Radio reception issues with double din

[Teflon]

Hmmm, just had another fiddle with my aerial amp. This time I tuned into a weak station as advised by David, and there was indeed a noticable difference with the amp unplugged, so perhaps it is working afterall.

I think in the first instance I will try a seperate FM aerial just for TMC and avoid using the splitter.

Thanks for all the advice guys, no doubt I will be back for more later!

Cliff

[wutang]

putting in my two pennys worth, I have changed from the symphony system to the double din, my radio reception is almost as good with the double din as it was with the symphony, I bought a dedicated car aerial 1 in to 2 splitter and fed 12v to the diversity amp on the rear d pillar via the original feed in the loom hooked in to the accessory power line.

I today went out and turned the radio on and the unpluged the feed to the amp, this made a huge differance to the signal strength almost totaly gone without power.

I get TMC info as soon as the sat nav is booted up, pages of it!

Dont know if it helps at all.

Richard

[Teflon]

Originally Posted by wutang

....Dont know if it helps at all.

Richard

Only in making me jealous!

That's pretty much my setup, but without the great reception. As a matter of curiosity - what year is your car? I only ask as you mention a diversity amp. Mine has suffered from project drive and has a non diversity amp fitted. I suspect this is the cause of my reption woes.

Cliff

[David Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Teflon

Only in making me jealous!

That's pretty much my setup, but without the great reception. As a matter of curiosity - what year is your car? I only ask as you mention a diversity amp. Mine has suffered from project drive and has a non diversity amp fitted. I suspect this is the cause of my reption woes.

Cliff

I had the diversity amp originally but changed to the non diversity type and it was improved. but as I said I needed an extra in line booster.I know that this is not considered "Best practice", but it works for me.

[wutang]

Hi Cliff,

Mine is a 51 plate 2001 model, longbridge built but as you said very much pre project drive. it started life as a club se but after alot of upgrading, (memory leather heated seats, auto rear view mirror, parking sensors, trip computer IPK, electric sun blind ect.) I have yet to find anything that the loom is not already in place for!

The inline amp idea sounds like a good idea, i know these are fairly standard if changing the ICE in alot of fords and audis as they have the signal amp built in to the head unit so when you pull out the OEM stereo the rf amp goes with it.

David do you have a link to the one you got? might be useful for those who are suffering?

Richard

[David Lawrence]

Originally Posted by wutang

Hi Cliff,

Mine is a 51 plate 2001 model, longbridge built but as you said very much pre project drive. it started life as a club se but after alot of upgrading, (memory leather heated seats, auto rear view mirror, parking sensors, trip computer IPK, electric sun blind ect.) I have yet to find anything that the loom is not already in place for!

The inline amp idea sounds like a good idea, i know these are fairly standard if changing the ICE in alot of fords and audis as they have the signal amp built in to the head unit so when you pull out the OEM stereo the rf amp goes with it.

David do you have a link to the one you got? might be useful for those who are suffering?

Richard

Here is a link for the item I bought

http://www.carstereos4u.co.uk/antenn...19-392280-.php

But I got mine from somewhere on ebay cheaper than this. Search on there for something like this and it should be fine.




The model name was Celcus 220

[CDTi]

Originally Posted by David Lawrence

Here is a link for the item I bought

http://www.carstereos4u.co.uk/antenn...19-392280-.php

But I got mine from somewhere on ebay cheaper than this. Search on there for something like this and it should be fine.




The model name was Celcus 220

I don't really know how this device would have helped the radio reception.

I'm not doubting that it did but AFAIK these "amplifiers" are just filters or isolators.

I got 2 or 3 of these when I was having reception trouble but none of them made any difference. I opened them all up eventually and they all contain a resistor and capacitor. No sign of a transistor or IC which would be necessary for amplification.

I believe these devices are either a con job, or at best some kind of filter or DC blocker.

I'm sure I still have 1 or 2 of them if someone wants to try it out.

[Teflon]

Hmmm, Just been to a car audio specialist, where I tried an expensive (£69) screen aerial. It worled fine with an old head unit from the shop in my car, but with my double din unit it didn't want to know.

I think perhaps the radio tuner is the weak point on these units.

[apk1]

Originally Posted by Teflon

Hmmm, Just been to a car audio specialist, where I tried an expensive (£69) screen aerial. It worled fine with an old head unit from the shop in my car, but with my double din unit it didn't want to know.

I think perhaps the radio tuner is the weak point on these units.

I'm having the same issue with another double din, the impression I get is that units with TMC seem to suffer poor reception, I have tried an "amplifier" as above which was useless, I am starting to think the only option is to buy a Pure highway DAB unit with a seperate external aerial.

[Carbootboy]

Hi Guys, are these radio reception problems on all the new double din radios, or just cars with amps fitted ?

Which brings me on to my second question

My car has just a single din Kenwood fitted from new, will my car have an amp or not ?

Thanks
Carbootboy