RyanPerrella

I have no radio reception in my car and there is a cable connected to the antenna part of my head unit. I think the cable obviously goes someplace but not to the antenna on the roof. My question is how is that roof antenna wired? Where did the factory route this connection. I have a new antenna cable and just need to know where to look to plug it in.

if i can find the end of the antenna then i can figure out how to get the new cable there and problem solved.

callouie

Maybe relevant, maybe not. The PO installed an aftermarket head unit in my car, and I had terrible reception. I noticed a wire coming off the antenna cable that wasn't attached to anything, and I applied 12V+ to it. Bingo, reception on FM improved, and AM reception, which was previously non-existent, was acceptable. I tied it to the power antenna lead on the head unit. I am assuming there is a booster in the factory setup.

RyanPerrella

Thanks Sterling.

When i got the car there was some type of antenna on the passenger side quarter window. I assumed it was a cell antenna or booster or something and it looked terrible so i removed it. The cable dosent look like the standard antenna type. But now that callouie you mention a booster, i am wondering if it could have been some aftermarket antenna because i have heard the stock one, even being high and on the damn roof of the car dosent get very good reception.

I need to pull the rear interior panels for the rear channel speaker install, so i probably wont get to this antenna issue till then. I dont ever listen to stations here since i moved to austin (learning new radio stations is always a pain when you move to another city)

callouie

I asked another friend w/ an 87, and his car is like mine, there is a thin wire bundled up with the coax antenna cable that powers a signal booster. Maybe unwrap a bit of the tape and find the wire, in case a PO clipped off the wire that didn't seem to do anything? It seems that it's not all that uncommon to find the booster wire clipped or unattached to a power source.

RyanPerrella

as for PO wiring, some of the radio and radar install was not great and i have since removed it all. But i was probably a detriment to the car at first. I just cut stuff out and didnt know what it did. Really stupid. One thing i am pretty sure i threw out was the front drivers side crossover for the Polk speakers as it was mount right behind the gas pedal and i thought it shouldnt be there so i cut it out. and of course then had no front left audio channel. Now i need to find another one so i can sell the really good polk speakers with a crossover. PITA

Also now that i think of it i never did know for sure what that antenna did. I will try and find an old pic of the car where you can see the antenna. Maybe someone can recognize what it is and what its for. I hoped it was some cellular antenna, the cable end was a bit odd.

Let me find a pic.

RyanPerrella

Heres a pic i found, its hard to see, but any ideas on what this is?

If i recall it was about 3 inches tall

I will take a pic of the wire it was connected to and post that.

EDIT: Wow i am glad i got rid of that terrible purple tinting!

Wraith1027

The little wire comming off your antenna cable is the amplifier. If you connect the power antenna wire (blue) from your head set to the amp power wire (red w/white stripe on your old wire plug (3rd or 4th)slot. you will get much better reception. Good luck!

Randy V

That is almost always the case, but when I disconnected power from that antenna wire on my car the reception improved significantly. I now have AM reception, whereas I didn't before, and better FM.

Weird.

RyanPerrella

Here is the end of the cable for the qtr window antenna

About the powered antenna for the radio. I did notice that the radio cable had an attached wire to it on the side of the cable. This was wired into the remote turn on which i assumed was only for amplifiers. So i cut it and used the wire to turn on my sub. But now that you say its an amplified signal and requires power i can see why that wire was attached to the remote lead.

But Randy you said you removed this or bypassed it and the reception improved? Where is this amp box at? I have a new antenna cable and can run that. Or should i reconnect the remote turn on and splice it so it powers both the antenna and the sub?

As it stands now, with the main antenna cable connected to the HU and possibly not connected to the roof ariel (dont know if its connected) when i tune for a station i get NOTHING, not static, just no sound. I am thinking i get no sound because the receiver sees that there is no clear signal so it just kills all sound instead of producing static.