I've been working on this.
The newer Ford and GM radios require CAN messages to run. The older radios that don't aren't that desirable, at least for me. You have to pay extra to have an aux input or Bluetooth added. No USB at all on them.
I removed the AWM970 from the wall and learned a few things.
First off, the aux input on the front will use a standard 1/8" stereo jack, even though it is labeled an AV input. On our unit it is AUX input #3.
There are also 2 unused aux inputs on the back of our unit. Aux input #1(AV) and #2 (audio only).
It also has an IPOD input cable that goes to a DIN8 connector. Our unit did not come with an adapter to connect to an iPod.
The unit also has 2 antenna inputs. One is a standard automotive Motorola connector. It also has the standard 2 screw 300 ohm for an FM antenna input. I wonder how it knows which antenna to use for FM ? I wonder if the FM reception would be improved if I connected our roof antenna (conventional broadcast) to the receiver ?
It also has an input for a wired remote and an IR receiver.
The thing I hate most about this radio is tuning radio stations. There are 3 ways to do this.
1) Turn the tuning knob one frequency step at a time. Terribly slow. But necessary when methods 2 and 3 fail.
2) Turn and hold the tuning knob so the radio auto scans for the next station. The problem with this is that it generally stops in a couple frequency steps at a ghost station. The tuner seems to receive a lot of noise, especially on the AM band.
3) Use the ASPS button. If you hold it for 3 seconds, it will auto scan the band and load the strongest 12 AM or 18 FM stations in the presets, according to the manual. Several problems with this. 1) it finds ghost stations and loads them in the presets. 2) It doesn't actually find the strongest stations, it just loads any station it finds. 3) If your local area has more than 18 stations, it stops scanning when the presets are full. So if you do an auto AS, you end up with 18 scanned stations, several will be ghost stations, half of them are stations you don't like and if the local area has lots of stations you are going to be missing stations at the top end of the spectrum.
On top of it all, you can't move preset frequencies between bands (AM 1 and 2 or FM 1,2,3) without manually tuning them on the bank you want and saving them.
This is probably the most frustrating radio tuner I have ever encountered.
Another problem is that you can't play MP3s without a TV. The unit reads the USB device and then displays the tracks on the TV. No TV, no menu to play the tracks. We don't have a TV in our trailer. And even if we did, I wouldn't want to have it powered up just to play MP3s when we are boondocking.
The unit has some redeeming features though.
The amplifier works fine, for our purposes. The speakers in our trailer need upgrading more than the amplifier.
It is set up to power 3 pairs of speakers out of the box. And it has zone control. Not many amplifiers do this.
It has 3 aux inputs, which will allow the use of an MP3 player, a better radio and an external Bluetooth receiver.
The CD player works fine as well.
I've got some work arounds planned for our unit. I'll share them once I test them.
The software version of our unit is V2.02.
The online manual for this unit is here.
https://www.asaelectronics.com/downloads/dl/file/id/44/awm970_owners_manual.pdf
