re: Antenna dilemma

[malcolm@wedoit.ENET.dec.com]

Peter,

I had the same problem on my 90 Coupe Quattro last summer after 
(or so I thought) an air conditioner repair. I thought my Fuba mast had
gotten crunched when the car was on the lift. I would have weak,weak fm
and no am reception at all. Then , once in a while, after an hour or so
the reception would improve. Drove me bughouse. :^) 

I ended up finding it by accident and not realizing it until later.
Things to check are power to the amp and the antenna connection itself.
My problem was the teflon insulation was cracked at the crimp by the antenna
on the car end of the cable. There is a connector  in the roof that the
Fuba attaches to via a short cable from its amp. The Antenna end only has
about a foot to two feet of cable. My break is/was under the crimp on the 
car side of the antenna wire going to the radio. There were only one or
two strands from the shield hitting the center cond, but that was enough.

I tried to repair the wire using the same cable end. I sorta trashed it.
Its tiewrapped/smushed together until I can get Ian to help me ;^)  :^)
some warm day to put in the new cable. But my repair has been working
perfectly since August.

The circuit looks like:

  (fuba)----//-------------------------------------------------------(radio)
   Ant        ^---Cracked under crimp       ^--wire thru roof.


This connection is accessable (on the coupe) thru the rear roof light above
the rear seat. Of course I didn't find this out till after I had removed all
the rear trim........

Some quick checks:

1) Pull radio, leave radio power OFF
2) Use ohm meter, Ohm out from antenna wire center conductor to shield.
   ( Mine read shorted)

3) Use Volt meter and go between same 2 points (center conductor to shield).
   When mine was shorted, turning the radio on (and supplying 12V to amp)
   would give me about 300 millivolts. I didn't remeasure it after I removed
   the short.

Hope this helps.

Scott Malcolm 
90 CQ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter Henriksen <peterhe@microsoft.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 12:46:23 -0800
Subject: RE: Antenna dilemma

Don't expect any improval in reception (unless you're getting next to
nothing now) with a FUBA. Mine is not doing well for at all: FM is
passable, but still weak compared to our Acura, and AM is - quite
literally - non-existing.
- - peter
  peterhe@microsoft.com - http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1001
  91 200qw
  94 acura legend gs
  issaquah, wa, usa