Good morning Everyone! happy Monday! Every time i try to use the cigar lighter port to charge a cell phone, My Radio reception is all but gone. Its a newer Electrosound radio, but it happened with the factory radio as well. The new radio has a provision to plug in an auxiliary device through a stereo cable. Using this feature, the sound is clear as a bell, but if this device (phone or ipod) is plugged into the cigar outlet to charge at the same time, i get a feedback hum on the speakers. Hopefuly theres a way to wire this sucker so as to avoid these pesky reception problems. Any knowledge on the subject would be appreciated. Thanks as always in advance guys!

 

The hum is called common mode interference. To mitigate this make sure all of your grounds are secure and that the radio and cigar lighter outlet are properly bonded to your car. At a minimum you should burnish the contact points (i.e. no paint) and use a star washer under any hardware that secures ground wires from the radio or in the dash.

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You may look into a better-quality phone charger or a filter for the radio.

 

Thanks guys. Ill check all the grounds and probably add 1 to the radio and the lighter socket. Also ill look into a better charger. Any suggestions on a decent 1? As for the filter, is this something that would be wired into the radio power wires?

 

I was wondering what Eric was mentioning?

You can get a Mix 31 RF choke and snap it around the power wire to the radio and the power wire to the cigar lighter socket. That's pretty high level troubleshooting though. I used them in my 96 Oldsmobile because I installed a ham radio. The only other need for those in a classic car would be an aftermarket EFI system that suffers from RFI.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-csb31-275-10

 

Ill start with the grounds, i've been meaning to get under the dash and check all the connections anyway, just for safety. I'm familiar with those snap on filters in the link. If all else fails, ill order 1 of them. I do wonder sometimes about the ground system as a whole. When idling with the flashers on, there is a slight, but notable drop in rpm in time with the blinks. The dome light will dim as well. I don't believe that is normal, but perhaps i am overthinking it. The car runs, and charges fine.

 

Do you have an old (or new) portable radio ? If so sit in the car with it and plug your charger in. If it affects the portable radio then the problem is more than likely not the power lines. It is more likely Radio Frequency Interference RFI That means the charger is emitting a radio signal that your radio is receiving through the antenna. If that is the case a better charger should hopefully work. Look at the charger packaging and make sure it meets FCC Part 15 specifications.

 

Thanks Bill! gonna run outside and check this out right now lol. stand by!

 

We need to know more about the charger. I would use something like this. $9 at Amazon, or they always have them at the cash register at most any gas station or convenience store. Then just get the appropriate USB cable to connect from this device to the port on your phone. I use this sort of adapter to connect my satellite radio as well.

Of course, what I'd really do is just charge my phone at home before I go out.

 

lol Its usualy the passenger that needs their phone charged but i should get better at charging at night too. Also bill, the portable radio did not pick up any interference from the charger when tested.

 

Does the car have a windshield antenna? GM issued page after page of tech bulletins on reducing RFI on windshield antennas, to point of recommending installation of a mast antenna.

I get it worse on AM, sometimes from the phone charger, but traffic lights tear up AM reception bad. FCC has regulations on that kind of thing, but I don't believe one of these little podunk towns around here pays any attention to them. And that town has too many traffic lights to begin with, and those are very poorly designed and controlled.

 

Are you still having RFI with your radio and charger?

 

If that is the case then I guess it is putting it in through the power wires

 

Oh that windshield antenna is the worst thing for reception since the microwave oven! Every time i drive under a traffic light, overhead wire, or in close quarters with tall buildings i loose it all, AM or FM. And living in South Jersey, avoiding these obstacles is literally impossible. I can barely get anything on AM in the best of situations, which is annoying to me, i enjoy my talk radio. There's also a sweet AM oldies station in Vineland NJ thats usually very strong but is allusive to my radio dial. I had thought about replacing it with a mast, but i dont wanna drill into my dent free fender I was thinking about dual bumper antennas (1 for radio and 1 for my CB) What have you guys done in the antenna department? Retro sound, the company that built my aftermarket radio, lists an antenna booster. it seems to go inline before the windshield connector and is 12v powered. has anyone tried going this route? It would keep me looking factory, but the price is a bit high just to listen to the radio. of course a new set of antennas is probably more lol Just seeing what everyone else has tried. Hope everyone had a good day!

