Car Radio Reception problem

Glenman

I recently bought a Goodmans CD stereo in argos and installed it myself in my VW polo (connections were the same). The old stereo would not power up since I bought the car. The antenna stem was also damaged so I bought an Atm ELEX 24N universal antenna for VW, seat etc
The base of the old antenna seemed to be fine to I just replaced the screw-in stem. I did not want to replace the cable as it would be an awkward job.
However the reception on my new stereo is very poor. I can pick up Today fm in most places but most other stations are fairly poor.
There seems to be a cylinder type thing at the radio side of the old cable with a red wire going into it. Would this be an amplifier of some sort?
I was thinking of setting up the new antenna and cable on some sort of a metal base and trying it on the new radio to see what the reception might be like.
Any tips as to how I could debug my reception problem would be appreciated. Thanks

Sponge Bob

I don't think that its supposed to be a telly all the same

Glenman

Which forum should this thread be in? Thanks

L1011

This one is OK, despite what Sponge Bob seems to think, radio is terrestrial too (hence the mega-thread on DAB).

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=546 may have more answers. I've never fitted a radio to a VW before, but the 'cylinder thing' could be a ferrite interference supressor.

I've also found Goodmans units to have fairly poor reception, mind (is this the 69 quid unit with no RDS?) but it shouldn't be that bad!

byte

Was the old stereo the original VW stereo, or one that was put in by the previous owner?

In my Seat (with some VW similarities), when I removed the original Seat headunit for a Pioneer, I had to buy a power inserter (the Seat stereo had power output already), which sounds similar to what you have - a cylinder thing with a power cable connection. Aerial connection goes in one side, and the aerial plug on the end of the wire goes into the stereo. The amplifier for the aerial is right at the bottom of the base AFAIK, and gets line power from the coaxial cable.

Does this look like it?
http://www.incarexpress.co.uk/view_product.php?partno=PC552

The wire from the power inserter, I connected to the blue wire from the stereo (which is supposed to be for a motorised antenna, but does the same job). You'll need to check the blue wire from your stereo would be the same.

Ulsterman 1690

but the 'cylinder thing' could be a ferrite interference supressor.

Could also be an aerial preamplifier ("booster") or one of those frequency convertor things for Japanese radios

L1011

Ulsterman 1690 wrote: »

Could also be an aerial preamplifier ("booster") or one of those frequency convertor things for Japanese radios

Aye, had he said "I can only get Radio 1" I'd have blamed a jap convertor straight off for the cylinder...

Glenman

Yes it was the original VW radio.
And yes Byte, the link you have given is what the cylinder thing is.
It was approw 80 euro radio from Argos.