Tacoma whip mod. Bad reception

[Hoover7]

Hey everyone! My power antenna snapped a while ago and I replaced it with a non OEM mast. I put it in and had terrible reception. I only got one station but it was on and off. So I bought an OEM Tacoma whip and did the "Tacoma whip mod". I finished it all up and tested it. It is just barely better than it was before. I still only get one station and it's still not good. Not sure if you guys have any ideas on how to better the reception. I do have an aftermarket stereo but I had one when I still hd the original antenna and it worked just fine. Thanks guys!

 

[99problems]

Hey everyone! My power antenna snapped a while ago and I replaced it with a non OEM mast. I put it in and had terrible reception. I only got one station but it was on and off. So I bought an OEM Tacoma whip and did the "Tacoma whip mod". I finished it all up and tested it. It is just barely better than it was before. I still only get one station and it's still not good. Not sure if you guys have any ideas on how to better the reception. I do have an aftermarket stereo but I had one when I still hd the original antenna and it worked just fine. Thanks guys!

Forgive me if this seems obvious (but sometimes the obvious is a good place to start)... did you plug the new antenna into your headunit?

 

[Wikano]

My tacoma whip works better than stock. I did hear that the black whip (as compared to the metal one) has some extra wire wrapping it to improve the am reception. Perhaps double check to see that everything is connected properly.

 

[Hoover7]

Forgive me if this seems obvious (but sometimes the obvious is a good place to start)... did you plug the new antenna into your headunit?

Yeah I checked that already lol. I really don't know what is wrong. I figured since it is OEM it would be just fine.

 

[Hoover7]

My tacoma whip works better than stock. I did hear that the black whip (as compared to the metal one) has some extra wire wrapping it to improve the am reception. Perhaps double check to see that everything is connected properly.

Yeah I have the black one and it does have that wire. I checked the connections and everything seems to be good

 

[frodiesel]

If the fender is kinda isolated from the ground plane then you might have issues. My reception goes down when i turn on the headlights (hid retrofit) bc i did not ground it directly to the frame as i should have.

I bet your reception improves if you add a ground to the headunit, or the base of the antenna behind the firewall.

Maybe google how does a ground plane work. I only have a vague idea of how it works from experience where i had to add a plate of metal under the fiberglass roof of a firetruck when installing the vhf antenna. Otherwise it would not work, or output power, and would barely recieve a signal from 5 ft away. [MENTION=89054]Hoover7[/MENTION]