Radio Road: RE: FM Reception by 6bq5

A couple of points-
If you go back a few years - the largest number of 'Tuners' sold is the number of car radios sold - and as a result, FM broadcasting has aimed their transmissions to those detection systems- Vertical whip antenna and the common tuner circuits employed - BOSE knows this and has tuned their tuners to have similar performance (To car radios)

Typically the front end of home / hi-end tuners - such as the Sansui and McIntosh that you have - were designed to be used with good antennas -

While an external antenna would/could solve your challenge, there are other tips that you can try -

I am presuming that you are using a 'folded dipole antenna - the ubiquitous "T" shaped constrction made from 300Ohm flat cable-
Try two different activities-
1: change the orientation of the top of the 'T' from Horizontal to vertical - see what the results are-
2: while the top of the 'T' is horizontal, change the rotational orientation of the 'T' see what happens-

Lastly, I put a link for FM Fool - where you can put in your address and height of the antenna and the site will give you the polars for all FM broadcast signals in your area - some of the supporting data provided will give you lots of help in orientating your antennas to maximize reception-

FMFOOL (Open in New Window)