Radioshark to Car Antenna - Page 4

akula169 · 10-25-2006, 01:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jschrauwen

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?

Yeah, read this entire thread from the beginning - all the details are there.

I used the two AM connections and the spot marked "FM" and the alternate ground for the FM antenna (picture) .

vfinterceptor · 02-16-2007, 06:46 AM

Well, old thread revival time! I figured it's better than starting another for something that seems pretty beat to death.

I just aquired a radio shark of ebay for 20 bucks so it looks like I'll be jumping back in to the fray. I figure, 20 bucks, cheap enough to play around with and if I end up chucking the whole thing no big loss.

Hopefully, I can get at least decent fm with some changes to the design. Time to contact my radio buddies and see what they can do. If nothing else, it'll be a good excuse to have the guys over and "process" some beer!

More to follow......

Cheers

BJ

tigergibb · 02-16-2007, 09:55 AM

I got mine on eBay too, but for $30. Any news on reception? FM would be a major plus with good reception

.

akula169 · 02-16-2007, 01:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by tigergibb

I got mine on eBay too, but for $30. Any news on reception? FM would be a major plus with good reception

.

The reception has been acceptable - it likes to pop and cut out around power lines. Your mileage might vary, depending on the signal strength of radio stations in your area.

Placement of the unit within your vehicle also seems to greatly affect the signal. I keep it as far from the PC and touchscreen as my cables allow.

vfinterceptor · 02-22-2007, 08:17 PM

Well, got the shark today. I'm using RR and lsx void so th einstall was easy as pie!
Now does it work?
Well, I'm satisfied so far actually. I live in an area where the reception is poor at the best of times and the shark is no worse than any other tuner I've tried. I popped it into the rear window of the car and went for a drive. Acceptable. No better or worse than most. As good as a HU? well, don't have enough time with it yet. And I don't plan to use the radio recording either, so I could care less whether that works or not. haven't tried am yet, but a feww moments tuning revealed no reception. I'll look into that later. I'm just happy to have fm actually.

And I haven't even tried messing with the antenna yet.

Hopefully it's going to get better yet.

All in all, a fairly well spent 20 bucks! I have local news and weather again, pretty pleased with the shark!

Reception actually did get better for me after plugging in a set of headphones and "arranging" them as you would a dipolar antenna.

Static, well yeah, some. But it's a freakin' radio! It'll never be cd or even mp3 quality, just the nature of the beast (radio).

More to follow as I tinker.......

BJ

blackandblue · 10-04-2007, 05:15 AM

So, as my first post, I decided to revive this one. I was looking into this unit for the carpc Im currently making, but had a couple of suggestions. I know for the RSX (I have one) and possibly the Jeep - there is a power antenna wire for the booster at the radio harness. Are you guys supplying 12v to that? Also, you mention that this headphone jack helps reception. How about cutting off the headphone part and using the wires to a motorola end to the car's antenna? Don't have to go opening it up.