My HK AVR-240 's built-in tuner had been working fantastically. I went out of town for a few months and upon my return found out that FM reception wasn't as good. I never tuned into AM so no idea about that.
Prior to leaving I had covered the system well so it can remain protected against dust and everything else seems fine. Just the FM reception seems to be slightly poorer. I would like to add that in the meantime some new FM stations started broadcasting.
My question is: is it just my perception, or could it be for real? Can addition of new stations on the air impact the reception quality? Or is it just because of a temporary interference in the air?
Another question which may or may not be related - when I set the tuner to Auto and start tuning, it also starts catching the music being played by the PC (which is kept nearby) on two frequencies. This I never noticed earlier. The PC is hooked to the reciever with a digital connection. There are no FM transmitters atatched to the sound card so I am wondering what might be going on.
Does it look like a case of bad placement of antennas? I am using the supplied rudimentary FM antenna (a simple wire) and an AM loop antenna (supplied).
Everything with the setup seems to be the same but the quality of reception doesn't seem to be as good now.
You'll have to be more specific about the quality of reception. Are you hearing more noise on the channels, are you not picking up the channels you did previous to your vacation or do the signals stray from being well tuned to being off center tuning? What have you done to try to rectify the problem?
No, there is no problem regarding recving the stations. I can receive all stations (new as well as new ones).
The sound is "noisy". It seems as if there are occasional "bleeps" in the sound. Its more like they aren't always "perfectly tuned", like they get cut off the center ocassionally. The general feel is not as clean as it used to be.
Hope that clarifies. Thanks for your help in advance.
More than a few things can affect FM reception and it sounds like you might be experiencing some multipath problems. This could be caused by new construction in your area. Try a different antenna and see if that helps, a wire whip isn't that much of an antenna in the first place and it is too omni-directional for most locations. Go to a "T" type folded dipole antenna or a pair of rabbit ears that you can aim for directional response. Connecting to your rooftop TV antenna would be the best solution, if you are not also experiencing this problem with TV reception. The new stations might have an affect on reception if they are close to the frequency of the station you are trying to pick up. Close meaning 99.7 and 99.9. Unfortunately, tuners in American market receivers are generaly less than stellar and can have some alternate channel rejection problems on stations that are close in frequency. Improving your antenna will improve this situation somewhat. Location of the antenna makes a large difference in FM performance and you might try moving the receiver temporarily to another room to see of that makes any difference in reception quality. Of course, switching to mono helps most FM reception problems. Go over your tuner's controls again just to make certain any AFT (automatic fine tuning) type controls haven't been disengaged during your absence.