Hi Gang - Mrs V's Skoda Felicia has a Blaupunkt Verona radio cassette which has been working fine until today. The MW & LW reception has suddenly become very poor. With the engine running there is too much electrical (?) interference to hear anything. With the engine switched off, stations which used to be clear sound poor with quite a lot of background noise. FM reception is as was - very good! We haven't done anything to the car and no damage is apparent. Anyone got any ideas as to what might have happened and how we put it right ??
Thanks in anticipation!
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Hello, Medium Wave and Long Wave, What was that again Oh yes I remember now. No seriuosly if you want to listen to radio Caroline then you will have to clean the earth at the aerial mounting point where I suspect corrosion had set it and is the cause of you problem. Check for radio Luxemburge when you have fixed the problem. Regards Peter
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Thanks Peter - the only aerial I can see on the car is located in the rear centre part of the roof panel between the sunroof and tailgate. There is no obvious way to access the wires or indeed remove the aerial. I mention this because I understood that FM & MW reception required different types of aerial so I don't want to waste time fiddling around with the wrong one :-( Any thoughts ? Thanks again.
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Agree with Peter - it is almost guaranteed to be Earth related. Try running even a hand held wire earth from the radio chassis to confirm it.
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My Vectra was the same - FM excellent and AM unusable, especially when the engine was running. I believe the problem was that the aerial amplifier (built into the base of the aerial?) had failed. Never bothered to fix it as the AM quality is so poor compared to FM anyway! Might be worth a check, as I think these cars have similar aerials.
Regards
john S
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Cheers John & Frostbite. I have the unit's removal tools so when I get time I'll slide it out and try your suggestion. Will also have another look at the aerial mount on the roof to see if it comes off. Will report back in due course. In the meantime, if anyone's got any other ideas please let me know - I need my regular fix of Radio 5 and Talk Sport :-)
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Just had a look and the antenna simply screws into the mount which is afixed to the roof. No obvious way of removing the mount or cleaning anything although I could spray some oil or WD40 into the screw hole (would this be a good idead ?). The antenna itself is quite unusual - it is a black rod about 18 inches long with what looks like a thinner wire wrapped around its entire length in a spiral. Is this some form of dual purpose aerial and does it serve any purpose so far as MW & LW reception is concerned ?
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Yes indeed VM this is a multiband antenna and serves FM, LW and MW. Its made by Bosch. All the previous answers are corrrect, the cause will be, amplifier, earth, or poor connection aerial-radio. To get to the base of the antenna its roof lining peeled back at that point i am afraid.
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Volvoman,
I had this problem with my Ford Mondeo recently. Turned out to be the aerial plug was half hanging out of it's socket, which gave poor AM (medium and long wave) reception, together with ignition and other interference. I just removed the radio with tools, put my hand round the back and pushed the plug back in. That was it! Problem solved with no further troubles since.
Didn't noticeably affect FM reception, though.
I strongly suggest you check this out, if you haven't done so already. The simplest cures are always the best!
My radio uses a newer type of aerial plug. There appears virtually nothing to hold it in, so is prone to vibrate out over a period of time. I don't think one of the old fashioned plugs would have ever suffered from this problem; looked like a large banana plug with a bit sticking out at the end!
Good Luck!
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Thanks so much Galaxy & RF. I'll check the aerial and earth connections when I take the unit out. Don't fancy accessing the aerial mount so how difficult would it be to fit a new am aerial somewhere and run a cable to it from the radio ? Where would be a good (or bad for that matter) place to site such an aerial ? Ta folks :-)
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Well funny enough VM the best place is on the roof at the rear. VW chose well there. The car/roof acts as a good ground plane, and is far away from interference source (engine/ht/alternator and road wheels - yes road wheels make a lot of electrical noise).
A good check for bad earth is to hold the aerial, or better the the sheild of the cable (at the plug for instance) if AM sound suddenly gets better, thats your cause. Fitting an earth strap to the radio cage (the bit the unit slides in and out of) will help.
You say a new AM aerial, you cant run two, it has to be one lead. You really are best fixing the configuration you have. Given the shapes/locations/ of your car the only other place is on the roof at the front. (you can usually access the roof under the courtesy lamp to drill holes) Yes you are into hole drilling. You can always buy a gutter clip or mag mount, but then you have cable entering the car thro door seals.
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Well RF you are a mine of useful information - quite the 'techie' :-)
I'll do the earth checks you (and others) have pointed out before anything else. If it turns out to be the earth can I just clamp a new wire onto the casing of the unit and run it to the bodywork somewhere leaving the old aerial to (hopefully) fucntion properly again ?
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Yes earth is fav, and if the strap fixes it then so well and good. There should be one there anyway but some manufacturers dont bother. If the earth on the aerial has failed, sending a new one up the shield of the aerial cable will overcome it. Techie? a bit, My background was Aeronautical Engineer (thats big plane mechanic) then computer engineer. I am a lapsed licensed radio ham, so a lot of experience on mobile comms and radio in general.
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