Hey I am just relaizing that the reason my reception sucks is because I have to power the Antenna amp. Can anyone tell me which wire that goes into the headunit is for powering the antenna amp so I can power it for my aftermarket stereo? I have an Alpine 9855 with no reception when I am in any kind of mountainous region which is pretty much everywhere.

Thank you very much
Brett

 

The blue wire on your Alpine harness is for the power antenna. I believe that the corresponding wire on your vehicle wiring harness is blue as well.

 

I have the same problem and wondered if the antenna had a pwr booster. Someone form soundomain told me that the 2003 does not have an antenna booster. My reception still sux.

 

Yes it is the blue wire, i had the same problem until i looked and saw i forgot to connect it.

 

So then it is the blue wire on the harness? If so, does this wire power up the antenna booster via the Bose amp? I removed the Bose amp completely. If the antenna booster is powered, via the amp, then I'm hosed.

 

i dunno what diagram you guys are referrring to when you say "BLUE" wire....

the ANTENNA BOOSTER AMP WIRE which MUST be connected in order to get decent FM/AM signal, is kind of a separate single wire bundled with foam along-side the main thick antenna lead. its got its own (brown?) connector as per the manual on page AV-31. the wire colour is typically GREEN/WHITE. my car (2003) it was green/white wire as per the manual.

i had to cut this and discard the brown connector and connect it to the new HU's antenna power wire (using solder, butt connector, or whatever you prefer). on my sony hu, this is powered 12v only when i select the source as radio tuner; otherwise it is off. this works out perfect with the antenna booster wire on the Z. if you dont have a power antenna lead in your HU, maybe try a REMOTE-AMP lead on your hu? if you do this, you'll probably have the antenna booster amp on all the time -- and you lose the capability to power-on any future external amp in sync with your HU...

 

see attached image of diagram from manual

 

It is not that complicated. If you have an aftermarket wiring harness for your vehicle, the blue lead on that harness needs to be connected the the power antenna lead on your Alpine. Both of these wires are blue. The other blue wire on the Alpine harness (actually blue w/white strip), is your amp remote turn on lead.

Connect the blue wires and enjoy great radio reception.

 

2003's do have the booster, I had no reception when I installed my aftermarket headunit and left the blue wire on the harness disconnected thinking it was for a power antenna, I recently installed an amp and found out about the wire and connected it and now have reception.

 

Now that I recall installing my aftermarket HU, I do remember that little wire off to the side. I had foam around it and I couldn't figure out what it was for, so I left it alone. Man, it is going to be a pain to remove that HU again. Gotta do what I have to do. Thanks guys.