Recently purchased my '88 911 (Labor Day) and it's WONDERFUL! Previous owner told me he had poor reception with the orig Blauplunkt and it didn't improve with the Alpine unit he had installed. His solution was to unplug the windshield antenna and use a small mast antenna that he just kept in the passenger compartment.
Anyone had this experience with poor reception? I don't live in a remote area. What helps? What should I check?

Randy

 

The windshield antenna is a powered/amplified antenna. Make sure the antenna amp is connected up.

todd
86 coupe

 

Todd (or anyone)
I've checked the owner's manual for the car as well as for the radio and find no mention of the antenna amp. I have a service manual on order and should have it in a few days. Could you tell me where the antenna amp is located so I could check to see if it is connected? Also is there a fuse associated with it that may be blown?
Thanks
Randy

 

the amp is a little black box in the trunk, up by the dash on the passenger side . far upper left cornerlooking at the front of the car. There are a couple black wires comming down from the unit. ONe of those is the power wire to headunit (stereo). Usually that little power wire is snaked around the actual antenna lline that connects to your alpine. look fo the big antena wire under the glove box or may be you can see it behind your stereo. take you stereo out, and if there's a blue wire from the alpine that goes nowhere, thats the reason for no reception. If you can see your harness it's possible to fix without removing headunit. good luck

 

Good info Jerry

I've been wanting to check mine but didn't know where the amp was located.

Is the blue wire the std for 'all' head unit makes? Mine is an Eclipse.

todd
86 coupe

 

Todd,
Great info, thanks for the details. I'll check it out tonight.

Randy
88 Targa

 

not sure about eclipse, I've only had alpines. But it should be real obvious if your ant/amp isn't connected, you'll only get two or three stations, the in windshield ant is weak at best.

 

Rod Birch, the guru of 911 sound systems if you have a problem... 911 1-800-892-6430
www.caraudioinnovations.com

he is very willing to spend time with all calllers. Help me redo all the wiring for the speakers, amp and new Panasonic CD unit.

good luck

 

You guys were right! Whoever wired the Alpine at install hooked the antenna amplifier power wire to a different source. I changed it over to the blue power antenna lead from the head unit and voila - great reception.
Thanks so much.
Randy

 

need to bring this back from the archives.

i hooked up my replacement alpine headunit and noticed that the thin back antenna amp wire was connected to ground. when i connected it to the blue (power antenna lead) from the headunit, reception went to hell. I hooked the wire back to ground and reception was good again.

whats up with that? it cant be right.

 

may be silly but did you get all the stations you wanted before you switched. I don't understand, If the amp power lead is not connected but the hard wire line is pluged in you should get a few stations, regardless if the little black wire is connected to anything. There's more than two wires comming ou of the booster, may be they're mixed up, got a meter?

 

o.k. - all my problems are solved.
i got the alpine, antenna amp, am radio, and speakers all going - reception boost is noticable, especially am radio.

The little black wire (antenna amp) gets connected to the blue (power antenna lead from radio) and (1) of the red w/ black (there are 2) wires in the same main harness branch that contains the radio harness (1 red w/ white (battery) 2 green (ignition), 2 brown (ground), 2 red w/ black) (antenna and antenna amp)

no post that i found talked about connecting the red w/ black in addition to the blue - i thought the radio lead provided the power - no, the red w/ black does. - anyway sounds great.

left rear speaker fix:
reach inside side vent and giggled speaker wires, free from something - fixed (for now)


1 roll back electrical tape $ 1
1 hr. diagnostic and repair $ 135
new alpine radio $ 122
fixing your speakers without popin' the quarter-window...priceless