Did you buy a radio and it only gets static? There are a few things that could be at play.
Radio signals travel miles and miles to reach your home and the radio you choose, but depending on the distance or placement of your radio, it could be picking up a worse angle on the frequency. Radio signals bounce and reflect back and forth off of obstacles, including objects in your home and even your own body. There’s no way to guarantee which spot in your home will receive the best signal for the station you like best, but even moving a radio a few inches can suddenly improve its signal.
I test areas on the same table in my house, but sometimes I find that a different antenna picks up the signal a little better an inch to the left than another radio. Every radio has a different antenna design, and each radio shape comes into play as well: how tall is the radio itself? And how much higher is the antenna beyond it?
Some antennas seem to be better than others – Sangean and Studebaker radios, for example, have both performed well in my reception tests. Telescopic antennas, which all of the radios we recommend have, are usually the best at picking up a signal, but soft wire ones can work very well if you position them just right. I usually get the best results by attaching a wire antenna to a wall to replicate my telescopic antenna test, and they’re easy to attach to the back of some shelves if you want something discreet.
You should also ask yourself about the station you are trying to pick up. How far away is it and what kind of setup does it have? You can check out the Radio Locator to see what stations your area should pick up and how far away those stations broadcast. From my testing in San Diego County, I found that the major stations in Los Angeles and Tijuana might be easier to pick up (likely from a better antenna system, as the height and design of an antenna relates to how well it projects a signal) than some local stations that were much closer to me. With every radio I tested, I found that my local contemporary Christian station that is only ten miles away was harder to pick up than major radio stations located twice as far away.
My testing is all about consistency, so I didn’t look for a better signal for that local station beyond adjusting each radio a few inches on my test table. But you can do that, and you may have to try a few different pieces on a bookshelf or in a room to find where you can best get the radio signal for your chosen station. Portable radios make this a little easier since you don’t need to worry about a wire while you’re looking for that perfect spot, but I’ve often found that even a couple inches can make a big difference to a radio signal.
