Poor Radio Reception with New Kenwood 9980
 

Does any one know if there is anyway to improve radio reception whick is much worst than the stock radio and very unacceptable.

This is installed in a 2008 Corvette Coupe and the antenna is properly powered and working.


Thanks,
Craig

Craig,
The Coupe has two antennas. With an aftermarket H/U many guys find that they need to provide a 5V source to the antenna amp (I think it's the pink wire in driver A-pillar but ask someone who knows for sure) Do a search of the forum on this topic. If you find that you need a 5V source just PM me and I'll send you the one I made up until I figured out that my Vert power antenna does not need this.

http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/a...rness_done.jpg

(It's the chip on the alum plate with the red/black/green wires at the top of the photo)

When I owned a piece of crap Honda civic at one time, I had the same issue, you may not believe this but as antenna's age, they become weaker. I changed it out and night and day. Now yours being an 08, I'd doubt same problem though

Solved!
 

I installed a $7 antenna amplifier (from ebay) and the radio reception is as good as the stock unit.Car Antenna Radio AM & FM Signal Amp Amplifier Booster (390318737462)

Very happy now!

Nice find :thumbs:

I just did the same. Went from hardly any HD to HD with some HD2 channels. I've lived with this crap for about a year up till I installed this.

I would not have thought...

Where did you install it. Did you have to install it at the HUD?

I removed the radio and unplugged the stock antenna then plugged this into the radio andplugged the stock antenna back in to this booster. Then found 12v right at the radio wiring and connected.

Instant HD that I could never receive at my house. In fact since installing this I've noticed a multitude of stations when I am on the road that I was never ever able to receive before.

For me it definately took care of the reception problem. For around 12 bucks it's certainly worth the money to give it a try in your case.

I bet all you needed to do was power up that pink wire. For some reson they require power to the built in antenna amp in the HU. That's what I've read in numerous stereo forums.

It works!
 

I finally installed the booster that I've had for months, it works great :thumbs:

Before the install I could only get about 6 FM stations, now there are dozens that come in CLEARLY.

AM improvement isn't much, but FM is rare for me and AM is never, so I'm fine with it the way it is.

:cheers:

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...ter2475446.jpg

I also have the 9980 and before I installed the antenna amplifier FM reception was horrible, could barely get three stations and not very well at that. AM was also awful, but I don't listen to AM anyway. The antenna amplifier helped some but still crappy reception, the OEM radio had very good FM reception. So, I'm very interested in the pink wire solution, assuming there is only one pink wire in the car's radio harness, I can find it, any ideas on where or what color the five volt wire is?

What year and model car?

What else (if anything) beside radio is aftermarket?

dont understand why eveyone keeps blaming the particular head unit.... its not the radio! Yes it starts after replacing stock but will do this with ANY aftermarket replacement in a c6.

My Pioneer Z120 has as good a radio reception as my stock unit did.

I have seen where droptopgal had a z120 and she had reception trouble in her gs coupe

Thanks Mark, it is a 2006 C6, coupe with JL Audio 300/2 and 500/1, JL stealthbox and JL 13.5 in a sealed box, MB Quart 6.5 separates in front, stock rear speakers, the amps are on a near vertical partition next to the front inside roof hold-downs, ton of engine and suspension mods. I'm getting desperate and even thinking of putting some other antenna somewhere inside the car but have no good ideas on this. All suggestions will be appreciated.

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

:cheers:

could someone at DD mods shed some light on the antenna issue? Just wondering if I should buy the booster or find some wire I can power up in the car to make the stock antenna work better?

There isn't any one magic fix for bad reception.

The booster works good enough for me, others have been happy with the window mount thing buried in the dash. You really just need to try something and see if it works :ack:

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. :cheers: