High pitched whine in background of Sirius radio
When I connect my Stratus 5 through the auxiliary jack in my car I hear a high pitched whine in the background that gets worse when I accelerate. It sounds like someone is holding a dentist drill next to my ear. My auxiliary jack works fine with my Ipod. Has anyone heard of this problem and knows how to fix it.
Audio Players & Recorders - Sirius - Sportster 4 SP4-TK1 Satellite Radio Receiver with Car Kit
Answers & Comments
Yes, the whine could be coming from the ignition system in the car. Does it go away when you turn off the engine? Does it go to a higher pitch when the engine rpms increase?
If so, the noise is ignition based and you must obtain some ignition filters for your car. Car parts places can usually supply you with such devices. Crutchfield.com also carries them.
If the whine is constant pitch and just remains the same does it go up and down with the volume setings? Or does it remain constant always? If it is constant it is rfi getting into the power amp. If it goes up and down with volume it is coming from in front of the volume control on the stereo set.
And, you might check with the supplier/manufacturer of the sat unit; they may have a filter accessory for it.
Ensure that power cables do not run next to RCA signal cables. If the cables are too close, engine noise, which may sound like a high-pitched whine, can get into the system. If whine is unavoidable, you may wish to use a Noise Filter. In addition to having your RCA cables mounted away from power cables, make them as short as possible, as signal strength is lost over distance, and higher frequencies are attenuated.
Connect the main power (+) for the amplifier directly to the battery. Check here for the proper wire gauge
ON A HINDSIGHT CHECK THE WIRING FOR ANY SHORT .....
After you have determined that there is noise in the system, determine
if the amplifier is causing the noise. To do this, mute the signal at
the inputs to the amp by using shorting plugs. If there is no noise,
then the amp is fine, and you can proceed to level 2. However, if
there is noise, then use a test speaker at the amp's output. If this
stops the noise, then the problem is originating in the speaker wiring,
or the passive crossovers. Check to make sure that none of these are
shorting with the body of the car, and start again at level 1. If
noise is still present when using the test speaker, then there may be a
problem with the power supply on the amp. Try connecting an isolated
power supply - if this does not get rid of the noise, then there is
something seriously wrong with the amp, and it should be replaced. If
the noise goes away, then there may be a problem with power supply
filtering or isolation. This can be fixed by changing the amp's ground
point or b adding external supply filtering.
IF The amplifiers are fine, but moving both the ground for the head unit
and the signal cables does not solve the noise problem. Take the unit
completely out of the dash, and put it on either the seat or carpet,
and run new signal cables to the input of the amp. If this solves the
problem, re-install the head unit,
yes check ur ignition and wiring... if you find no fault in there and nothing is grounding its likely ur sat radio antenna
1. Power the radio from an isolated source, such as a battery or portable power pack of some kind. If the interference is being conducted through the car power wiring, this should eliminate it. (As I said in my previous post, the power supplies for these things have very poor filtering.)
2. If the noise is still there, use your portable unit from inside and place the antenna on the car with the unit away from the car and powered by the AC supply. This should tell you if the interference is radiated.
3. If neither of the above gives positive results, it is possible that some of the wiring for the Sirius is routed too close to the vehicle wiring and is picking up the noise by induction.