Thread: New aerial

I know Johnny (LRTD5) installed a new normal external aerial which helped but unsure of the AM reception as he is too young to appreciate 'old man radio' as my wife calls it. Certainly on my list of things to do. Interesting to know about your installation though. Thanks.

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At the risk of confirming my presumed old fart status, yes I prefer AM 702 Sydney mostly. Will let you know how it goes in a couple of weeks after more testing.

An update on the radio aerial. The aerial definitely sucks in the waves better but the signal filtering, which I assume is in the radio head unit, is crap on AM at the low frequencies (500 to 750 ?hz). At the higher end (900 +) the interference is better but not great. The FM is clear as a bell and great range. I live in North West Sydney and pick up ABC FM Illawarra (973) with much more clarity and stability than ABC AM Sydney (702).

I am definitely going to have to buy a new head unit. Am I right in understanding that the OEM unit is 1.5 Din? I am interested in a new unit which sucks and filters the waves best; I am less interested in lots of features. Does anyone know which brands get best reception?

The hole is 1 DIN and the new unit that I installed was 1 DIN. The plastic surrounds in the dash around the unit makes it look like it's 1.5.

Over the years of playing with radio setups and reception gremlins( I live waay out in the sticks!) I have come to the conclusion that the head unit or receiver quality has most to do with car radio reception. The D2 has standard on glass aerial, JVC head unit and it performs as well, if not better than the defender with an external whip ant. and a pioneer head unit in all the same places Yhe place good ants are needed is in 2way radio where a ant will make it or break it. with any set.

An update after a lot of fiddling around.

Given the lack of improvement of my first installation of the window mount aerial, I removed it and re-installled it on the driver's side rear side window and attached it to the existing aerial's connector using an thin eye crimp lug. This way I was getting a signal from both aerial's through the OEM amplifier.

Similar to before, the signal strength was improved but the interference was no better.

Didn't want to spend a lot of money on a new head unit if I was going to have the same problem so, last weekend, I borrowed a head unit (Sony) from a friend to see how it worked with the new aerial arrangement. Talk about chalk and cheese, the difference was dramatic. Shuy1 is 100% correct, the head unit is far more important than the aerial. Got crisp clear reception everywhere and even through most of the M2 Beecroft tunnel (apologies to non-Sydney-ites).

Have checked out the various head units and have put a JVC KD-SD636 on my Christmas list.

The only issue is the steering wheel remote controls. Looks like there are two brands but only one which has been tested on the Disco, the SWI-Jack. Have anyone who's used this device got any good advice? How difficult is it to install? Can you use the 12 volt supply in the radio wiring loom or do you need to run it to a new supply?