[mm]

The car radio won't get AM unless one touches the antenna!

An internet acquaintance who still doesn't understand Usenet bought a
new radio for his Chrysler LeBaron, but AM reception was verrrrry low
volume, so as to be unusable. (FM is fine.)

He took it back to BestBuy and in the process of working on it, the
tech put his hand on the antenna and the volume went to normal and
reception was good.

He and the tech have concluded that he needs a new antenna, in place
of the one that has been there since the car was built, between 1990
and '95.

What are the odds this is true?

Or is the new radio likely defective?


Before 1965, I think it was, car radios had to have their antenna
"trimmed" to get good reception, by means of an antenna trimming
variable capacitor. In the Olds, there was an enlargement of the hole
under the on/off knob that gave access to a screw that adjusted the
trim. If touching the antenna increased radio volume, that meant the
antenna needed trimmming.

This is all I know about the electronics involved, but that may be
more than anyone else on the Chrysler yahoo list.

Is there a circuit that does this automatically today, that could be
broken in this new radio? Or has the need for trimming somehow been
eliminated? Or could the antenna be so bad that the radio can't
handle it.


Thanks for any help you can give him.