Radio reception

[Robert.Smith]

I've got the Pioneer and I'm not happy with the reception at all - I just can't get some local stations for some reason.

I also can't find AM - but it's highly probable that is an operator issue by the sounds of it!

 

[xpanda]

I've got the Pioneer and I'm not happy with the reception at all - I just can't get some local stations for some reason.

I also can't find AM - but it's highly probable that is an operator issue by the sounds of it!

Thanks for the info Rob

 

[mfexpanda]

Hi Mfe
Any issues with dodgy reception?

no all good

 

[clynto]

Hi all I said in my last post I would change the aerial in mine to see if it made any difference. Well the short and long answer is no. Not when fixed in same place in the side of the van but when I detached it from the van and stood it on the roof it made the world of difference. So I think it is back to another aerial but an extendable one.

 

[xpanda]

Hi all I said in my last post I would change the aerial in mine to see if it made any difference. Well the short and long answer is no. Not when fixed in same place in the side of the van but when I detached it from the van and stood it on the roof it made the world of difference. So I think it is back to another aerial but an extendable one.

interesting, as I was also was thinking about extendable , let us know how you go

 

[xpanda]

no all good

Good

 

[SP4RKI]

When we had our swan, we also had terrible reception on the stereo. The more I read into the instructions, the more it kept telling me to ensure the aerial cable was no where near any power equipment..... Such as batteries, 240volt, invertors, etc. I had a look at the cabling for the aerial and it went straight past the battery box and invertor.... Go figure?

 

[hamish22]

I just bought one of these - brilliant

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/A4282/

 

[xpanda]

When we had our swan, we also had terrible reception on the stereo. The more I read into the instructions, the more it kept telling me to ensure the aerial cable was no where near any power equipment..... Such as batteries, 240volt, invertors, etc. I had a look at the cabling for the aerial and it went straight past the battery box and invertor.... Go figure?

Thanks for feedback Sp4rki

 

[xpanda]

I just bought one of these - brilliant

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/A4282/

Thanks Hamish, so no reception issues with the unit?

 

[hamish22]

Thanks Hamish, so no reception issues with the unit?

No probs as yet!

Mrs bought it for me for my birthday a couple of years ago as she got sick of seeing me chuck a wobbly when I couldn't get the footy when we were in the van.

First time I used it, was at Nelson Bay, wanted to listen to 2gb continuous call and got the direct sydney station on the friday night then got it through Muswellbrook on the Saturday night, not bad i reckon.

Rather heavy unit for it's size though!

 

[Brad]

It's not something as simple as making sure the power portion of the antenna is actually connected?
i found this when swapping the radio over in the car. The antenna at the back of the unit has 2 connections. One is the cable coming from your antenna and the second is to be connected to a 12 volt source.
Without this you get poor reception.

 

[xpanda]

No probs as yet!

Mrs bought it for me for my birthday a couple of years ago as she got sick of seeing me chuck a wobbly when I couldn't get the footy when we were in the van.

First time I used it, was at Nelson Bay, wanted to listen to 2gb continuous call and got the direct sydney station on the friday night then got it through Muswellbrook on the Saturday night, not bad i reckon.

Rather heavy unit for it's size though!

Like the bit about the wobbly sounds very familar

 

[Ligedy]

I used to get bad static interference when an LED interior light was switched on too – this meant no radio after dark, only music :-\

I changed the wiring on my stereo and now the reception has all cleared up when the lights are on J

Try it and see what happens… this may not suit everyone as I have wired a direct feed from the house battery to the stereo. Why – because I was annoyed with the stereo loosing it’s station memory and settings every time I turned the 12v power off and surprise surprise to my delight – no more static.

Car stereo/head units have two power inputs accessories/ignition for powering up the unit when the ignition key is turned on (in my case the 12v power switch) and 12v constant power for keeping the memory settings.

Jayco terminate both wires together to the single 12v feed, to make sure when 12v power is off – everything is off. It wouldn’t surprise me that using the one power supply causes interference in the head unit as both input wires are then drawing from the same power supply, from the SETEK, which runs the lights.

