Hello all - newbie Brian from Columbus Oh. here. I have a very similar problem with similar equipment, just wondering if you got anywhere on this. I apologize - no Moomba - have an 89 Mastercraft PS 190 with little room for a mega stereo, and I don't need to shake the whole lake, just want to hear it (and control it) while at speed, so, years ago, I bought a Kenwood radio/cd, can't remember model, tho, but it was 50W X4, and a KCR-RC50MR (not 60). Had problems with the head shutting off when cranked up, hooked it directly to battery and it worked fine. Remote was hooked to under dash wiring. Everything worked great.

Wanted to get something with USB/Aux inputs, so I asked Kenwood if the 50 remote would work with the 440u head unit. First they said no, then yes, and when I told them they were not inspiring a lot of confidence, they said yes. Their support is not good, IMHO, but I liked how the remote was mounted to the right of the dash close to my right hand, so I bought the 440u.

Now the problem. When the boat is running, the remote won't work. Actually it responds once in a great while, like you push next track or volume 50 times and it will work once. Works great if the engine is off. I've tried hooking both up to the boat battery, no help. Hooked both up to a battery jumper box and it works fine, running or not. Voltage on boat battery at rest is about 12.5V. When the engine is running it is 14.0V. No AC ripple on battery when boat is running, 0.0 to 0.1 VAC. If I split the power connections between the boat battery and jumper box it does not work, no matter which is hooked to which battery. I don't even think this works when the engine is off, but will have to recheck that. Tried an old power conditioner that I had laying around (supposed to stop engine whine thru the speakers in a car) and that did not help.

That's about it. Doubt that I will ever buy another Kenwood product again, this has been going on for 2 years. Have not contacted them about this, cause their support was lousy for my previous problem. Another thing I'm not happy about is the fact that I can't play totally random from a USB drive, only random from one folder, which is limited to 256 songs. This info was not even in the owners manual, found it in an obscure web page on their site.

Any help/suggestions/input would be appreciated. I set up to receive emails from here, or reply here.

If you managed to get thru this novella, Thanks,
Brian