I installed a kenwood kdc922. when I try listening to the radio I get some pretty sh$$$ reception. I checked my power ant. connection and it looks good. Is there anything else I'm missing?

 

make sure there is power on that power ant. cable. If not try connecting your remote amp wire to the power ant. wire.
There needs to be about 6v I think on that line for it to activate the ant. amp

zaway

 

I tried that too. can I connect it to another wire.

 

Mine is doing that too and we hooked up the power antenna wire like everyone suggested and I can't get in any station that well at all now.

 

If you are using a Metra harness, there are two blue wires in the harness. One is for the Bose amp (it's in all the harnesses even if you don't have a Bose system) and another blue wire for the antenna amplifier. If you connect both of them to the amp trigger wire on your aftermarket head unit, you should have no problems with radio reception.

If you are not using a metra harness, or can't figure out which wire needs + 12 volts to turn on the antenna amplifier, you can look at the small harness conector that the antenna wire that plugs in to the back of the radio is in. There is another smaller wire in this connector (can't remember the color off hand). Just follow that wire in to one of the main harnesses that plugs in to the back of the factory radio...that's the one that needs the amp trigger wire connected to.

Hope this helps...

 

I have a question. I'm ASSuming that the antenna amplifier just needs to be turned on, and that's what's happening when you connect a "power antenna and/or remote amp turn" on wire.....correct? My Alpine H/U has both of these wires, and I used a metra wiring kit. So, since I'll be hooking up the remote amp turn on to my Basslink in the future, I should connect the power antenna wire from the harness of my H/U (which is blue) to the power antenna wire of the metra harness, correct?

I don't have the color diagram for the metra harness any longer, so could someone please tell me which color is the power antenna lead on the metra harness? I'm ASSuming it's blue and that the remote turn on for an amplifier is blue/white.....am I correct?

Thanks for the help.

 

I've got an alpine and origionally didn't have the power antenna connected and got really bad reception. When I hooked it up it was much better, but I still get poor reception. I think maybe it needs a bigger antenna.

 

Wow! You guys are really bummin' me out!!! I installed new Alpine h/u awhile ago and have horrible reception. I recently found out about the ant. amp thingy and was planning on getting in there and hooking it up. I figured that was going to solve my problem, but now after reading this post, I'm startin' to wonder!!!

Are you sure you guys aren't hooking it up wrong? It's the green wire with the white stripe on it - not the green wire with the yellow stripe, right? Jesus- it can't need a bigger antenna! The factory stereo didn't have any problems picking up stations and it was a piece of crap!!!

 

There are two blue wires on the Metra harness. If you don't have the Bose system, just hook both of them ou to the radio trigger wire on the Alpine. If you have the Bose system, hoop up the blus wire in the Metra harness that connects to the wire that runs to the antenna connector plug. As soon as you loom at the factory harness, you will see which wire I am talking about.

I get very good reception with the factory antenna on the car with my Clarion DXZ835MP head unit...

 

Cool, thanks. I bought a harness from Crutchfield - is that a Metra harness? Can't remember!!! I did not have the sub-woofered Blose system.

 

Ok.....problem fixed!

I quickly took apart the dash just now and wired the power antenna lead (blue) from my Alpine harness to the "antenna" lead (blue) of the Metra harness, and the radio reception is crystal clear now. If you have the Metra harness, it's a blue wire and it actually has "antenna" printed in small white letters on the side of the wire.

So, if your radio reception is crappy, this is the fix.

 

Just to keep clearing things up, there are two plugs. The main plug with the red and yellow wires has only 1 blue wire. Connect that to the power antenna lead and you're set. that is what Idid. I'm not using the second smaller plug for anything

I just discovered this tonite on my own. I did not know we had an antenna amp so I just left that blue wire disconnected. BIG mistake haha.

Tim