Anyway, I ran an extra wire from the house battery up to the head unit for 12v power – this keeps my stations in memory and allows me to see the time on the clock even when the 12v power is switched off. The current draw on standby is bugger all and detaching the stereo facia pretty much drops power consumption right out (I have solar and two house batteries so impact on my batteries doesn’t concern me even when parked up for ages). You could put an inline switch near the battery for isolating when parking up the van.

I used the existing 12v feed (12v switched through the SETEK unit) to supply the accessories/ignition feed on the head unit – thus when the 12v power is switched it all comes back into life – same station and static free.

Note - the antenna/aerial wire on the head unit wiring harness is actually for power control on electric aerial up/down motion (flexible or manual extendible aerials are not powered or power amplified). Some newer cars have proprietary antennas with additional connections (can be power or earth) but this is not the case on most aftermarket head units (Pioneer/Alpine/JVC/Sony, etc).

I have the pioneer stereo CD/DVD/MP3 and tried a JVC unit to fix the static but had the same crappy radio reception until changing the wiring…

When comparing my car stereo to the Expanda I get exactly the same quality when LED lights are on (if not better from the Expanda because the antenna is up higher…). Mind you the microwave makes it carry on a bit... but that's to be expected.

I would suggest trying a dedicated power feed from the battery direct to the stereo to test the antenna vs power supply. Pull the head unit out and run some temporary wires straight from the battery to see how you go before installing new aerials and new head units...

Cheers, Ligedy

 

[Brad]

I used to get bad static interference when an LED interior light was switched on too – this meant no radio after dark, only music :-\

I changed the wiring on my stereo and now the reception has all cleared up when the lights are on J

Try it and see what happens… this may not suit everyone as I have wired a direct feed from the house battery to the stereo. Why – because I was annoyed with the stereo loosing it’s station memory and settings every time I turned the 12v power off and surprise surprise to my delight – no more static.

Car stereo/head units have two power inputs accessories/ignition for powering up the unit when the ignition key is turned on (in my case the 12v power switch) and 12v constant power for keeping the memory settings.

Jayco terminate both wires together to the single 12v feed, to make sure when 12v power is off – everything is off. It wouldn’t surprise me that using the one power supply causes interference in the head unit as both input wires are then drawing from the same power supply, from the SETEK, which runs the lights.

Anyway, I ran an extra wire from the house battery up to the head unit for 12v power – this keeps my stations in memory and allows me to see the time on the clock even when the 12v power is switched off. The current draw on standby is bugger all and detaching the stereo facia pretty much drops power consumption right out (I have solar and two house batteries so impact on my batteries doesn’t concern me even when parked up for ages). You could put an inline switch near the battery for isolating when parking up the van.

I used the existing 12v feed (12v switched through the SETEK unit) to supply the accessories/ignition feed on the head unit – thus when the 12v power is switched it all comes back into life – same station and static free.

Note - the antenna/aerial wire on the head unit wiring harness is actually for power control on electric aerial up/down motion (flexible or manual extendible aerials are not powered or power amplified). Some newer cars have proprietary antennas with additional connections (can be power or earth) but this is not the case on most aftermarket head units (Pioneer/Alpine/JVC/Sony, etc).

I have the pioneer stereo CD/DVD/MP3 and tried a JVC unit to fix the static but had the same crappy radio reception until changing the wiring…

When comparing my car stereo to the Expanda I get exactly the same quality when LED lights are on (if not better from the Expanda because the antenna is up higher…). Mind you the microwave makes it carry on a bit... but that's to be expected.

I would suggest trying a dedicated power feed from the battery direct to the stereo to test the antenna vs power supply. Pull the head unit out and run some temporary wires straight from the battery to see how you go before installing new aerials and new head units...

Cheers, Ligedy

I have seen this when power cables run parallel to antenna cables. It's called inductance where the magnetic field generated by power interferes with surrounding cables. The resolution is to use better shielded cables or separate the wires - which sounds like you did the later.
in terms of the two wires being joined together, another option is to purchase a small battery like the ones they use in security alarms. Use this to connect to the memory wire and you should never loose a station again.

