Simple Fix to Radio Reception

[oldstick]

I installed an aftermarket marine/car stereo into the slot above the fridge several years ago. There was nothing there before that, but as many others have discovered all the factory wiring was provided right on top of the fridge, power, speaker and antenna male plug, plus two speakers already installed in the overhead cabinets at the front end of the camper. So hook up was simple when I installed.

But the last year or so I noticed that the radio reception was poor. Then it dawned on me to search past threads and the radio antenna runs to the little powered unit glued to the back edge of the top shell. Right above the bag seal on the street side. I then noticed the little notorious red LED light on it was not on. The same little LED that always drains your battery down slowly over time, regardless of whether you have a radio installed, when in storage. (That is, if you leave the battery connected without a maintenance charger.)

Anyway, I did some troubleshooting and decided the antenna was dead.

So instead of messing with replacing the dead antenna and its wiring, I found you could order a handy dandy adapter cable with car radio male plug on one end and Co-ax connector on the other. You only need about 2 or 3 feet to reach from the radio slot across the top of the fridge to the back of the Winegard TV antenna jack on the right side of the fridge cabinet. If you take off the cover plate to the TV jack, you will probably find an extra unused coax terminal to screw onto.

FM Reception is great again if you don't power on the booster at the TV jack. Problem solved.

Cable like this:
https://www.coaxrf.com/shop/1-rf-coa...pigtail-cable/

[ShrimpBurrito]

Great work around. Have you noticed any significance differences in reception from what you remember with the original antenna?

Dave

[oldstick]

Not enough time to tell, since I only did the mod last week at our house.

Local stations that were weak are now loud and clear. Time will tell after we take the camper out to some of the more remote locations we frequent. I usually do a comparison between reception in the tow vehicle vs in the camper.

But gut feel is right now it is as good or better than ever. The cheesy original radio antenna may have already been going out before I installed the stereo.

By the way, you can elect cut the cable to the old FM antenna and discard it, which I did. But first be mindful that there is a hot 12 volt wire inside (hot when on shore power or battery, that is).

If you look carefully at the wire bundles within the outside access panel behind the fridge area, then outside and up to the roof, you will see where the red hot wire mates up with the original FM antenna cable. There was a disconnect plug in red wire on my 3023 that was easily unplugged and capped off for safety.

[Shane826]

I like it. But your link to the adapter is broken.

[Bill]

Oldstick, you apparently did a copy and paste from an earlier version of the post. This means that the dot-dot-dot (an abbreviation meant to shorten appearance of the link) in the earlier post was copied as "dot-dot-dot". When it was pasted into the new version of the post, it went in as "dot-dot-dot". In other words, the original content in the abbreviation was lost in the copy/paste. You'll need to find and re-insert the original link.

Bill

[oldstick]

Sorry, hopefully the link works now.

The one significant thing I did notice was that the reception was poor when I turned the "booster" button ON. There was one spare connector available, and also a small circuit board for the booster behind the cover plate.

So next time we use the camper, I am going to consult the owners manual about the TV antenna wiring. It's possible the radio really needs to connect to another point using a coax splitter.

Some of you wizards could probably gen up the same adapter using the existing plugs and cable. But this was a new one for me this time and I thought $10-$11 was worth trying it out.

[Shane826]

Thanks for this. My antenna looks awful and just fell off. I’m gonna use this. The weaker-reception-when-the-antenna-is-amplified issue shouldn’t really be a dealbreaker, if you’re watching TV over the air then who is listening to the radio at the same time? My question is does this affect the cable TV input?

[oldstick]

Originally Posted by Shane826

Thanks for this. My antenna looks awful and just fell off. I’m gonna use this. The weaker-reception-when-the-antenna-is-amplified issue shouldn’t really be a dealbreaker, if you’re watching TV over the air then who is listening to the radio at the same time? My question is does this affect the cable TV input?

Not sure about the TV reception as we have rarely used a TV with either the antenna or the cable input. I didn't change any of that wiring, just used the open connector behind plate. That is what I intend to research further and determine if there is a better way to connect the radio and hopefully get an actual "boost" to both TV and radio. I might have it hooked to the input side of booster circuit, and that probably wouldn't be the ideal placement.

[oldstick]

I would be neglectful if I didn't mention that I also discovered you can find what appears to be the exact replacement for the original FM antenna, readily available for a reasonable price.

Search for AN150SR Radio Antenna.

They appear to come complete with the same length of wire plus the same mating connector and hot wire lead as you will find running up to the roof of our TMs.

[commodor47]

If you are feeling ambitious and like a challenge, it is possible to replace the amplified radio antenna. At last check a replacement is still available.

Here is what I did to replace my amplified radio antenna:

https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ead.php?t=9573