Scala Rider G9 FM Tuner: Is the G9 FM Radio Reception Better Than the G4 FM Radio?

 Bose® Wave® FM Antenna

By Jonathan D Clark
Everyone knows that the Cardo was the leader of the pack with the Scala Rider G4 and how great an intercom it has been. However, the biggest complaint that I have heard on the forums and discussions is that the FM tuner is just plain horrible.

The G4 antenna is only used to extend the range of the intercom function and has no benefit to the FM tuner. So today I spent some time playing with and comparing the Scala Rider G9 FM radio with the Scala Rider G4 FM function.

The Cardo G4 antenna is only used to extend the range of the intercom function and has no benefit to the FM tuner (confirmed by Cardo Systems). Many of us were hoping that Cardo would use the antenna of the G9 to help pick up more stations on the FM band. It does NOT appear that they did this (not yet confirmed by Cardo but simply based on testing in one location).

However, they seemed to have made the unit a little more sensitive so that it would not skip so many stations. Using the Scala Rider G4 FM tuner we scanned multiple times around the "dial" and could listen to only 5 stations clearly. Using the Scala Rider G9 in the same location the seek function stopped 10 times before coming back to the original station. However, two of the "stations" that it stopped at were complete static. In contrast a car radio (with a big antenna) picked up 18 stations without a problem.

The Scala Rider G9 FM tuner can be turned on and off with voice control. Simply push the button, wait for the 2nd beep and then say "radio on" or "radio off" and you will get a voice confirmation. At standstill it works perfectly, in a full face helmet at highway speeds it works quite well. We did not test the FM functionality during our half helmet test but given the clarity of the microphone on the recorded phone call using a half helmet I would expect that the voice functions would work well even with the half helmet.

There is also some seek / scan functionality that will allow you to set it to scan and play 20 seconds of each station then scan some more until you stop it. This is nice because it doesn't require you to reach up and hold the button for 2 seconds on every station but we wish the seek / scan functions could be controlled with voice commands. It is something we have suggested to them and hope that they will introduce it in a firmware update sometime soon.

Jonathan Clark has created Bose® Wave® FM Antenna to be a dedicated resource for all questions and comparisons of the Scala Rider G9 Bluetooth motorcycle intercom system. He performs hands on reviews demonstrating the functionality and even performs street tests on the motorcycle recording audio through the Cardo G9 and into the camera so you can hear the experience.

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