I'm Trying to hook up my radio on my stereo, but I have 4 wire holes for only 2 wires. What gives?

April 15, 2004 2:15 PM

I'm Trying to hook up my radio on my stereo, but I have 4 wire holes for only 2 wires. What gives? (pretty illustration inside)

The little boxes are where the wires can go in. I am mainly interested in FM, specifically frequencies below 90MHz. I get a signal if I put the antenna's two wires in any combination of the bottom three slots. Is one combination better than the other and what what do the different combinations do for reception?

posted by jmd82 to technology (6 comments total)

Put one in the second from the top and the other in either the third from the top if it's a 75Ohm antenna, or the bottom if it's a 300Ohm antenna.
posted by majick at 2:27 PM on April 15, 2004

The second hole from the top is ground. So regardless of where else you plug in one lead has to go in there. The other lead goes into either the 75 ohm or 300 ohm slot depending on the impedance of your antenna. If the part of the antenna with wires sticking out has a cross section like this:


O-O

Then it's 300 ohms. If it looks like coaxial cable then it's usually 75 ohms.
posted by substrate at 2:56 PM on April 15, 2004

The antenna itself is square-looking, about 6 inches from end to end and about an inch think around. The two wired come out next to eachother, but from different side of the inch-thinkness. The wires look like one singular strand of speaker wire, but there is no marking on the antenna itelf giving away whether its a 75/300 ohm antenna.
posted by jmd82 at 3:09 PM on April 15, 2004

Probably 300 ohms. Or you could just try it both ways and see what works better. You're not going to destroy anything by plugging it in the wrong way.
posted by xil at 3:24 PM on April 15, 2004

Righto. Thank you all for your help!!!
posted by jmd82 at 4:02 PM on April 15, 2004

That antenna sounds more like an AM antenna than an FM antenna. FM antennae are usually wires with a T about a yard across at the end.

If you have a TV antenna, usually there is a lead for FM on those which will give far better reception than any wire loop antenna indoors. Sometimes you can also get this from TV cable.
posted by Goofyy at 2:08 AM on April 16, 2004