# Can I use the antenna input on my car radio for an iPod?



## icecube (Jan 15, 2007)

Heylo,

Just wondering if there's a way to unplug the antenna link to my radio and put like an external audio hookup and it'd work fine?

Well, assuming the antenna feed is used to AM/FM, which is analog, not digital...then I'd probably need a fancy converter. 

Just would be nice to have a switch setup where I can switch back and forth from the main antenna to the aux. setup. No, my radio doesn't have an auxilary input.


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## Handlobraesing (Jan 15, 2007)

There are three types of people:
1. Buy an Aux adapter or the head unit has a 3.5mm aux jack.

2. RF modulator. You set the modulator to output a frequency as a localized radio station and you tune into that station from your car. 

3. Idiot. The kind who drives with headphones on!


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## James S (Jan 15, 2007)

There are modulators you can get that go inline with the antenna to your radio. They have vastly superior sound quality than the little transmitter boxes that you can get. They do require that you run power to them and pull the radio to get to the antenna.

When it's on it blocks the regular FM antenna so only your transmitted station is on the air, getting rid of the biggest problem with those external ones (besides the lousy sound quality).

I have one of these:

http://www.cartoys.com/Default.cfm/p/Rf_Modulator_FMM100a/

and I love it. I've had it for years. I moved it from my last car to my new one and it continues to work great. Just flip the switch I left hanging under the dash and the radio has only one station, my iPod.

None of the cars I've owned have had a aux in, or even an aux in adaptor available for them at any price, so I've had to go with this and it does work just fine for any audio source. I use it for my iPod usually, but I've also used it with a portable mp3 cd player and also the portable DVD player.


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## Handlobraesing (Jan 15, 2007)

It's shame factory stereo almost never come with a front panel 3.5mm input. In my old car, I had perhaps the cheapest stereo Aiwa offered, at $125 or so and even that thing had 3.5mm input.


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## bobisculous (Jan 15, 2007)

Wow, for $50 James, thats pretty damn cool.

I bet the quality is outstanding compared to the FM Transmitters.


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## icecube (Jan 15, 2007)

Thanks James, I'll possibly look into that setup.

Because the radio antenna on my E30 automatically recieves power even when the CD is on, I'm thinking I could have two toggle switches, under the front HVAC setup—one to turn the power antenna on and off, and one to switch from the auxilary input. Or I could simply use a 3 position slider switch—with aux on, off, and antenna. That way nothing interferes when I simply want to play a CD. 

Does the input to the radio deck get analog or digital format? I'll guess analogue. BTW I tried a cheap POS FM transmitter—China born—and it recieved dismal quality only when the transmitter was on the rear speaker deck behind the rear seats. Not very practical.


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## zigziggityzoo (Jan 15, 2007)

I advocate putting a new deck in your car. Factory stock decks are usually dismal at best, unless you paid for the upgrade at the dealer.

I'm very happy with www.crutchfield.com . These are the guys that put out catalogs that you may have seen. They're in the top 5 online retailers for car/home audio/video, and their prices are usually very competitive. Watch for their sales. I got a new Panasonic deck with a dot-matrix display for about $125, and it came with everything I needed to install it in my car, which took me about 20 minutes start to finish.

Keep in mind that once you get a new deck, you might want new speakers, etc. It's like another one of those addictions...first it's flashlights, then it's lasers, then gadgets, then audiophilia creeps up on you!


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## tiktok 22 (Jan 16, 2007)

Just put a JVC deck in my wifes car with the JVC Ipod adapter. Using the deck to control the Ipod is definitely the way to go.


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