Tony Read 2 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Hi all, My faithful Astra was put out to pasture at 200,000 miles and I went for a second hand Focus. Have worked through most of its problems now apart from its rubbish radio reception. Apart from a couple of stations I mostly hear static. I have cleaned up the aerial base connections but its still the same. It might still be a bad earth so I was thinking of running a wire to a convenient earth and found what might be an earth connected to a thin plastic conductive strip. See the orange strip in the photo below. It points towards the windscreen. Anyone know what this strip is for? My car has the heated front screen, but I believe the power connectors are at the bottom of the screen. The aerial wire is the blue one. Anyone had this radio problem before with their Focus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich too Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Can't help I'm afraid but if it's an fm radio I have a suggestion. Bin it and get a cheap dab radio with an aerial that sticks to the windscreen. I bought my wife a £100 Pioneer dab radio with Bluetooth (for telephone and streaming music) and it is fantastic, loads of stations with crystal clear sound. I'm a convert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Green Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 You can check the radio by unplugging the aerial and simply poking the exposed end of a couple of feet of wire into the centre contact of the aerial socket. It should be very lively with plenty of stations. Complete loss of signal is unlikely to be a bad earth connection, more likely it will be the centre conductor thats either broken somewhere between the aerial plug (prime suspect) and the whip, or grounded somewhere along its length, maybe by chaffing or untidy whiskers at either end. Some installations have an aerial adapter for mis-matched connectors - could be that. If you've not checked the radio itself, it could simply be that the aerial connector has fallen out. Compared to the ones we use in R/C, auto-connectors are really poor quality, often just bent tinplate. Posted by Rich2 on 06/03/2017 15:44:21: Can't help I'm afraid but if it's an fm radio I have a suggestion. Bin it and get a cheap dab radio with an aerial that sticks to the windscreen. I bought my wife a £100 Pioneer dab radio with Bluetooth (for telephone and streaming music) and it is fantastic, loads of stations with crystal clear sound. I'm a convert. Agreed, I'm a big DAB fan, specifically Planet Rock, swmbo bought me a Pure Highway when DAB was launched, its great. There are no rock stations on 88-108 FM (that I can find) but several on DAB. Brill. Cheers Phil Edited By Phil Green on 06/03/2017 16:09:27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GONZO Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Or if the aerial is mounted on the roof and is one of these short ones it could have an active RF amp in the aerial base. The power for the amp is feed via the co-ax. Could be a power separating filter problem or the amp has gone. Try the 'bay for a replacement and in the description it may even tell you if it's an active aerial. My Skoda Octavia estate has this sort of set up and it was built in 1999. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bran Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I had two Mk1 Focus, 2.0 Ghia bought new then a 1.8 TDCi new. The TDCi had this radio fault from new (after maybe a month it deteriorated fast). It was replaced three times (by a garage Ford agent I trust) at no expense before one worked long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Read 2 Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 Its a Mk2. My brother had a DAB radio fitted to his car but is somewhat under whelmed by it. two of his favourite stations have migrated to a different format, the coverage is not as good as FM and he reckons that the band width is getting squeezed, reducing quality, although how much quality you expect from a car radio I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich too Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 It probably depends on where you live, I live in Kent and the coverage is great - in fact coverage in the South East is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Lambert Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 My Ford (not a Focus) has a heated windscreen. The power is fed in to both sides at the lower edge but the earth return is at the top center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetenor Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Make sure the set is also earthed and all connected securely and clean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Read 2 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 Thanks Rich, just could not find anything on the WWW that said what that strip was for. I'll pull the set out and check the connections at the rear. It might just be a duff radio of course. My impression is that Ford radios in the mid to low range spec might not be up to much. The inbuilt clock is always running slow in mine, can't understand why Ford did not use RDS like my cheap as chips Astra radio had. Never had to adjust the time and the sound quality and reception was pretty good too. Reckon a trip to Halfords for a new radio might be on the cards if reception does not improve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Read 2 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 Sorry, meant to thank Brian and the rest of you guys as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 My last car had long wave reception and as we live in France we were able receive BBC radio 4. However there is no long wave available on the new car's radio. This seems common to all new car radios. I know that the BBC have stated that very special valves are used for long wave transmission and that there are only a couple of these valves left. 'When they're gone, they're gone'. So will be BBC long wave. Pity...... In the house we have, of course, internet radio so no problem there but it will be a shame to have to listen to Radio 5 (This is Radio5 ..This is Radio5... You are listening to Radio5... every every few minutes) and on a bad medium wave reception to boot. Ah! c'est la vie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Interesting point there Barry. Never thought about the possibility. Now at the risk of taking the thread off topic. Just googled this and came up with a Guardian article. Now since most modellers are like me of a certain age they can clear something up in my mind. The article says radio 4 was on long wave since 1934. Surely not was not the light program (radio2) there until at least the 60s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bott - Moderator Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 The Light Programme had a completely different transmission setup in that it relied on a single high power transmitter on 1500m (200kHz) Long Wave. From its location in the West Midlands the Droitwich transmitter covered a considerable amount of the British Isles but some lower power relay stations also operated on 247m (1214kHz.) See lots more info here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Yes the Light Programme was on 1500 as Chris says. Radio 4 is currently on 198 long wave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I remember it dropping to 198k in the seventies. It had been used as a frequency standard at 200k. Cannot remember the reason for the shift. Must have interfered with something. Will google it later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Gangster, Radio Times give the frequency as 198 LW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 Hi Barrie you would need a very old radio times to show 200khz. 1500 metres seems more appropriate though. Having said that I suppose it could be said that I fly on 8.5 metres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Some confusion here gangster. Radio 4 can be accessed on 198khz long wave. That was what I originally said. I said nothing about 200khz. Current BBC radio website and the current Radio Times and my own experience confirms 198khz as I stated. Wires crossed somewhere......... The whole thing is that today not many car radios have a long wave facility so it's impossible to listen to radio 4 in the car, which is a great pity. Edited By Barrie Dav 2 on 14/03/2017 08:40:14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangster Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Yes lots of confusion Barry. The point I made was that the long wave frequency for the BBC was 200 for years. It was a frequency standard. It did howevever change in the eighties to 199 Hence the old radio times comment. What I asked was the reason for the change. It could be something to do with international standard for 9khz channel spacing Edited By gangster on 14/03/2017 08:41:28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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