 

[xpanda]

I used to get bad static interference when an LED interior light was switched on too – this meant no radio after dark, only music :-\

I changed the wiring on my stereo and now the reception has all cleared up when the lights are on J

Try it and see what happens… this may not suit everyone as I have wired a direct feed from the house battery to the stereo. Why – because I was annoyed with the stereo loosing it’s station memory and settings every time I turned the 12v power off and surprise surprise to my delight – no more static.

Car stereo/head units have two power inputs accessories/ignition for powering up the unit when the ignition key is turned on (in my case the 12v power switch) and 12v constant power for keeping the memory settings.

Jayco terminate both wires together to the single 12v feed, to make sure when 12v power is off – everything is off. It wouldn’t surprise me that using the one power supply causes interference in the head unit as both input wires are then drawing from the same power supply, from the SETEK, which runs the lights.

Anyway, I ran an extra wire from the house battery up to the head unit for 12v power – this keeps my stations in memory and allows me to see the time on the clock even when the 12v power is switched off. The current draw on standby is bugger all and detaching the stereo facia pretty much drops power consumption right out (I have solar and two house batteries so impact on my batteries doesn’t concern me even when parked up for ages). You could put an inline switch near the battery for isolating when parking up the van.

I used the existing 12v feed (12v switched through the SETEK unit) to supply the accessories/ignition feed on the head unit – thus when the 12v power is switched it all comes back into life – same station and static free.

Note - the antenna/aerial wire on the head unit wiring harness is actually for power control on electric aerial up/down motion (flexible or manual extendible aerials are not powered or power amplified). Some newer cars have proprietary antennas with additional connections (can be power or earth) but this is not the case on most aftermarket head units (Pioneer/Alpine/JVC/Sony, etc).

I have the pioneer stereo CD/DVD/MP3 and tried a JVC unit to fix the static but had the same crappy radio reception until changing the wiring…

When comparing my car stereo to the Expanda I get exactly the same quality when LED lights are on (if not better from the Expanda because the antenna is up higher…). Mind you the microwave makes it carry on a bit... but that's to be expected.

I would suggest trying a dedicated power feed from the battery direct to the stereo to test the antenna vs power supply. Pull the head unit out and run some temporary wires straight from the battery to see how you go before installing new aerials and new head units...

Cheers, Ligedy

Thanks for the detailed info Ligedy very helpful

 

[macca]

Is there a booster you can get similar to TV's?

Does the fusion let you stream radio from an iphone or similar. With a normal radio I find that once you leave town you have to stuff around finding good stations, when you stream from internet you can get the station you want no matter where you are, proving you have a phone signal. They are the new wireless!! That's the way all the cars are going also why Apple are taking internet radio seriously for future devices. Also many caravan parks have free wifi for backpackers etc.

Radios are however easy to use.

 

[Sterlo1]

This is the connection Jayco use. No shielding and the antenna lead runs along side other wires ( lights etc.)

 

[Brad]

Really poor workmanship.

 

[Stomper]

Hi all, I have just retro fitted a Kenwood head unit with CD, mp3 plug in and USB, above the fridge and 2 x Sony 3 way speakers to our new 14.44-5 outback, I could not decide on a place for the Antenna but then decided to mount it on the side above/behind the fridge so when I extent it, it extents approx 1 metre above the roof line, this location Mage it easy to plug straight into the head unit and does not pass any other cables. The reception is awesome and the sound is fantastic, for $230 all up, cannot go wrong.
For others that are having reception problems others have said the Antenna cable should not run next to other cabling which is correct as it can suffer from what is known as inductive reactance, if you do have to pas other cables then the best is to cross at right angles. As for the Antenna I am not sure how Jayco mounts the Antenna but from experience most vehicle Antenna's are vertically polarized therefore must be mounted vertical on the side of the vehicle.
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Deano