Poor Radio Reception with New Kenwood 9980
01-24-2012, 11:48 AM
#21
Supporting Vendor
Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: Pensacola Florida GO GATORS!!! www.rlsebring.com www.c6c7vette.com
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St. Jude Donor '17
Sounds like the HU had a problem since any external antenna plugged in should have worked just fine. It's hiding the antenna that was the issue for me.
I had bought that powered rabbit ear thing and WAS going to just use the magnetic mount and stick it to the rear crash bar behind the bumper cover. The antenna worked great but then I just decided I didn't want to run the wire to the radio.
I also did the 5v thingy to power up the stock antenna and that didn't didn't work. I had sat on this booster for a month or so and wasn't until I decided to change the radio surround that I installed the booster.
Sitting in my driveway I could not receive any HD radio and barely regular stations. They would fade in and out. The moment I plugged this in and powered it up all the stations I would normally listen to came in strong and clear in HD and some had HD2 stations available. I never had that even driving close enough to an HD station to get it in HD.
It may not be everyones answer but it's worth the money to try it.
I had bought that powered rabbit ear thing and WAS going to just use the magnetic mount and stick it to the rear crash bar behind the bumper cover. The antenna worked great but then I just decided I didn't want to run the wire to the radio.
I also did the 5v thingy to power up the stock antenna and that didn't didn't work. I had sat on this booster for a month or so and wasn't until I decided to change the radio surround that I installed the booster.
Sitting in my driveway I could not receive any HD radio and barely regular stations. They would fade in and out. The moment I plugged this in and powered it up all the stations I would normally listen to came in strong and clear in HD and some had HD2 stations available. I never had that even driving close enough to an HD station to get it in HD.
It may not be everyones answer but it's worth the money to try it.
Well I have a 2011 Bose 3LT and went through the entire Pioneer HU, amp, speakers, sub install routine, and ended up with horrid FM reception. Just 2 or 3 stations that would fade in and out just driving around the block. Yes I powered the stock antenna with 12V. Yes I tried with and without an antenna booster. Then I tried a new amplified ("hidden") antenna, worse. I would add then remove the 12V power to the hidden antenna and all that would do was increase the volume of static. I tried two other antennas, both windshield mount and hatch mount. I even tried a fixed mast antenna mounted transversely behind the rear tail light fascia. Minimal improvement but not enough to enjoy the radio. I read every post here on this problem and never found a solution. SO FWIW just letting you know my HU upgrade failed. I finally gave up and put the stock HU back in, bingo, huge number of AM and FM stations no problem. It sounded so crappy using an adapter harness with soldered in RCA connections to the amp that I gave up on that too. Finally I went back to all stock with just upgraded door and rear speakers and removed center speaker. It sounds fine and has good reception. What a disaster this project was. 
01-24-2012, 12:27 PM
#22
Drifting
01-24-2012, 02:29 PM
#23
Instructor
Mark nailed it.
C6 coupe has the stock antenna in the rear wall behind the trunk, there's a module that normally gets powered up by the oem radio. Connect your amp trigger or antenna trigger wire to the white wire at B3 of the big C1 plug that went into the original radio, that will power up the module, which is as good as it will get with that antenna and an aftermarket radio.
If that doesn't do it for you, I'd try one of these
If that doesn't do it for you, I'd try one of these
01-24-2012, 04:27 PM
#24
Tech Contributor
Thanks a bunch Mark, your suggestion worked great: I connected the white wire at B3 to the HUs amp trigger and antenna trigger wires (when I first hooked up the HU, I had to wire them together or the two JL amps would not turn on and stay on consistently) and FM reception is now very good--easily as good as the stock radio was. I also left the inline antenna amplifier (followed an earlier link from you to Amazon for the twelve dollar antenna amp) hooked up. Since everything is working great I'm reluctant to do more, but I'm pretty sure the HU puts out 12 volts to the two turn on wires, and that the antenna amp needs 12 volts, I am also sure the two JL Audio amps use 12 volts for turn on, so is the module for the car's antenna 12 or 5 volts. For some reason I'm thinking the module may only want 5 volts and if I'm feeding it 12, my module may be short lived, does anybody know how much juice the stock antenna module takes and how many volts the 9980 turn on wires put out? Thanks.
C5 coupe module has both 12v and 5v, but C6 is only 12v to power the module.
03-05-2012, 08:40 PM
#25
Burning Brakes
Member Since: Dec 1999
Location: Richmond VA
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Mark to you know which wires in the c5 need 5v and which ones need 12v? Also does anyone know where the antenna amp in in the c5 is located. I have the windshield style antenna, so I assume it is located someplace under the dash?
03-06-2012, 05:04 PM
#26
Tech Contributor
The antenna module in C5 coupes is located on the wall behind the drivers seat, down in the corner near the seatbelt roller.
Read through this thread for info on powering the module with an aftermarket radio.
Read through this thread for info on powering the module with an aftermarket radio.
