Antenna Booster for 2002 Golf

But I do like the adapter from the link above. Wonder how good it works?

"Tom's VR6" > wrote in message
...
> In rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled, Woodchuck wrote:
>
>>I will keep this short, I know of NO aftermarket radios that work on AM
>>with
>>the factory radio!
>
> That's to the point!
>

The problem is probably the antenna base is not properly grounding to the
roof metal, a bit of rust etc. This ground is very important for the
antena amplifier to function. Dc power is injected at the antena jack
inside the OEM radio. If you want an aftermarket radio to work, an inline
DC injector device is needed. Basically a coil capacitor combination. coil
keeps the electical system form shorting the RF signal to ground, Capacitor
passes the RF signal to the radio antenna input but keeps the DC form
getting into radio and smoking components. DC lead of of inline device is
normally connected to the power antena lead of radio or the amp turn on
lead if no power antena lead.
These inline RF amps are pretty reliable but they need good power and bad
ground is normally the problem. However it means removing the head liner
to access, unscrew the base and file the metal chassis to get at good
clean metal.
A normal antenna with no RF amp grounding is not critical to function.

Password for radio should be good as long as radio is in same car as
factory. I think the radio talks to the alarm system or cpu to know which
car it is in.
if different car a new password will need to be programed using key
sequences.
I think VW got tired of all the BS when customers disconnected battery or
had a flat battery.

In rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled, fixit1 wrote:

>The problem is probably the antenna base is not properly grounding to the
>roof metal, a bit of rust etc. This ground is very important for the
>antena amplifier to function. Dc power is injected at the antena jack
>inside the OEM radio. If you want an aftermarket radio to work, an inline
>DC injector device is needed. Basically a coil capacitor combination. coil
>keeps the electical system form shorting the RF signal to ground, Capacitor
>passes the RF signal to the radio antenna input but keeps the DC form
>getting into radio and smoking components. DC lead of of inline device is
>normally connected to the power antena lead of radio or the amp turn on
>lead if no power antena lead.
>These inline RF amps are pretty reliable but they need good power and bad
>ground is normally the problem. However it means removing the head liner
>to access, unscrew the base and file the metal chassis to get at good
>clean metal.
>A normal antenna with no RF amp grounding is not critical to function.

I had variable AM reception, and flexing the base would restore good
reception for a only while. I tightened the big nut under the
headliner about 1/4 turn using a ViceGrip. That fixed it.