Poor FM reception

[IronCityGuy 10+ year member]

Not getting much feedback from the searches on this topic.

Installed a Pioneer Premier P8MP HU into my 2006 Altima SE and the reception went to crap. I ran the factory for a month and got way better reception when 40 miles away from town where I live.

When installing the new HU there was a harness containing three wires which were left un-attached to the new HU. Could one of these be some sort of Antenna Booster. I just figured these wires controled the steering wheel controls for volume, track select, and mode (3 preset channel group). But I also lost control of my selectable tripometer.

If there is no Antenna booster built in is there an aftermarket booster of some sort which will aid a rear window antenna?

Thanks in advance

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Aftermarket radios do tend to have worse receivers in them than factory ones - just not a very high priority for them to build a decent one.

I doubt the deck has a built-in antenna preamp - although you could add one if the stations aren't too close in. Adding a preamp doesn't always fix the problem, though, because the S/N ratio is the same - you've boosted the level of the incoming signal, but you've also boosted the noise with it.

 

[Rawb]

I remember the days when pioneer was known for having some of the best reception there was.. I have not really paid attention to this recently but my 04 alpine wasnt the best but i never had a complaint about any of the eclipses i have used... 4 in the last couple years...

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

Humm, thats interesting. My Excelon has great reception. It also has a attn control in the menu. If that pionner has something like that you could be able to activate it from your menu control to have the proper reception. Check and see if you can control that from your owners manual.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

If your Altima has an in-glass antenna, then it does have a factory antenna amplifier. It's activated by the "power antenna" wire in the harness. If you used a Nissan harness adapter, look for a blue wire and connect it to the blue/white wire in the Pioneer harness.

 

[IronCityGuy 10+ year member]

Got it fixed and the trip meter. TY