,solar activity,and whether it is a AM or FM signal.
The sensitivity and selectivity of your reciever determines what station you will recieve and the quality of the signal that will be inputed to your radios amplification section.
Two antennas would not help recieving the same station,from the same transmitter
Some manufactures offer a “signal booster” that helps with weak signals
The short answer is no.
Antenna Theory and Design is a field that some people spend their entire careers in.
Adding an extra antenna won’t necessarily help. Depending on the wavelength of the station you’re trying to tune in to, different length antennas will work better than others. Adding an extra one has a similar effect to having a much larger antenna, which isn’t necessarily better. Older cars, where radio reception was more of a priority than it is now, used to have adjustable antennas where you could move the antenna up and down to find the optimum length for the station you’re trying to tune in. Some new car really do skimp on the antennas and replacing the one you have with a different length one or a telescoping one you can adjust might yield you better results.
However, that’s really more of an issue of getting the station to come in clearly. If you’re out of range you’re out of range and, though with AM sometimes better equipment can bring in more distant stations, I’ve found with FM it pretty much cuts out where it cuts out no matter what you’re using. I used to to travel all over Montana for work and I had the places where each (FM) NPR repeater would fade out memorized and they were pretty much the same no matter what vehicle I was driving.
Have you looked into satellite radio? It’s really not that expensive and I can’t imagine driving through the huge gaps between decent radio stations without it any more!
Get a bigger antenna, not another one. Maybe it will work. but then again, maybe it won’t. A secdond antenna definitely won’t help at all.
Unfortunately, the previous commentors are correct. Typically, when an FM station gets out of range, it is out of range simply put. It’s true, you can try signal boosters, which simply amplify the signal your antenna is already getting, but it won’t really help you any if you’re out of range. The best advice I can give is this. Optimum reception of any radio transmission depends on antenna length. The higher the radio frequency, the shorter the required antenna. You can furthermore use what they call half length, and quarter length antennas. As example, a station broadcasting on 106.5 FM (That is, in MegaHertz range) has a wave length of approximately 8.8 feet and so would be optimally received by an 8.8 foot antenna. Or a half wavelength antenna of 4.4 feet. Or failing either of those, a quarter length antenna of approximately 2.2 feet You can still pick up other stations, but you would be tuned the best for 106.5. Obviously, the single length antenna in cars today works well enough for most. I’d say your best course of action would be, unfortunately to pick up either a satellite radio, or some other source of music. If you’re seriously in need of a project though, there are internet resources to help you calculate antenna length for particular frequencies, and on antenna design.