Correct antenna adapter for 2003 Jetta (nonmonsoon

NeXTstep guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2000
Location
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
TDI
Jetta, 2003, Silver
I've got a 2003 Jetta with a double din deck. It's definitely not a monsoon setup.

What's the correct antenna adapter required if I wanted to hook up an Alpine CDA-9813 deck?

My local installer first tried with a Scosche VWA3B antenna adapter, but I have no AM reception. Is it safe to assume I need an amplified antenna adapter? If so, what are the Metra and Scosche recommended part numbers?
RWW
 

RIP TDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 16, 2000
Location
Santa Barbara, CA
TDI
'15 GSW SE 6MT...... '01 Golf GLS 5MT.... '96 Passat Variant....
The generic adaptor name is DIN-12. Also available @ antennaworld.com
 

dieselgus

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Location
PA, SK
TDI
04 Variant Black/Black
Make sure the blue wire is hooked up in the harness.... it powers the antenna amp. Also, use scosche #VWAB or metra 40-VW-10.

Gus
 

NeXTstep guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2000
Location
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
TDI
Jetta, 2003, Silver
Make sure the blue wire is hooked up in the harness.... it powers the antenna amp. Also, use scosche #VWAB or metra 40-VW-10.

Gus
OK, I have more questions....

There seems to be two different types / groupings of answers to my inquiry. Crutchfield and DieselGus say to go with an un-powered antenna adapter.

DieselGus: If I hook up the blue wire in the harness, how does the antenna get the power? The power from the car goes through the blue wire into the deck. How does it go from the deck to the antenna?

Chris Bell recommended the DIN-12 adapter at antennaworld. That seems to supply antenna power by a "blue" wire from the car directly to the antenna. Thus the antenna is probably powered all the time.

Help! I'm not too sure which is the right way....

RWW
 

blitzoid

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Location
NYC
TDI
Blue '02 Golf GLS TDI
Let me preface this by saying I used a powered adapter, so I can't speak from experience to the other...

1) I bought stuff from enfigmotorsport. Christain is a great guy, gave me a free overnight upgrade after he didn't ship my order on time. He has everything organized in a very intelligent matter, which is more than I could say for crutchfield when I was doing my installation (this was last november)

2) The factory antenna IS powered. If you replace it with an unpowered adapter, you will lose reception quality/range. Mostly with AM, and not FM, IIRC. It is cheaper, but you'll only save about $5. I'd spend the extra cash, and prevent a future headache.

I listen to a LOT of AM radio, so I wanted the best reception possible.

The blue wire coming off of the aftermarket radio is used to control a powered antenna (one that raises or lowers depending on whether or not the radio is on)

Most of those work by keeping the radio antenna raised as long as a switch sees current, and lowers the antenna when the current is absent. So... you turn on the radio, the switch sees current, and antenna gets raised (or in the VW case - the amp turns on) you turn off the radio, and the reverse happens.

Either way, regardless of how it works, the amplified antenna adapter will deliver better reception. I tried using mine without the amp connected, during the install, and it DOES make a difference.

Cheers.

Thus, when the
 

dieselgus

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Location
PA, SK
TDI
04 Variant Black/Black
Yes, there are powered antenna adaptors.... for the older MKIII's that used to put 12V on the centre pin of the antenna wire to power the antenna amp. This being said, the newer MKIV's don't do this. The antenna is powered from a wire in the harness, the pin# of which escapes me at this moment (Sorry, spent 10 hrs putting a very large audio system in a 2003 Kenworth highway tractor today, and am pretty much shot!) but it is denoted on the label on the factory deck by a symbol that looks like: __/ __ (open switch in schematic-speak). There will be a corresponding blue wire on the aftermarket interface harness ( say a Metra 70-9003 for instance) that will go to the power antenna/ remote turn on lead of the aftermarket deck. I have AM like crazy in my own car, and all I used was the passive antenna adaptor, hoocking up the blue wire in the harness to the blue wire in the adaptor harness. (Okay, well, I DID have AM, however, once I dropped my XTANT 3300c in that radiates something goofy powersupply=wise in the AM band, making AM listening a rather unpleasant experience...
. Good thing CBC broadcasts Radio1 in FM in this area.)

Gus
 
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