In reference to the earlier thread about the rumour that changing the setting for the country on the radio's hidden menu. I tried all choices on my long trip two days ago. there is US, EU, JP, AU.

There is absolutely zero difference in the reception strength for any of the settings. There is a slight advange to me when you select EU, because there is an option of radio volume high or low. On high then the volume is better matched for the CD and Tape functions.
when set to US the option does not exist, and seems to be set to low.

Anyway to be clear, poor reception is not changed at all by changine the radio zone setting.

My car has nav, and to access the menu, push eject and tape at the same time, the setting appear on the screen.

 

thanks for the update jimmy. Too bad it didn't help reception - but that bit about the volume high/low is interesting, i can't get enough volume out of my setup with Sirius, so I will try the EU and see if it helps.

I guess then maybe an external FM booster would be another option, but not one really worth the effort to me. Without a real antenna I don't know if anything would help all that much.

 

i have found that using the rear defroster degrades fm reception significantly. the rear defrost grid on the rear windshield is used as the fm antenna i think. turning it on actually reduces the receive gain.

 

That's the first I'd heard of a hidden menu. How is it accessed? What I would expect out of the various country options would be changes in frequency band edges and, for AM, changes in the channel spacing.

 

There is another thread with more description of this menu, use the search or look back a week or so for an FM reception thread.

The FM antenna is in the rear glass, yes you are correct. And I have noticed the same thing. AM reception you can hear the engine sometimes and clicks when you step on the brake, at least in my 02. But I have a lot of extra components and junk.