in glass antenna amplifier on '07 sonata? no am reception

I've installed a Pioneer CD receiver in my '07 Hyundai Sonata and it
works great, but now I have very poor to no AM reception, and I live in
the SF Bay Area with plenty of powerful stations around.

I'm guessing the in-glass antenna has some sort of amplifier, but I
don't see a way to hook it up using the aftermarket harness. Pin 24,
with a green/black wire is on the factory harness side, but is unused
on the aftermarket harness. Could this be it? If so, which wire does it
go to?

There is no blue wire, and the only unused wires are a blue/white with
a tag that says remote system control, which I assume is for the
steering wheel control, and a yellow/black with a tag that says mute on
it. I guess that also goes to the steering wheel control, which I'll be
hooking up in the near future when I get the interface.

Is this the way to regain AM reception? If so, how?

 

Just out of curiosity, why would you change the factory stereo out? I find
mine to be excellent except the AM reception is poor. It is ok but just
barely.

 

I can't speak for the OP below, but for me it was simply to get my
external Sirius tuner off the windshield, and to improve the Sirius
sound quality. The FM transmitter quality is horrible compared to the
CD quality I can hear now on most channels.

I got the added benefit of being able to play CD's I burn with WMA
files. The 2007 radio may have that capability already, but the 2006
OEM radio I had did not.

The OEM radio sound quality was excellent and equal to my replacement.

Eric

 

The wiring harness has nothing to do with your antenna connections. I
looked at the complete pin out on the Hyundai HMASERVICE website and the
coaxial connection is the only connection that feeds to the antenna. If
there is an external antenna amplifier, it is powered from a totally
different source than from the radio.

 

My 06 LX with the 6 cd changer will play wma's. It is not listed in the
manual but I have 6 cd's full of wma's and they all play.

 

No go on my '06 without the changer or subwoofer. Believe me, I tried.
The HMA web site confirms that the model that came with my car won't do it.

Now, the '07 Entourage we purchased plays WMA's even though the manual
makes no mention of it. That vehicle has an Infinity sound system.

Eric

 

I changed the factory radio out for a new head unit to get much better
sound. Also I wanted to take advantage of the Pioneer iPod interface
that came free with the unit, which lets me control the iPod with the
CD receiver's controls.

BTW, the AM reception problem is solved. The installation instructions
didn't say anything about it, but there was an unused green/black wire
in pin 24 of the harness that is the power from the antenna amplifier.
The blue/white wire from the new unit hooks up to it and now I've got
plenty good AM reception.

 

the after market receiver is usually grounded to
the car chassis. when you hook it to the vehicle
antenna this provides a second ground, creating
what we refer to as a "ground loop".
disconnecting the second ground from the
vehicle harness (leaving only the chassis ground)
usually solves the AM reception problems.
Believe it or not this method usually works and
has cured AM reception problems on many
different vehicles.
Another bizarre AM reception cure is to install
a long coil of wire between the antenna and the
radio receiver. Yes the wire can be rolled up
on a spool and should be about 200 feet or more long.
this is insulated wire and could be coax (shielded).
I prefer coax because there will be less noise in the
AM signal.
connect the coax shield to chassis ground at the antenna
end, but not at the receiver end. The reason this works is
that AM waves are long wave, and using a short antenna
or antenna lead stops the waves from propagation.
You can use a very small gauge coax wire, does not
need to be a giant roll of wire. But the longer the wire,
the better your AM reception will become.
This works on home receivers too.
--advice from AM radio engineer

I know you are scratching your head at this, but try it
you could be amazed.