Hi people. I have a pioneer HU and i feel my FM reception sucks, no AM at all. I know there are some FM booster on the market, just wondering are those working good? anyone try those before? if you guys did, which brand that you guys recommand? or is there anyway to improve the reception?

please advise, thanks

 

Who did the install and did they hook up the power antenna wire?

 

Mine is not so good either, but I don't care anymore. I installed an XM antenna for my Sony HU and alls good now...

 

Again, to all those who are having issues with FM reception on an aftermarket HU, MAKE SURE THE POWER ANTENNA WIRE (solid blue) IS CONNECTED.

 

It's definately connected on mine. This isn't an uncommon thing to have bad radio reception. Especially w/aftermarket HU's.

One reason XM Radio has subscribers and another reason why someone came up with the idea to broadcast in HD. You can now purchase a headunit that broadcasts free HD Radio which reduces static and random loss of local radio stations.

 

ohhh....got it, i didn't know we have to connect it since we dont have the "erection" style power antenna.

Thanks for the advise!!!

 

there is the possibility that water is finding its way past the rubber base of antenna mount. may want to remove unit and inspect the circuit board for water corrosion. this may be why reception is poor.
i have a $1K premier H/U whose reception is worse than mother's OEM unit in mercury.
am going to pull my antenna to see if this is my culprit.

 

Hey guys,

I had this problem for a while. I've had an Alpine and an Eclipse HU in my Max, and the reception sucked with both of them. I even tried going to an aftermarket antenna because I had been told that the stock Nissan antenna (diversity antenna) would not work well with aftermarket HUs because only the stock HU was programmed to tune from the two antenna leads. The aftermarket antenna was no better, so I returned it.

Assuming the power antenna wire is connected, this is obviously not your problem. Initially I had forgotten to connect mine, but even after I connected it, the reception still sucked. After checking and trying many things, I finally found a way to get good reception. I installed a switch in the console in the remote turn-on lead for the subwoofer amplifier. If you have an aftermarket sub, try turning off its amplifier and see if your reception gets any better. The difference in my car was night and day (see sig for models). I don't know why, but the ARC K1000.2T sub amp in my car adds tons of static to the reception. Every time I want to listen to the radio now, I just turn off the sub amp and I can actually pick up stations. In fact, sometimes the reception is surprisngly good.

If you don't have a sub amp and your power antenna wire is connected, then I wood try checking the antenna leads for any problems.

 

Um I thought the problem was because of the fact that our car's OEM radio used two antennas while after market on utilizes one of these antennas.... Just a thought

 

This is not the case in a 5.0/5.5 gen.

edit: and I HIGHLY doubt it is a solution for the 4th gen.

 

This is true. You do lose one of the antennas.

 

gonna find out if can find time to make inspection. thank you

 

My FM seems fine, AM is horrible, though. I've had Sirius for years though so it really doesn't matter to me. No problems at all with satellite reception.

 

Did anyone try post# 50 in the car audio faq links above?

 

I got excellent reception with my bose head unit. I just replaced it with a pioneer head unit and I still get good reception but its not as good as it was with the bose. The same thing went for my last car. My favorite station was in NYC and it always came in good with my stock unit and as soon as I put an aftermarket head unit in I lost it all together. As far as radio reception goes I found stock units to be the best.

 

Sounds like the power antenna wire. Are you sure yours is hooked up?

 

That's because OEM is designed to efficiently use both antenna systems that are in the car. Aftermarket "makes do" with a conversion from two-pole diversity antenna to a single antenna. 1/2 the antenna = 1/2 the reception, sort of.

 

Is it away to fix this?

 

Not really. You could add an antenna somewhere, but the aftermarket radio will still only take one input.

 

DID YOU EVER CONSIDER AN Hd TUNER FOR YOUR H/U? I HAVE ONE... CD QUALITY FM AND FM QUALITY AM... JUST LIKE THE ADS SAY... I'D RECOMMEND ONE..

 

If you can extend the antena I'm pretty sure there is a recommended height for best reception, not sure but i remember reading about it in a crutchfield magazine.

 

I installed the Alpine today and I had good reception, at least on the FM stations I care about. I will see if the problem comes up when I install my sub and see if I get the problems stated above.

 

Many thanks guys! I was suffering from that dismal AM reception and it was driving me nutz, but after you guys mentioned that the power antenna wire could be the source of the problem, I went and cracked the dash open, found that little solid blue wire sticking out of the factory harness unconnected, spliced it in with the remote wire that turns my amps on an VIOLA!!! I can hear clearly now, the whine is GONE!!! I'd never seen that little sattelite icon on my Pioneer DEH-7700MP light up with the full signal before now, and it's been over a year!!!

For anybody having issues with their crappy AM/FM reception, particularly in the 5th Gens with the rear window integrated antenna, PLEASE do yourself a favor and check to see if this wire is connected before you yank all of your good hair out...

The MIGHTY.ORG strikes again!!!

 

hmm, i just ghetto rigged one of these "Remote-AMP on" into this one harness with some green and big black wire haha.. its in the CAR FAQs sticky i think :P.. Clear Radio on my Alpine ever since!

 

First of all thanks for all the info and my blue antenna wire wasn't connected but after that and checking grounds my AM reception was still horrible. I could get stations for a short distance then it would fade out. 50% of my radio listning is on the AM band. When I got home from work last night again I tore the dash apart took the radio out and I was contemplating connecting a seperate antenna on the diversity adapter. OK I'll get to the point, you know how the diversity antenna adapter is sort of keyed so the connectors lock together, well I reversed them and BINGO my reception was better. I didn't want to claim victory until my 45 mile trek to work which I just completed and AM was perfect the whole way. The aftermarket diversity adapter was wired backward. Don't ask what brand as the packaging is in the trash (came with Pioneer HU kit).

 

well i have an eclipse cd5000 and i cant get quality reception for my life
i know that the amp has to do with it since i took the fuse out and listened to perfect reception
I dont get it at all i tried the universal and it was no better
i thought it might have been the power wire running to the amps along the antenna line but i tried that and still no change.
I have the ipod adaptor for the eclipse so FM is completely secondary and in my opinion not worth the time for guessing and checking the problem