so i think i found why my radio reception sucks..
 

i was pulling the glove box to run some wires and also had the airbag cover off.
and i seen the antenna wire and looked over a little more.. corrosion.. good job ford.
any idea how i should clean this? or should i replace it?

heres some crappy pics from my phone.

i know i know. the eq sucks.
im getting a kenwood just like it soon.

Mine corroded too, there is a guy right now installing a new one because his corroded as well, check out that thread..

well i tryed to clean it up, didnt help.

so. i ghetto rigged it with some red but connectors for now. :icon16:

its a little better for some stations but not others.. guess i will have to get a new base and wires.

they make 8' whips at radio shack..you might get better with that (:

when I had my mustang I didnt want the antenna on the car. I went to frys (not sure if that is a national chain) and purchased a little electronic\amplified antenna. I connected it to the head unit like a regular antenna and ran it back to the rear window and it worked great only cost $20 bucks and cleaned up the profile of my car.

that would cause it.....

I still wanna try using a XM antena for FM

You silly goose - that won't work! Each different radio signal uses a different sine wave frequency!!! (not to mention connectors!)

Common frequency bands include the following:

• AM radio - 535 kilohertz to 1.7 megahertz
• Short wave radio - bands from 5.9 megahertz to 26.1 megahertz
• Citizens band (CB) radio - 26.96 megahertz to 27.41 megahertz
• Television stations - 54 to 88 megahertz for channels 2 through 6
• FM radio - 88 megahertz to 108 megahertz
• Television stations - 174 to 220 megahertz for channels 7 through 13
• Satellite Radio - 2.3 GHz - 2.4GHz

Satellite Radio is transmitted in the S-Band - 2.3 GHz
This band is allocated only for DARS (Digital Audio Radio Service) only.

FM radio is transmitted in the 88 to 108 megahertz range and nothing else. Since a Satellite radio antenna is tuned to receive 2.3GHz signals, it surely won't dip down to 88 megahertz!

Uh, you do know its a shielded coaxial cable, right? I'd really love to see pictures of an antenna cable "repaired" with butt connectors, because anything you could do with butt connectors would make it worse than any amount of corrosion on the jack.

Good luck with that. :eek13:

Well, my cable was severely corroded to - to the point where the tip of the connector that connects to the HU broke off. Bought a new cable and ran that yesterday. Best radio reception I've ever had in my truck :)

hrm well i put shrinkwrap around it and 3M electrical tape. :icon16:
im getting a new wire soon. but i have to get a new antenna base because its all nasty.