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I have an 03 civic, when I had the factory radio in it, the reception was great, never got any static. Couple months ago I installed an Alpine CDA-9857 head unit. My reception is now terrible. I get static on both AM and FM channels, I have checked all my connections and everything seems tight.

This is a really annoying problem. Anyone have any suggestions? Is there an antenna booster out there or a different antenna I can install. I have read threads about this and how some people say window tinting hurts their reception, and I'm still lost.

Any help or ideas would be great.

Thanks

 
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Factory radios are frequency limited. They don't play the full range, 20-20K. Your Alpine is a lot more sensitive. You just weren't hearing the static, because the factory radio couldn't play it. Why listen to the radio... CD's, MP3?

 
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I do listen to my iPod most of the time, but sometimes I need a change or listen to the ball game when it's on.

 
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I'd check to make sure the antenna plug is in the hole good in the back of the headunit.





Wagner

 
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Antenna plug is a good start, really push on that thing and get it really tight in there. Also make sure you don't have a model civic (some coupes I think) with a power antenna that retracts inside one of the door pillars. the standard harness from alpine / crutchfield doesn't specify which lead goes toward the power antenna wire, and you may have to splice in. I think it is the green / yellow wire, but don't quote me on that because my CDA-9886 worked out of the box

Also, grounding problems will cause this kind of crap. make sure you soldered and didn't use crimps or whatnot. Solder is for pros - crimps are for amateurs. Before you button up your center console again, be sure you've got the reception you want. it is possible that when you are putting everything back together for the final build that the antenna lead is getting pulled out. Might want to try hands coming up from the bottom 12v socket part of the center console up to make sure the back of the radio isn't messed up.

 
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you MUST have the power antenna wire connected otherwise the radio will play like crap. yes i know we dont have power antenna but you still need it hooked up. i have an alpine 9847 and i can tell you right now the radio sounds just like a CD. theres no comparison to the stock deck.

 
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Odd. I don't recall hooking up my power antenna wire, but I do get good reception. I have an 03 sedan, and from my understanding, some coupes do have an actual power antenna that does retract, but it is entirely inside one of the pillars. I will check the factory manual.

 
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technically the "antenna" is the middle vertical strip in the rear window, and i heard rumors of there being some type of booster hidden in the car that wont work if the wire is disconnected. my reception was terrible with just the antenna adapter plugged in. ive also heard that the hybrid civics have a better setup and even clearer radio reception due to some kind of signal amplifier hidden in the panel somewhere.

 
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Yea, the coupes that have the antenna thats in the back window do need require you to hook up the power wire for the antenna as they do have a booster for it. As others have said make sure the antenna is in the connection firmly. Had that prob when i installed my cd3200. Went to try out the radio only to get nothing, turned out when pushing the dash back in, it pulled out the plug. Woops?

 
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What color is this wire? My reception sucks on my Alpine and Ive paid no attention to it.

 
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somethings wrong for sure, alpine has prolly the best reception of any deck. i did this a long time ago but i think its blue.white wire.

 
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I think gearbox may be right on the blue / white wire, and it looks like the coupes definitely do have a power antenna wire you need to tap for the reception to come in correctly. I'm still too lazy to check the factory manual on this one...

Good luck. I had the same problem with the antenna coming out of the receiver lead, and I had to contort my hand up the back of the panel from the bottom where the cig lighter was to ensure that the antenna lead didn't get disconnected. I highly recommend doing a soft install with everything fitted and electrically connected but not buttoned up or anything BEFORE putting panels and the like back on.

 
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it takes me a good 2 minutes to pop that radio out

n thanks gear for your help as always! id rep you if i could...