No radio

[fliprio]

Hi all, wired in the new kenwood head unit today, all works nicly apart from the radio, it doesnt pick up any channels at all.

The VW harness adaptor I used was this;

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/con-ct20vw02-ct20vw02-harness-adapter-vw-passatgolftouran.html

it only has a single airel port, in the car there is 2, a beige one and a white one, I connected the white one.  Should I be getting some radio signal or is this never going to work without a dual adaptor?  also, is it worth pullin the unit out to try the beige connector?

thanks in advance

[fliprio]

anyone had experience with this?

[Apollo]

Swap the aerial leads see what happens.......

[fliprio]

I swapped them and it made a very small amount of difference, I could get radio 2 for about 3 minutes and that was it.  I live in a poor radio reception area, but standard radio worked perfectly.

I had though that the aerial was AM/FM, so all FM should work if you get the right connector?

[fliprio]

I have also tried it in a few areas today, it doesnt pick up any FM or AM channels at all

The small metal tube attached to the radio adaptor seems to be getting warm, so it must be getting power from the head unit

Any ideas anyone?  I thought I would have gotten some channels even though only one aerial connection is plugged in.

[fliprio]

has anyone else got no signal at all with a single Fakra connector?

[Gazza747]

I had the same issue as you. My VW system is twin Fakra with diversity. The later GTI models had a roof aerial and an aerial in the rear screen. There are two connections into the radio hence the 'twin' bit and fakra is a name for the type of plug/socket design. Diversity is the clever VW bit, I think originally a box under the seat and now in the radio itself.

The Diversity feature decides which is the best aerial to use and then uses that one.

The basic aerial adaptor does not 'copy' the diversity feature very well if at all so you may get very poor radio reception. I went for a more expensive device from celsus ice which is much better but IMO will never replicate the diversity function as well as the one made by VW.

[fliprio]

Thanks for the info, that's really useful to know. So you get a reasonable radio signal with the census audio connector?   I might order one, its only £20 and will save the faf of trying to change the aerial.  I don't know why these audio companoies sell the single fakra for a 06 golf when the clearly don't work at all.

[Gazza747]

I get excellent FM reception but very poor AM reception. You still need to try swapping the connectors over but I found the best reception was when only the white was connected.

[fliprio]

Strange that you still need to disconect one of the connectors, you would have thought the celsus diversity adaptor was meant to be used with both plugs, so with only one connection, is it still trying to replicate the vw diversity system?

[Gazza747]

I'm not sure exactly I just know after trying all of the options connections wise just one connection gave me perfect FM. I have done loads of research on the 'net and one person got perfect AM but this may have been in the states. I was quite tempted to ask celsus ice and even pop down there as they are based in Poole, Dorset. They have a website if you want to read there blurb but it doesn't tell you much

[Gazza747]

I just thought I have one of these AAN2203 spare as I bought two, you can have it for £10 if you want.

[fliprio]

whats the make of the spare lead, thanks

[Gazza747]

It is made by Celsus Ice, AAN2203 is the celsus ice unique manufacturers number.

[fliprio]

It seems despite a new adaptor (thanks for sending GAZZA747 ) I still dont have any radio, stuck a multimeter on the powered aerial lead coming off the head unit and its only putting out 1.3v, I would have thought this should be a 12v feed to the aerial?