Radioshark to Car Antenna - Page 3

akula169 · 08-29-2006, 02:46 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by numbers

Grounding the antenna to the car chassis will kill your reception quicker than a picture of oprah kills your woody.

Aye. Kinda figured.

Now I can skip that experiment...

KaBoOoM · 08-30-2006, 03:15 AM

Haven't read the whole thread, but I believe AM and FM antenna are different. The FM being the obvious one, and the AM the black wire in the windshield. I may be mistaken though

akula169 · 08-30-2006, 12:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by KaBoOoM

Haven't read the whole thread

Please read the entire thread before attempting to contribute. No reason to aimlessly post and possibly clog or take a thread off topic. It really doesn't help anyone...

Quote: Originally Posted by KaBoOoM

but I believe AM and FM antenna are different.

Yes. This is usually true.

Quote: Originally Posted by KaBoOoM

The FM being the obvious one, and the AM the black wire in the windshield. I may be mistaken though

The location of the AM antenna varies by vehicle.

jschrauwen · 08-30-2006, 09:02 PM

I don't believe you mentioned about not hooking up the ground at all for the FM?
How was the reception by connecting the ground to the J9?
BTW, I believe there a FAQ on the RadioShark site that mentions specific adapters for an external antenna. They (the RadioShark) suggested that plugging in headphones into the 1/8th jack would also add the to the antenna's sensitivity.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/sup...php?artnum=125
http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/001119.html
http://business.mainetoday.com/geekspeak/003124.html
http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20050130/1392/
http://www.atpm.com/11.02/radioshark.shtml

akula169 · 08-31-2006, 12:50 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by jschrauwen

[color="Blue"]I don't believe you mentioned about not hooking up the ground at all for the FM?
How was the reception by connecting the ground to the J9?

J9? It was good... when I tested it with my laptop in the garage...

Now that I have it hooked up to my recently installed system in my car, the reception is total crap - mostly static... seems to depend on where the RS is placed in the space I put it...

Back to the drawing board on this one. Of course, after I tweak all the other tweakables now that I have everything installed.

I repost with updates as I get to them.

akula169 · 08-31-2006, 12:52 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by jschrauwen

They (the RadioShark) suggested that plugging in headphones into the 1/8th jack would also add the to the antenna's sensitivity.

I've read plenty of reports that plugging something into the headphone jack doesn't do jack. I tried myself and it didn't seem to make a difference.

TMF · 09-16-2006, 06:48 PM

The radioshark is junk. Period.

I got mine on the 9th from BestBuy online. My carpc is on my bench tweaking so I plugged it in to the USB just to test. Did I just say junk? I meant to say CRAP.

Even the installer is crap. It fakes a test to the internet to see if there is newer software and then says it is the latest and continues to install. But, if you go to their web site, there is a newer version. Says it improves AM reception. Yeah, THAT'S what I'm looking for! AM Baby!

Nope, even that didn't help.

So I leave it plugged in so I can look at the gay blue LEDs for a while. I get up in the morning and see that they are not blue anymore. Turns out it fried itself just sitting there and the CarPC then reported an overload on the USB port so it shut the port down. Wonderful, it is gay -AND- it tried to f#*k my CarPC!

Back to BestBuy with this sorry POS and I got my money back.

Guess I'll just have to keep looking or find one of those HQCT boxes.

John

jschrauwen · 09-16-2006, 09:03 PM

Dang, this is not good news at all. I kind of figured that I'd have to get in line for one of those HQCT's. Wish their production line would pick up the pace.

Cerztrueheart · 09-29-2006, 06:49 PM

any new news on this front? i just got mine in the mail from bestbuy, but i want to work through this as opposed to returning it. i'm very interested in what akula169 has done - any updates?

desperado.mac · 10-19-2006, 02:33 PM

np update ?

jschrauwen · 10-19-2006, 09:28 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by akula169

I've read plenty of reports that plugging something into the headphone jack doesn't do jack. I tried myself and it didn't seem to make a difference.

It worked for me. After plugging in a spare set of junk headphones a little physical orientation of the headphones when the cable is extended fully made a discernable difference in generating a better signal. Of course using this method will work for certain stations in certain directions from the antenna (line of site). Although successful integration into the vehicles own antenna may prove to work even better - when I get to it.

akula169 · 10-23-2006, 04:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jschrauwen

It worked for me. After plugging in a spare set of junk headphones a little physical orientation of the headphones when the cable is extended fully made a discernable difference in generating a better signal. Of course using this method will work for certain stations in certain directions from the antenna (line of site). Although successful integration into the vehicles own antenna may prove to work even better - when I get to it.

I think you just got lucky due to the proximity of the wire you plugged in there. The actual FM and AM antenna leads have no connection to the headphone/antenna jack inside the case

well, ground, maybe....

akula169 · 10-23-2006, 04:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Cerztrueheart

any new news on this front? i just got mine in the mail from bestbuy, but i want to work through this as opposed to returning it. i'm very interested in what akula169 has done - any updates?

It is actually working pretty well for me now. The reception is a bit spotty at times - 95% and it is acceptable - it seems to static out randomly. Probably very sensitive to other strange frequencies, for example, crossing under high power lines.

Certainly not as clear as my stock radio, but I'm happy that I can get a couple of my favorite stations in addition to the other added power of my massive mp3 collection and GPS functions.

Yay! Def worth the $35 I paid for it on eBay. Maybe if I end up with some extra expendable cash I'll pick up the HQCT... until then, I can live with the RS.

jschrauwen · 10-23-2006, 05:08 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by akula169

It is actually working pretty well for me now. The reception is a bit spotty at times - 95% and it is acceptable - it seems to static out randomly. Probably very sensitive to other strange frequencies, for example, crossing under high power lines.
Certainly not as clear as my stock radio, but I'm happy that I can get a couple of my favorite stations in addition to the other added power of my massive mp3 collection and GPS functions.
Yay! Def worth the $35 I paid for it on eBay. Maybe if I end up with some extra expendable cash I'll pick up the HQCT... until then, I can live with the RS.

I failed to mention that my results were accomplished while bench testing. My local vender openned the case up on one and there is a connection from the headset connector to the antenna but never confirmed if it was stricly a ground.
Have you grafted your car antenna to the internal antenna of the RS or to the headset connector? If so, will you be sharing your details?

NssOne_Audi_A4 · 10-24-2006, 10:26 PM

Hi, I just received my radioshark today and immediately ripped it open to check it out. I installed it on my dad's computer to check it out (he runs Win2k, I use Ubuntu). It does seem kind of ****ty until I put it in the spot to get the best reception, but that may be because of where my dad's computer is compared to other electronics in his room. I was wondering if anybody has thought of using an antenna booster like this in their car for use with the radioshark? I'm going to attempt something along this lines when I finally get around to installing my carpc.