I upgraded my factory head Unit to an Eclipse and my installer told me that other than changing the stock antenna for a big ugly one, there is no way I can get better AM reception. Anybody have this problem and a solution hopefully???

Some head units have a separate adjusment for AM. It's usually a small screw head located somewhere on the unit. These screws are rare or maybe nonexistent these days, but check your installation manual to make sure.

I haven't had AM reception since I purchased a new head unit. That was last September. I bought a Pioneer P920 and can not get one AM station. I need help to...maybe Pinky can shed some light on this.

I figured my name would come up in this thread. What can I say but your gonna get jack squot for reception out of this car. Make sure that the power antenna part is hooked up properly.

Other than that I dont have a clue except to ask WHY YOU LISTENING TO AM. Its dead! Hay I know you can only get some stuff on AM. Sorry I not much help here.

I had this exact problem in my Prelude. I couldn't understand why FM was fine ('ish) and AM was non-existant. What the problem turned out to be was the antenna was not inserted properly into the back of the head unit. The higher frequncy FM waves were induced by the internal components and the longer AM waves need the antenna to "capture" the signal. I am positive this is your problem .... check it out and let us know.

Brad.

What Pinky suggested would be my first guess.

It appears that Honda has abandoned the power antenna concept, and has chosen to install fixed or glass mounted (sticker) antennas.

And being the money saving people they are, harness manufacturers have removed the power antenna lead pins from their adapter harnesses that plug in to the factory harness.

This hurts us S2000 owners because the S has an antenna booster that requires +12v to work!

Hence bad reception ensues. So if you don't do some modification to the harness, your reception will suffer.

The trick is to add a pin and wire to the adapter harness, or [GASP] cut the antenna wire before the factory harness and splice it to the head units power antenna lead in car.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Harvey Jr:
[B]What Pinky suggested would be my first guess.

It appears that Honda has abandoned the power antenna concept, and has chosen to install fixed or glass mounted (sitcker) anettas.

And being the money saving people they are, harness manufacturers have removed the power antenna lead pins from their adapter harnesses that plug in to the factory harness.

This hurts us S2000 owners because the S has an antenna booster that requires +12v to work!

Hince the bad reception.

BRRRR!!! :D

It's not that the aftermarket head units don't have them, it's the adapter harness that plugs in to the Honda harness.

The one I got from METRA had no power antenna lead, because I guess they assumed that Honda doesn't use power antennas any longer.

When Pinky made my IR repeater, he added the Power antenna pin to the METRA harness.

Paul

Very good Harvy Jr.!