I have had no problems with the external antenna at this stage at first it was hard to send, but I think it is the magnetic mounted may be the problem, provided you use the correct antenna for it I think the radio has auto adjustment for the magnetic mounted antenna, but the magnetic mount can be disassembled and be hard mounted to vehicle which I think gives a better result as I have done and it gets out well and receives well to. The way to dissemble is unscrew and remove the antenna, unscrew the nut holding the base to the carom bottom, remove the plastic that covers the bottom carom plate that holds the magnet then remove the magnet, then unscrew the top which is hard wired to the cable this will separate the hole piece and leave you with a cable and mounting base to vehicle, find a suitable spot on vehicle and drill out hole to match the base. screw nut on base and then place the plastic top on and screw the nut on top,, hop this helps.