Line Noise: Poor Radio Reception

CaptainPioneer · Post by **CaptainPioneer** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:23 am

Not sure whether to post this in the Deck or Amp section but i think it is supposed to be here...

Anyhow... Sooo My reception for AM/FM is just horrendous... not really something that bothers me cause i always just listen to my iPod...

But i decided one day to try and troubleshoot it... I turned on the car onto accessory and the radio is clear as a bell until my amp and sub turns on.

I pull the RCA's from the amp... still has poor reception

Sooo... I figure well it must be the amp... So i pull the fuses on the amp and repeat the scenario... Voila! no interference.

Now... I check the ground... this thing is beautiful, no way I am poorly grounded.

This then later leads me to read online about the power antenna wire... I made sure it was connected... and still problems.

I have a few theories of them i hope none are the culprit...

1.) Where i ran my Power wire the factory must have ran the line from the Deck to the Antenna. This could cause interference I suppose

2.) Bad Ground on the HU... I did use the factory ground wire from the original HU... BUT one caveat to this... when i had my LOC and ran the sub and amp... i don't think that I had poor reception... I can't remember but i don't think that there was a problem with the factory HU...

3.) Somehow my ground to my Amp is bad... Not sure how, because really this is the best ground I've ever had... I mean i bought a ground terminal that is screwed to the chassis, i made sure that i ground down and exposed the metal on both sides for great contact.

Anyhow...

Does anyone have any suggestions...

I think the first thing I'll do is check the location of the antenna wire, second would be to re-ground the deck to another location, and possibly install a ground Loop isolator.

Thanks and Happy Holidays/

Bwcad1 · Post by **Bwcad1** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:02 am

Reground the Head unit to the frame. What brand HU is it?

Ground loop isolators hide the issue and typically cause degradation of the output voltage.

Also having a good ground doesn't mean it wont induce noise. try taking a wire from the HU ground and grounding to the same spot as the amp.

I can pretty much guarantee a ground loop somewhere as its coming into the reception of the antenna.

CaptainPioneer · Post by **CaptainPioneer** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:11 am

Pioneer avic X910BT. I will re-ground when I have a chance... So just run a wire strait back to the where the amp is wired? I can do that just temporarily and see if anything happens. So you definitely don't think its the power line causing interference with where the antenna line is run right? That would be great to know if its not that... I would hate to have to re-run that line again...

Bwcad1 · Post by **Bwcad1** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:27 am

Should have known it was a pioneer... Goodluck! I have never had a problem with power by antenna wires.

CaptainPioneer · Post by **CaptainPioneer** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:39 am

Of course you should have known lol! Yea I think it will be fine once I take a little more time to isolate the problem