Radio question

[partsbill]

I just bought the LAST factory accessory AM/FM/CD player in the chrysler system from a dealer in CT. Once I installed it this morning, several local stations that I normally listen to come in clear but the volume is real low. Other stations ; not normally heard in this area; are coming in like gangbusters and I have to turn the volume down to normal. The CD works fine and the volume reacts normally. Why are the local ststions coming in with such low volume?

 

[Wallymander]

That really has to do with the engineering of the device. In radios there are circuits designed to filter out certain freqs. Depending on the year it was made, what components were available at the time(where they were made) and what tolerances they were made with, you have different results.It comes down to design and specs.Theres nothing wrong with the stereo, its just designed a little different.You may want to make sure the antenna connection is tight.There are in-line antenna amplifiers (signal boosters) you can buy however they usually amplify EVERYTHING (including the static and noise). Good luck with it.

 

[partsbill]

it picks up stations from far away already and local stations as well. The clarity is great for all including the cd player. I thought it could be a ??radio fequency filter?? that was already wired into the harness and was thought(my thought) to filter out noise??

 

[Wallymander]

Is it an aftermarket filter? If someone put that in there it may be affecting the local stations, since they are coming in stronger, it detects them as noise and attenuates the signal. It cant hurt to remove it and try that.

 

[partsbill]

Its actually wired in with the new radio but your thoughts on it are similar to mine. I'll do just that this evening. Thanks!!

 

[Lou]

Maybe.....a setting on the radio.

This may be called 'DX' or 'local' feature. Usually a button, or a setting used to attenuate strong signals(local stations) so that they will not completely mask out the far away stations(weak).

 

[Wallymander]

Just a thought, can FM and get an XM radio, its hard to choke down the $12.00 a month, but after having no commercials and the signal is from coast to coast, i am hooked.I havent listened to FM in a couple years now. I was lead to this by the comment that the "DX" button may be set on. I hadnt even thought of that, its been so long.to my knowledge that means "distant"
or "distant transmission" It does just what Lou said. It allows further signals to come in by attenuating the closer, or stronger ones.

 

[Trailbst]

No, an FM radio cannot get XM on it. The Freqs are way different. The XM receiver down converts the sat signal and rebroadcasts it to your FM receiver.

As for the filter, or what you are thinking might be a filter, if it were a freq filter, it should knock it out completely. Even if it saw noise in the freq, it isn't supposed to allow it to pass.

I would look for an attenuator of some sort. Like the DX or Local button that was previously mentioned.

HTH


Erik

 

[Wallymander]

No, an FM radio cannot get XM on it. The Freqs are way different.

You dont say.....

 

[Trailbst]

Do I detect some sarcasm?

You asked the silly question of the day!

 

[Littlewhitexj]

I believe he said "can FM" as in get rid of it....

 

[Trailbst]

I believe he said "can FM" as in get rid of it....

OH, now I get it. Musta been the drawl I couldn't understand :laugh3:

I agree, GET RID OF FM, and get XM. Got mine for Christmas, and love it.

 

[87manche]

OH, now I get it. Musta been the drawl I couldn't understand :laugh3:

I agree, GET RID OF FM, and get XM. Got mine for Christmas, and love it.

Let's not forget that there's another sat rad company. Get on the 3 day tril for sirius and XM, then pick the one you like best. I prefer Sirius to XM for the wider variety of talk content, and a better stream jockeys, imo of course. Like I said, do the trial at both websites. I tried both, and like sirius more.
http://tinyurl.com/8ml5b
my sirius install.
The Head unit has since been replaced. That was my $20 wal mart jobby until I could get a decent HU with aux in.

 

[partsbill]

OK, back to the question at hand. This morning I took the chassis out and disconnected the antenna. ALL the stations were at a reduced volume. After a few tries of this and that, I noticed that when I had the station on 106.5 (local station) there was no "ST" shown in the window yet when I went up to 106.7, the "st" was shown and the volume normal with a wide range. Tested the other 5 stations I normally listen to and there all the same. On the actual station number;reduced volume.......one click up and stereo and full volume yet there is some ststic as well. Is the an adjuctment on the radio itself to correct this?

