I just bought my Accord a few weeks ago. It had the factory radio in it and it had bad FM reception. I replaced the factory radio with my Kenwood deck from my old car and it too has poor FM reception. I put a multimeter on the antenna plug and it does not display a value for impedance or resistance. Any ideas on what the problem could be or what else I can do to diagnose the issue?

Thanks!

The antenna is buried in the rear window, there has to be a connectionf from the wire grid pattern to a normal cable near the base of the rear window that goes all the way to the console where the radio is.

I would suggest you find this connector at the base of the rear window to see if it had come loose, and disconnect it and short it with a piece of wire, and then measure at the connector that plugs into the radio to see if there is continuity (there should be 0 ohm or a direct short as you shorted it at the other end), if not then you have a damaged interconnect cable.

You are correct in that it is in the rear window, but the ohm reading will be higher than 0. By design the coax cable has a specific ohm rating (most RG6 cables are 56 or 75 ohms, but there are other impedences) Either way, you should be getting a steady reading of something from one end to the other.

Contriver, where did you get the antenna connection for you kenwood? Did you take the antenna out of the back of the factory radio? If so, follow the wire down a little, a few inches down the line there is another connection (can be visible after just removing the factory storage compartment, it is on the right side of the cavity) Sometimes the antenna connection could have been pulled out of there if someone was working in the area, and accidentally tugged on it. I would try that first before tearing apart the rear end of the car.

You are correct in that it is in the rear window, but the ohm reading will be higher than 0. By design the coax cable has a specific ohm rating (most RG6 cables are 56 or 75 ohms, but there are other impedences) Either way, you should be getting a steady reading of something from one end to the other.



As you stated it's the impedence, which is not the same as resistance, I don't think the "Ohm" rating of impedence for cables is measureable with a multimeter, you may get something greater than 0 ohm but that's likely through minor imperfection of the electrical contact between the probes of the multimeter and the connectors of the cable.

Sorry about the delayed response.

Is this where the antenna wire connects into?

http://i29.tinypic.com/ka37ee.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/vfzcbl.jpg





You are correct in that it is in the rear window, but the ohm reading will be higher than 0. By design the coax cable has a specific ohm rating (most RG6 cables are 56 or 75 ohms, but there are other impedences) Either way, you should be getting a steady reading of something from one end to the other.

Contriver, where did you get the antenna connection for you kenwood? Did you take the antenna out of the back of the factory radio? If so, follow the wire down a little, a few inches down the line there is another connection (can be visible after just removing the factory storage compartment, it is on the right side of the cavity) Sometimes the antenna connection could have been pulled out of there if someone was working in the area, and accidentally tugged on it. I would try that first before tearing apart the rear end of the car.

What do you guys think? Is the connection shown in the picture I posted the cable that is said to sometimes become seperated? I seems to be connected to me. It is so tight I'm not even able to pull it apart. If thats it, any suggestions on where to go from here?

If I am not wrong, the signal from the rear window aerial needs to be amplified, when the radio is on.
The amplifier should be located close to the rear window and the brown connector (visible on your picture next to the antenna connector) should be the one that brings power to the amplifier.

Check first if 12V arrives at the brown connector when radio is on, and 0V when radio is off.

Tinted rear window can also cause reception issues!