What wires do I hook to the 12v marine battery to hook up an auto radio?

Question

The wiring diagram has a black ground wire, a Yellow "Memory" wire, and a Eed "memory" wire. I am old fashioned and do not know what a "memory" wire is...I am used to having a DC wiring diagram that shows the wires going to the battery.

Answer 1

An old AM-FM 8 track player (which was as big as a Pinto) was completeley removed from power when the ignition switch was off (if wired correctly). Those had mechanical station pre-sets, and didn't need to "remember" any settings you had put in. (see where I'm going?)

Your new fangled gizmo has an electronic memory for things such as station pre-sets, balance, tone and such. If you remove power to it, it forgets all that stuff. Hmmmm, does that mean it is not as smart as the old one? Have we improved?

It's like the stupid blinking clock on your VCR. Power goes out, and that thing forgets everything it ever knew!

To wire yours to the boat, the black (ground) should go to battery ground, or the ground buss in the dash. The yellow will go to a + source which always is "hot", and the red will go to a switched source, or straight to "hot" if you wish. You also will have to ground your antenna wire to have any radio reception.

Answer 2

Red to fused power switched> Yellow to fused power constent> Black round> Don't use the same Black wires as used in the speaker wires or will hear alt whine>

Answer 3

memory wire is usualy for the clock and keep the stations set, a marine battery works just like an auto battery, plus side is possative, and minus side is ground, should hook red to possative side of fuse block and black to ground side, yellow should have constant current at all times, but if your like me and dont get to use your boat as much this will pull the current from your batteries, and remember always go through a fuse block to reduce the risk of fire or burning out your radio, hope this helps