Radio Antenna/Aerial problems

[stevekerouac]

I have just fitted a new JVC KD-X250 BT Head Unit to my '03 1.9TDi Fabia and subsequently a new amplified aerial base unit but I cannot get a good enough signal to the radio for it to find FM stations when in search mode.  The previous Sony unit seemed to work OK… I think… it developed another fault months ago and I stopped using it, so can't be entiely sure if it was auto-tuning or not.

 

I have tested the new Head Unit with a simple length of copper wire pushed in the antenna input and that works 100%.  I removed the head lining in order to install a new aerial base unit, and as a further test have attached the same copper wire to the loose connector in the head lining (to test the wire that runs through the car body) and this also works 100%.

 

However, when we plug the connector into the new base unit the signal is much weaker - a previously tuned local station can still be heard, but auto-tune fails entirely, or occasionally finds just the strongest local BBC station.

 

I have tried with a different aerial from my Dad's Nissan Note, and tried my aerial in his Nissan, and there is little change in either case so I don't think the aerial wand itself is faulty.

 

I have read that the Base Unit requires a pulse width modulated voltage - at the moment my Dad's Oscilloscope is out on loan so we can't test for that right now but should be able to in a week or so.

 

It is almost as if the base unit is having the OPPOSITE effect of amplifying the signal.  Is it possible that the Head Unit requires a NON amplified aerial, perhaps like this one ? Or could it be that I need some kind of booster like this, even though the previous stereo worked OK?

[Sharpyy]

In my previous experience, it varies depending on head unit manufacturer. For example I know my old Alpine head unit wouldn't work as well without an inline powered booster which made the signal 10 x better even with the standard amplified aerial.

 

I would go down the route of trying a powered inline booster and see if this makes any difference.

 

Good luck!

 

Sharpyy

[Adam_]

The OEM unit sends power to the aerial booster but aftermarket units don't so you need to fit an inline 12v booster behind your headunit.

[stevekerouac]

Yes It needed the inline booster on the back of the head unit.  I dunno why I leapt to the conclusion that it was the aerial base, perhaps because the previous radio had seemed OK. Oh well another tenner wasted! If anyone wants an aerial base for a fiver send me a PM!

[r1chg85]

Can anyone recommend a decent inline booster im having signal issues and need to get this sorted does it need to be a din to din booster? mines a 53 fabia 1.2 classic with afermarket jvc double din

Thanks Rich