I live in Northern New Jeresy, about 8 miles away from the Empire State Building.
Many New York radio stations are broadcast from the top of the building and cover well over 70 miles.

When I took home my 06 S2k in July I had to rip the stock HU out and upgrade to the Alpine 9857 with the Ipod. (spks are still stock).
My wife and I were very upset with how poor the FM radio reception was with the new Alpine HU
My wife even went on to ask me to put back the Honda Radio...
Most stations sounded like Crap! FM signal was full of static!
I checked my HU install and made sure that the power was running to the ant signal amp in the trunk, i installed everything fine.

In desperation, I scaned this site and found that other have replaced thier S2k antennas (after it was stolen) with a Honda Insight stock antenna.
So I picked one up at HandAaccessories.com for $17

http://www.handaaccessories.com/S200...ghtantenna.jpg

The Insight antenna is 16" long, Stock S2k is 7"
the added length looks fine to me, and less likely to be stolen by some VW guy too.
But most importantly i can hear the FM radio and no static on my local FM radio stations.

If you're having the same problem with the length of your antenna... get your fix for less than $20!

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I may have to try this next summer on one of my long drives.

 

when you upgraded your head unit, did you also connect the power antenna lead (the antenna requires power, as it is amplified)?

 

Will,
yes I did hook up the Blue (if memory serves on the color) Cable to power the Antenna amp.
I even went through the hassel of pulling the trunk apart to test the power line running to the antenna.

It's sad that Alpine puts a crap Tunner into this HU. otherwise the product is fine.
Someone else said on this forum that Alpine needed the room for the IPOD hookup and probably just installed a smaller tuner.
I just think that their quality is slipping from a High End Car Audio company. to a mass market product company.
Needless to say my S2k is not an audiophile system, that's parked in my living room at home.

Thanks for the feedback on my issue.

 

Wait, is this true? I thought the Power Antenna wire was for cars with power antennas...that go up and down when the car is started. I didn't hook that up that wire to anything.

 

Yes, for some cars that wire activates the power antenna. For others (such as the s2k, M3, etc.) the wire provides power to the antenna, which helps reduce crappy reception.

 

You can also use the antenna from an IS300. That's what I have on mine.

 

Thanks for the heads up

 

[QUOTE=home38er,Oct 24 2006, 07:25 AM]
My wife and I were very upset with how poor the FM radio reception was with the new Alpine HU

 

[QUOTE=Slowboy,Nov 1 2006, 05:08 PM]HA! And I thought I was imagining things.