Mio c710 - How to maximise TMC reception?

[JohnRicketts]

HNY (belated) to all.

I've had my c710 for a couple of months now, installed in my Ford Galaxy. It has a heated front screen and i initially had a slow GPS lock. I bought a roof mounted external receiver for this and GPS lock is now only a few seconds.

The difficulty I'm having is with TMC. I live in Gloucester and have trouble getting good reception. The standard 1/4 wave antenna only works if I drive up the right side of a particular hill, then within a couple of minutes I can have pages of messages.

I have been using it up to now with a split off the car radio aerial. This is the standard Ford fitment to the rear quarterlight window. It is slightly better than the 1/4 wave piece of wire but not much.

Last night, I made up a piece of wire to a full wave (4 times length). I fed it out of the lounge window and taped it along the window sill. I had almost full signal strength for classic fm (100.4) and loads of messages! I though I had cracked it so I tried feeding it around the door seal on the car but it is no where near as good.

I have just ordered a "diversity" dual antenna from ebay to try out (about £11 from Hong Kong). Does anyone else have experience of how to maximise reception? How good is the standard Ford aerial? Would it be best to stick with this and just find some kind of booster? I'll report back in a week or so when I get the new dual aerial but would appreciate any input from others who live in the sticks and have managed to get decent reception by aerial tweakery!

Cheers,
John

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