hi, my 1965 544 radio looks pretty original. It gets power and makes static noise when on fm, nothing on am, new antenna doesn't help. any suggestions? It has a power wire, 2 speaker wires and the antenna. Am I missing something?

 

Curious if you have opened it up to see if it has tubes vs transistors? You may want to clean off the tuner with some electronics cleaner as well as the switches etc. Have you had the radio out of the car on a bench with a direct 12V hook up? I'd also inspect the socket where the antenna plugs in to see if there's a loose wire in there.

 

hey thanks for the reply, it's a transistor, I believe from 1965. Tuning **** turns smoothly with no crackly noise. I've had it out, it gets power and lights up and makes a static noise through the speakers.
I can maybe open it up and check the antenna wiring to the antenna socket but on the outside it looks ok. There is a large bolt coming out of the back that had a wire attached at some point. Is that important? I thought it might be a ground but grounding it didn't help.
On another note, you're from Ridgefield? I lived in Danbury from 1985 to 2019, now retired in GA. Never saw your 544 around twon

 

don't own a 544 - but if you got passed by a regency red 850 turbo wagon - I was probably late for something LOL. I'm just another old timer who's been playing with cars since the 60s (more so cars made in the 60s lol). I'd bet the bolt is either a chassis ground point or could have attached to a bracket to mount to old the back end of the radio. Next question - is the antenna/lead in good shape? Not sure how you'd test that out short of finding a replacement

 

it's a new antenna, all hooked up. Is a ground completely necessary?

 

not always but there's always the chance of a "floating ground" or a ground loop that can contain voltage or allow some RF to bleed back in to the signal. That's where testing the radio on a bench helps. Its possible you are getting noise from the alternator or the ignition into the antenna due to poor grounding for those devices - does the radio sound the same with the engine off?

 

yes. probably better to find an old transistor radio, hook it up to the car and see what happens. If it works, it's the old radio