Weak FM reception for TMC traffic on NB1 TomTom (2013 CX5)

poshea

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Mazda CX-5 GT 2013
I'm having some intermittent problems with TMC traffic on my NB1. It works sometimes, but often is unable to pick up the station. Even if I use the manual option, it tries and then prompts that the "station could not be found, searching for another." Some trips, the traffic bar will come up straight away. Other times halfway through the trip. Other times it doesn't come up at all.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue on the NB1 system in the Mazda. My best guess is poor reception. But I am not on the fringe of a TMC coverage area. I'm right in the centre of a major city.

Does anyone know if the TMC data uses the same areial as the FM radio. (as TMC traffic is broadcast over FM).

Is there any tweaks that can be done to improve FM reception?

Thanks.
 
Just wondering if your 2013 has a whip antenna or a shark fin. In my 2015 I believe the FM antenna is in the shark fin and wish I had a whip. Poor reception on the lower powered stations like college and NPR.
It is my understanding in the US that the TMC rides on a subcarrier with traditional FM broadcasts.
 
Yup. It's the shark fin. I'm having the car looked at tomorrow by a service centre to have the Bluetooth module upgraded. I'll ask if anything can be done to improve FM reception.

The weird thing is, traffic USED to work much more consistently when I first got the car. So it makes me wonder if some other change has caused this issue... Like upgrading navcore core from 10.884 to 10.885. Or a map upgrade. I noticed that maps folder contains a traffic.dat and tmccodes.dat.

Hmmm, I have fitted racks. Perhaps these are enough to interfere with the FM reception... Although the radio stations sound fine.... Probably should take these off and see if it makes a difference...
 
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