Put an alpine cda-9856 in the Z a couple of months ago. At first I was getting very poor reception. I did a search on the forum and found that I forgot to connect the antenna amp turn on. I went back in and connected the antenna turn on to the power antenna wire on the alpine. Radio reception improved greatly, but its still not as good as stock. I put it out of my mind for a couple of months but now its bothering me. Basically stations that I got clean and clear with stock and in my other cars sometimes won’t autotune in and when they do, they have static on them. The guy at crutchfield said that there’s a possibility that the power antenna wire from the alpine is not providing enough current/voltage to the antenna amp. He suggested connecting it directly to the ignition wire 12V. Does this sound right? Does the antenna amp work off of 12V? Anyone else have this problem? Any one know the current requirements of the antenna amp? Thanks.

 

Cant help you with current requirements of the antenna amp, but I cant really see it needing more than an Alpine head unit can handle (500mA max I believe). But hooking it to the IGN lead instead of using the P.Ant output lead wont hurt anything at all.

 

Haven't heard this problem before...usually the aftermarket radios get better reception. You didn't by any chance change to a shorty antenna?

 

Nope, and i changed the antenna amp wire over to the ignition wire and still the same bad reception. My buddy just removed his alpine from his truck, if it has the same harness im going to plug his into my car and see what happens.