kjlee2112

Is there a higher quality antenna adapter you can use in an HHR? I have an '07 LS and I have a Pioneer DEH4700MP installed. I have the Chrysler antenna adapter(the standard one for HHR) and my AM reception is TERRIBLE. I'm in the Army and commute from Maryland to home and back every weekend and I hate not being able to listen to my AM radio when I want to. The stock radio AM was awesome. It seems the problem is in the adapter, because when I use a multimeter on it, I see the leads are reversed which is like.. phasing-out the antenna signal... which SUCKS. My grandfather and I cut the adapter in half to try to manually unreverse the leads, but it is so poorly made inside(which is probably part of the cause of sucky reception) that it makes it hard to see if you actually have it soldered right. There are literally like 5 individual pieces of brittle, brittle wire inside the adapter that you can bridge. It's a piece o crap.

Just wondering if any of you ran into this issue. I know a lot of people don't listen to AM anymore, but I am a die-hard 610 fan and if any of you are from Philly and are sports fans, you know what I'm talkin about.

Thanks for the help!

-Kevin

crazybob

Center pin should be antenna and outer should be shield/ground. I can't really see them being reversed, not that I don't believe you, but if that adapter was reversed internally, it would end up grounding out BOTH sides of the coax once you plugged it into the headunit which would effectively ruin ALL reception, not just AM. In fact, that sort of short would make you pick up no AM at all.

More plausible is your Pioneer receiver itself is the cause of a lack of reception on the AM band. I did car audio for around 15 years and can tell you unfortunately the manufacturers of aftermarket decks for the most part do not care about AM reception so they don't put much into that section of the radio. This info comes directly from the manufacturer.

Plug a different (standard) antenna into the headunit DIRECTLY and let it dangle on the floor board, not touching any metal. Drive around and I bet your reception does not change much, if any. This will eliminate the suspected adapter.

If you really want to try a different adapter, and I have seen bad ones so that's not a bad idea, try a Metra or Harada adapter and see if that makes any difference. At least it's an inexpensive thing to try vs. changing the radio.

I wish there was a better answer for this problem.

Oh, one other thing, are you sure you have a DEH-4700MP, or is it a DEH-P4700MP? The former is a Euro-spec tuner so that could also be an issue. Hopefully you have the DEH-P4700MP which has a North American tuner.

Lee3333

I had problems with my adapter, also.

I eliminated my outside antenna, and am using an internal window antenna. It mounts inside the windhield, and connects to 12 volt to improve the reception (I have a switch to control it). Reception is good without it being turned on, and great with it on. Best of all, it eliminates the need for the adapter-it plugs right into the Pioneer radio.

crazybob

How's the AM reception?

Lee3333

I dont usually listen to AM, but I did go through a few stations when I first installed the antenna and I dont remember any problems.

I will go down and check it later then get back to you.

kjlee2112

thanks for the replies guys!

the thing i didn't understand was that if we plugged the adapter into the back of the head unit... and not the car... and then touched the inside of the otherside of the adapter with a lead from the multimeter, the reception was perfect... is that because the multimeter has a battery in it?