Thank you Tony.



The reason I am asking this is precisely this:

Some time ago, I had the same problems with the tuner. I plugged in another car stereo and it was receiving properly. We tested it repeatedly. Also, we connected another antenna to the empeg tuner module, and it would get no/very poor signal, just like with car antenna. So we ruled out the possibility that the car antenna and car antenna amplifier could be malfunctioning.

As you may remember, my tuner had rust in it. Therefore, I tested a PCATS tuner, which had not a good reception, but it was at least usable, even though not even nearly as good as my tuner before the problems started. This always left me with the doubt that it was not the tuner modules, but something else not working properly.

Meanwhile, I had my rusty tuner module repeired. In fact, a friend who works in a PCB factory cleaned it completely, resoldered what needed to be resoldered, tested it completely, and returned to me saying that unless some component was broken inside, it should work. The reception was in fact decent, but, still, not as good as it used to be. Still I was suspecting something else was going wrong, even thoug the rust may have been a contributing factor.

I then installed a phone system, and in doing so I opened my dash again. After putting everything back (notice that the stereo system had not been altered in any way), the radio singal tuned to EXCELLENT, loud and strong, as it used to be before any problem occurred. Absolutely perfect. The signal strength bar would perfectly reflect this new signal quality.
This made me think that by opening and closing the dash we must have moved some foulty wire, maybe. Since I doubt it is the car antenna or the car amplifier, and at this point I am still uncertain it is the radio module itslef, I am now hoping that there is some wiring or other connection problem between the tuner and the empeg.

My car stereo installer is not very optimis, since he is assuming that the signal strenght bar behaves as if there is a fluctuation in the signal quality at the tuner level, assuming that if the connection between the empeg and the tuner is not good, I should either get full strength or no strength at all. However, these are just assumpotion since none of us knows precisely of the empeg software works in measuring signal strength.

I know there are chances that my former-rusty tuner is not completely fixed, but I can't even imagine going through another tuner purchase at such high prices, not knowing how good it could turn out to be. So I'd like to first see if there's anything else that could be causing this. If a lose whire between the empeg and the tuner can cause the signal quality to change, of if ti couls be a connection in the empeg player that needs to be resoldered, then I can still hope I don't have to purchase another tuner...