Poor radio reception
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,004
Likes: 2
From: Severna Park Md
Poor radio reception
Some previous owner put on a universal antenna in place of the stock antenna and cable setup. It has a universal antenna that needs to use a 144" extention to reach the front. When I remove the antenna from the body and bypass the extention by pluging the antenna directly into the radio the reception improves. When I plug it into the extention it is poor. I replaced the extention with a new one and the same poor reception. If I were to get the correct antenna, with the correct length single piece cable from a vette vendor, could I expect an improvement? Has any one else had a problem with the universal antennas using them with an extention? The antenna is properly grounded with the original ground strap.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 65,492
Likes: 230
From: Orange Park Florida
Re: Poor radio reception (Jvette73)
What your observations are there is situation normal, there is no way around it...unless you remount the antenna....
in fact, I took a wire from back of cheap radio wifey wanted and just ran it under the carpet, but then again I have plastic floor pans, not all vettes do...just most of them....wont work with metal floorpans....
could just take naked wire, go under carpet and around edge of rear window or convertible top hatch cover....reception is allways shakey in a car anyway....
that's why a MP3 player or CD is much better....
I personally am going MP3 music source someday as the radio is nothing but commercials anyway....
GENE
in fact, I took a wire from back of cheap radio wifey wanted and just ran it under the carpet, but then again I have plastic floor pans, not all vettes do...just most of them....wont work with metal floorpans....
could just take naked wire, go under carpet and around edge of rear window or convertible top hatch cover....reception is allways shakey in a car anyway....
that's why a MP3 player or CD is much better....
I personally am going MP3 music source someday as the radio is nothing but commercials anyway....
GENE
Intermediate
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
From: annandale nj
Re: Poor radio reception (Jvette73)
ground,ground,and ground again. even old grounding straps will fail due to internal corrosion. on vettes, when it comes to electric problems,get grounded!!! replace them....good luck....
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 1,514
Likes: 1
Re: Poor radio reception (stumpbuster)
I took out and cleaned up the ground plate on mine and it helped alot. I also added a Pioneer supertuner CD player, I've always seem to get better reception with that brand of receiver.
Scott
Scott
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,004
Likes: 2
From: Severna Park Md
Re: Poor radio reception (Scott78)
I got a Poineer Supertuner in the car now. It worked great in the other vehicle it was mounted in. Im suspecting that the long extention cable has a negitive effect on the reception signal. I know the antenna should be grounded, and the factory grounding hardware is all there and in place. It does look a little rusted though. However when I do bypass the extention and plug directly into the radio(unmounted antenna), the reception improves dramatically, even with the antenna not grounded. Im gonna leave the antenna mounted on the back, then drop another antenna into the bottom of the windshield wiper area and tie it down so it wont ever interfere with the wiper mechinism, and snake the wire thru the firewall or something. I will also add a ground wire to it. I have the wiper bay cover thing so no one will even see it in there. This way I can hook up an antenna without even using an extention. Ill report back and let you know how it works. Thanks to everyone for all the help so far.
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,645
Likes: 11
From: Schaumburg IL
Re: Poor radio reception (Jvette73)
Most radios will have an antenna trimmer. This is to compensate for various impedance factors of the antenna. Take a look in the instruction manual and see if your unit has one. It may be "automatic" but that only sort of works. If you have one, tune to AM station on the lower end of the band and slowly tweak the trimmer and see what happens. Other than that, grounds must be good. Some high end electronics shops sell in line antenna amplifiers. Check them out.
Racer
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 343
Likes: 0
From: Port Orchard Washington
Re: Poor radio reception (bigvette1)
i agree with the ground ,ground theory - if the radio base is not grounded well then that small wire that runs to the antenna becomes the ground -usually melting the plastic shield and shorting to it - ground the radio with a separate wire and replace the coax to te antenna- dave
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 4,286
Likes: 4
From: Guam
Re: Poor radio reception (daves80)
Any time you increase the length of antenna wire, you must retrim the antenna. It is a small screw located on the side of the radio. You will find that adjusting the screw will drastically improve your reception.
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Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,004
Likes: 2
From: Severna Park Md
Re: Poor radio reception (Jvette73)
Cannot find an adjustment on this Poineer Supertuner. What I have done is run a thick guage speaker wire as an antenna. It comes off the radio, goes up under the a-piller trim across the windshield and down the other side. It then snakes thru to the windshield wiper area where it connects to a universal antenna that is laying in the bay and is grounded via hose clamp connecting wire to antenna base and the wire running under dash to ground under steering column. It seems to be working better now. I just left the other antenna mounted on the back as a dummy. At least my fuzzy classic rock stations are comming in clearer. Hmmm...maybe its just the fuzz on my brain. :lol: Anyway, thanks again to all for all the help.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,004
Likes: 2
From: Severna Park Md
Re: Poor radio reception (Armstrong)
Yur welcome Armstrong. I cut the male end off an old antenna and spliced it to the speaker wire so I could plug it into the radio. I then cut the female end off the antenna extention wire and spliced it to the other end of the speaker wire so I could plug it into the antenna that is laying in the wiper bay. I played around with the routing of the speaker wire to check for reception before deciding to run it around the windshield under the pillar trim. I used tape to hold the wire in place during testing.
