Am/fm Radio Aerial Amplifier

[chook]

For those not aware, S2 Stageas, possibly S1s, have a clarion AM/FM radio aerial amplifier in between the rear left door and rear left window, about the size of a deck of cards. I noticed that the 12V amp is not receiving any power, which may explain why my radio reception has always been average. I have a theory that when the factory head unit is removed, the signal wire is ignored and 12V is not been sent to the amps when re-wired.

I am installing a new head unit next week, so i hope to trace the wire and find a fix for this. Ill post results.

Simon

[mike40sydney]

For those not aware, S2 Stageas, possibly S1s, have a clarion AM/FM radio aerial amplifier in between the rear left door and rear left window, about the size of a deck of cards. I noticed that the 12V amp is not receiving any power, which may explain why my radio reception has always been average. I have a theory that when the factory head unit is removed, the signal wire is ignored and 12V is not been sent to the amps when re-wired.

I am installing a new head unit next week, so i hope to trace the wire and find a fix for this. Ill post results.

Simon

i believe this is the yellow wire behind the headunit that needs to be given 12 volts.its in the how to headunit removal thread .regards mike

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/To....html&st=40

[chook]

thanks, that should save me some time.

[bluesky4me]

My S2 has always had pretty poor radio reception...considering the big twin aerials that take up the side windows..maybe mine has the amp power off also...will check it out..thanks for the info....

Edited May 14, 2008 by bluesky4me

[BoostedBarge]

I used an Aerpro adapter harnass for my new stereo. I noticed that it hooked the am/fm amp straight up to the blue wire, which is the am/fm 12V source from the new head unit Too easy

Previously my car has a stock Nissan CD/MD player. They'd used some sort of adapter to go from the 2 prong factory antenna plug to the standard CD player plug. I buzzed out the connectors with my multimeter and found that only one of the rear antennas was actually connected through to the CD player. I was going to cut the wires and solder them, but then came up with another idea.... I cut a small piece of wire and bent it into shape so that I could drop it into the socket of the 2-prong antenna adapter. So each end of the small piece of wire goes down the holes that the 2 pronged antenna plug goes into, so this effectively bridges the 2 prongs and joins your 2 antennas! The only problem with doing this is that the 2 antennas are now run in parallel which gives an impedance mismatch to the radio, but then this is FM i doubt it really matters... If I was really keen I could wire a transformer into there to give the correct match, but like I said, it's only FM....

(I'm gonna paste this message into the DIY stereo thread)

[bluesky4me]

Toay I pulled off the plastic at the side of the rear left seat ( to look for the aerial amp) and could not see an amplifier but I did find 2 leads with mini jack plugs that look like they may be the connections for the aerial to go into the amp..is the amp located behind the top plastic part where the seat belt goes into?..I have had bad radio reception and wan to make sure the amp is connected.

Cheers

[chook]

here is a pic of mine. Ive got a TV version stagea, so configuration might be different. They are hard wired in, no mini plugs, not sure what they are for. Have you checked it is wired up behind the head unit ?

[bluesky4me]

From your picture I suspect it looks like the 2 leads with the mini jack ends are coming from the amp ...they are pretty long so I think they may just need to be plugged into the head unit..thanks heaps for the info and the pic.I will check it out today.

Regards.

Edited July 6, 2008 by bluesky4me

[art burgess]

From your picture I suspect it looks like the 2 leads with the mini jack ends are coming from the amp ...they are pretty long so I think they may just need to be plugged into the head unit..thanks heaps for the info and the pic.I will check it out today.

Regards.

whaaay haaay ,,,,

ive just checked mine behind the radio,

i fitted an aftermarket bluetooth head,and the radio could only find two stations,

the two large blackwires from the coax at the radio have a black wire with yellow trace,which should have a 12v feed to it,done mine

and hey presto ive got all the radio stations i could need,[funnily the black wire was still conected into the loom but there was no power on it..?]

[sven laptop]

Sorry if this is a little off topic (despite working in radio for years I know nothing about electronics), but............

Does this have anything to do with the fact that even after having a signal converter installed, my FM reception is really crackly?

I can receive all the stations, but usually there's a fair bit of interference.

Are these 2 issues connected at all?

[chook]

yes, you should get a much better reception without the FM band expander.

[66yostagea]

OK. After reading all this. I think I have the same prob. Lousy reception with a good quality head unit installed by "professionals".

I will take a print out of this and go confront them. I'll come back in a week or so.

[sven laptop]

yes, you should get a much better reception without the FM band expander.

Thanks for the reply, Chook.

But are you saying I can still receive Australian stations WITHOUT the FM expander?

I understand that reception quality would be better with extra amplification, but I have the original Jap stereo, so surely I would miss out on most of the Australian FM spectrum???

At the risk of quoting Pauline Hanson: Please explain.

[chook]

I mean, you need to ditch the jap stereo and go aftermarket

[sven laptop]

I mean, you need to ditch the jap stereo and go aftermarket

That's what I feared.

Thanks for the advice, Chook.