 

Yea Bill, i guess it must be, which does kinda stink but these are the things that make driving a nearly 50 year old car every day fun to me! I don't mind chasing electrical ghosts, in fact, im somewhat glad every time this car makes me fix something, because now i know ive checked that area, corrected any issues and can leave it alone confidently until its next service period. You know theres nothing worse then checking on something wrong only to find out its failed because its been boogered up by a previous owner. I like to be as thorough as i can. It gives me peace of mind!

 

This reminded me of a communications class in college where the professor went off on a rant about using a horizontal dipole antenna for AM and FM reception.

 

Not sure if that has anything to do with it. Have you tried the same charger in a different car ? I am almost betting it is the problem, not the car.

By the way I should have asked earlier . . . . is the noise there on both AM and FM ?

 

Seems like a lot to go through when you could just try different chargers. A friend of a friend had a similar problem with a USB charge port doo dad in his Mustang that was messing with the ignition. Yanked it out= problem solved.
Or, you could pull a separate lead off the battery to its own socket. Remember: the battery is the filter for the electrical system. Speaking of which..... how old is that?

 

You mentioned you have a CB radio installed. Is the antenna permanently mounted to your bumper? The best place for an antenna on a vehicle is in the middle of the roof. That being said, I use a Diamond antenna mount for my ham radio antennas.

https://www.diamondantenna.net/

 

Hey guys, the battery is 3 years old. I have tried several different chargers and they all do the same thing. I think I just need to go over all my grounds. The interference is am and fm.

 

Also I haven't installed the CB yet, so the options are totaly open for antenna mounting. I just didn't want to drill any holes in the car if possible. I will be looking into diamond tho.

 

I'd put a new battery in it.

 

Here's another suggestion that will likely go over like a lead balloon. Ditch all this AM and FM stuff and all the attendant interference noise and signal loss and drilling into dent-free fenders and chasing bad grounds and get a satellite radio. I have had a satellite radio in at least one of my cars for over 20 years, and I've had it in all of them, including the collector cars, for at least the last ten. It's been so long since I've tuned into an AM or FM station in my cars that I'm not sure I know how.

No more interference. The service goes with you EVERYWHERE, dozens of channels with every music genre you can think of plus another dozen or so you've never heard of, plus talk, sports, etc. etc etc. The sound quality cannot be beat. And did I say that it goes with you EVERYWHERE, which is a godsend when you're traveling, especially in sparsely populated areas where the only station you can get, if you can get any at all, is country & western?

Here is a photo of my two Toronados side by side, and each has a satellite radio antenna on it. They're in the same place on each car. Can you spot them?

 

The little black buttons behind the mast antennas? If so that is small. I have used, and enjoyed the benefits of satellite radio before, but it was a while ago. How much does that service cost now? Also can it get local stations too?

 

Correct!

The antenna sticks to the car with a strong magnet, and it's barely larger than a flash drive.





You have to buy a radio, of course, but after that, the cheapest plan is about $14 per month. The cost of a pizza.

As far as local stations, no. They presume you can get those on your car's regular radio.

You can see the full channel line-up here.

https://www.siriusxm.com/channels

 

Thanks for the info. That's still pretty cheap. Its definitely a consideration. Either way I'm going to check all the grounds. I figure I will be good insurance for sure. And it should fix some other small issues I've been having as well

 

Of course. But there aren't dozens of them. Make sure the battery negative terminal-to-chassis connection is solid, make the sure the engine-to-body ground strap is good, and make sure the radio itself is well grounded. That's it. Should take a matter or minutes.

 

Ok cool, sounds like it'll be very simple. Thanks

 

The wife and I bought portable XM radios in the very early 2000s and are still using them.
Also, when XM was going broke (before the merger with Sirius) they offered LIFETIME subscriptions for cheap, and we each got one.

 

Its the charger i have one that messes with my 2017 f150 and 2010 hhr radio unplug it and radio receives fine or with different charger

 

My two favorite subjects in one, mobile phones and stereos. The "noise" can either be a cheap adapter, or the phone itself. Sit in your car in a very quiet place and plug the adapter in. If you hear the noise come and go, it is most likely the adapter. Car adapters only need a small resister to drop the voltage from 12V (13.5 if the car is running) down to 7V to charge the phone but the cheap ones don't use noise suppression circuitry. If your vehicle has charging system issues, they will amplify those issues and transmit them. If no noise, plug in the phone. It can take a few seconds before the phone charging system kicks in. The charging circuit in the phones can emit a bit of RF that will be picked up by the stereo. The noise from a phone will usually range up and down in frequency as it pulses while charging. This usually gets worse as the phone gets older and the battery breaks down and becomes harder to charge. If you have noise with the car not running, chances are good it's the phone.