 

[partsbill]

Re: Radio question HELP PLEASE!!!

OK, back to the question at hand. This morning I took the chassis out and disconnected the antenna. ALL the stations were at a reduced volume. After a few tries of this and that, I noticed that when I had the station on 106.5 (local station) there was no "ST" shown in the window yet when I went up to 106.7, the "st" was shown and the volume normal with a wide range. Tested the other 5 stations I normally listen to and there all the same. On the actual station number;reduced volume.......one click up and stereo and full volume yet there is some ststic as well. Is the an adjuctment on the radio itself to correct this?

Tried a new antenna set-up.....from the radio to the whip antenna(all factory parts) no help with the problem. When I put it 1 notch past the local station, its full blast and the st light is on. Back to the actual station number, and its back to 40% volume w/o the st light on. Must be some tuning problems off just a bit in the radio I'm guessing. Any radio help out there?

 

[FRAM]

Re: Radio question HELP PLEASE!!!

I'm no expert but I would say there is something wrong with your radio electronics. It can happen.

I had to have my in dash 6 disc Bose radio replaced in my 05 Altima as the tuner was working worth a shit. With a new radio in the stations started to come in clear again.

 

[Dave in Eugene]

Most car radios have automatic RF gain control circuitry to equalize what goes into the audio stages from the RF stages. With FM the bandwidth of the signal determines volume and probably the first and second IF stages will pull the dynamic range down to levels that the detector circuitry can handle. I'm not up on modern circuit design but it used to be done with crystals and LC circuits feeding a mixer amplifier. These days a lot of that signal processing is done digitally and there may or may not be some components on the board that can be adjusted to limit the appearent strength of stronger signals (I'd guess not). Since your radio is not detecting the A-B subcarrier that enables stereo reception, I suspect the front end of the rado is being swamped by the stronger signals and a lot of what it contains is just being clipped out. (Another possibility I can imagine after reading your most recent post is an IF passband is operating outside of it's designed frequency range) So my opinion is the radio is defective in some way.

Don't know what your remedies will be through Chrysler if you are dealing with a discontinued product. If you want the radio that bad you might have to just send it to the manufacturer and see if they can repair it economically. Look them up and see if they have a local repair station that has or can get the service data. A couple hours bench time will probably cost you more than the radio is worth.

 

[partsbill]

Don't know what your remedies will be through Chrysler if you are dealing with a discontinued product. If you want the radio that bad you might have to just send it to the manufacturer and see if they can repair it economically. Look them up and see if they have a local repair station that has or can get the service data. A couple hours bench time will probably cost you more than the radio is worth.

I seem to agree thats it has to be something with the radio. I have a friend who has a 93 Cherokee as well and just for shi&$ and giggles, I might try it in his before going to other means. And since I'm in the parts business of a Chrysler Jeep dealer(Our mechanics were clueless) I can handle the warranty. I have a receipt where I bought it from a jeep dealership(a few weeks ago) and since all purchases have a 12 month / 12000 mile warranty, either I'll try to get an advanced exhange unit if available or off it will go to the repair shop which happens to be either in Georgia or NY and normally only a 4-6 day turn around.

Thanks!!

 

[Dave in Eugene]

It seems like everybody's warranty procedures are different. I'm in the Deere Construction & Forestry parts business and our aftermarket and OEM radios are mostly from Audiovox. We have a two year unconditional warranty and proof of purchase is strictly honor (whatever we tell them it is). They almost always replace, rather than repair, defective radios.

 

[Trailbst]

Re: Radio question HELP PLEASE!!!

Tried a new antenna set-up.....from the radio to the whip antenna(all factory parts) no help with the problem. When I put it 1 notch past the local station, its full blast and the st light is on. Back to the actual station number, and its back to 40% volume w/o the st light on. Must be some tuning problems off just a bit in the radio I'm guessing. Any radio help out there?

Now knowing this, yes your radio is broke. It is not tuning correctly, or the mixer is not properly doing it's job.

Unfortunately, since it's a discontinued product, it will probably cost you as much to fix it, as to buy a new head unit.