AX993

There have been several post here over the time that I've owned my '96 993 about poor radio reception, and I thought I would add my experience.
When I bought my car the radio reception was poor to the point that I could only receive maybe one strong FM station in my area, and then only sometimes. But I mostly listen to the exhaust sound of my RSRs, and sometimes CDs, anyway.
This past week I had to remove the radio to remove the A/C airbox (another story) and afterwards I thought I'd take a look at all the radio connections to see if I could find the reception problem there.
First to be checked was the small wire with a white connector that I think is the so-called antenna booster wire that many have posted about. The 2 halves of the connector were together but I un-connected and re-connected them several times to hopefully clean any oxidation that may have been present (I didn't notice any for what that's worth).
Then I looked at the antenna coax cable connector that went to the radio. It consisted of the straight male connector mated with a right angle adapter which clamped to the radio's antenna connector. The right angle connector
part which clamped to the radio was kinda loose so I tightened it up with a small cable tie (zip tie).
On the straight male connector, it seemed loose at the rear of the connector that is hidden under a rubber sleave. I removed the sleave and found that the braided wire shielding was broken behind where the connector was soldered to the braid. So I removed the connector (best to de-solder the inner signal wire that goes through the small tip of the connector) and cut off the damaged cable.
The next part is hard to describe but basically I stripped the coax cable to leave about 2 inches of the inner signal wire exposed, fitted the connector to see where I needed to remove a ring of the outer black insulation to expose the braided shielding, removed the connector, & cut off the ring of insulation.
There is a small red plastic plug with a hole that goes over the inner signal wire and into the end of the coax cable, I reinstalled that and then slipped the connector over the signal wire, used a wooden clothes pin to clamp the rear of the connector (looks kinda like two fingers) onto the braided shielding, and soldered the rear of the connector to the braided shielding, and soldered the signal wire into the small tip of the front of the connector. I finished up with some shrink tubing over the rear part of the connector, and reinstalled the radio.
Result: I now can pick up all the local stations, some of which I didn't know existed !
The only problem with this (other than I didn't take photos to make this post shorter) is I don't know if it was fixing the broken shielding in the coax cable, or cleaning the antenna booster wire connector that did the trick .

I hope this helps someone out there
Glenn

scoob1e

Glad its not just me that gets crap radio reception. Been driving me nuts.
Is this a std "feature" or do i need to pull the radio out and do all the above?

2Many Cars

Those coax plugs can break easily, especially if you or a PO have pulled out the radio a few times and inadvertantly pulled on the antenna wire before disconnecting it. The antenna wire is a bit short and tends to get yanked out. Usually you can test if it's broken by tuning to a weak station and reaching under the dash and wiggling the antenna wire right at the plug in the back of the head unit. If you get any static or the signal strengthens then the wire/plug joint is probably bad. A visit to Radio Shack can usually get you the parts you need to fix it.

AX993

scoob1e,
The most common problem I've read is that the antenna booster wire has come unconnected or not been reconnected by a PO . I've also read about the antenna wire corroding or breaking somewhere near where it enters the windshield glass. This is the first time I've seen or heard about the braided wire shield breaking.

Kika

when I upgraded to the CDR220, I noticed that the antenna tended to pull out of the socket at the rear of the radio when I re-istalled the radio. As such, I tuned the radio to an FM station when I inserted the radio into the dash, that way, if the antenna started to dislodge, I would know immediately.

Don't use an AM station, as AM will come in reasonably, even with no antenna.

AX993

Yep, Thats why I used a mini cable tie/ zip tie around the clamp on the right angle adapter that goes on the back of radio connection. That solved the problem .
Glenn

Derek_C

Wow, didn't know that radio reception was actually achieveable. I've never heard a radio broadcast over my radio. I usually have to listen to one of the three CDs I have in my car. Will have to try all the 'fixes'.

Thanks,

Derek

LuftKopf

now, if someone could just fix radio "programming".
stations with very few exceptions these days are just unlistenable between the bad ads and the throwback wkrp jocks.

AX993

Thats why I normally only listen to my 993 exhaust (RSRs), or sometimes a CD. I only looked to fix the radio reception because it just bugs me when something doesn't work the way it's suppose to .

LuftKopf

I hear that!

FlatSix911

Good point! Here is a fix for both problems - Get XM
Perfect signal quality and quality programming for every taste