My stereo kicks on my antenna when I start the car, no matter what function I'm using on the stereo. Even after I turn the stereo off, the antenna stays up (Not surprised by this though.) Is it possible to have the antenna engage only when I turn the radio on? How do I do that.

Thanks.

 

I have a Bose CD/tape combo in mine and while the antenna was still working it only went up while the radio was on. it went down when I switched functions.

 

If you have the factory radio and the factory antenna, then something has gone wrong with the wiring, posibly a short.

However, if you have an aftermarket head unit, and the factory antenna, it sound like the installer did not take (or want to take) the time to do it right. The radio provides either the power to the antenna, or a steering signal to a relay. The sophistication depends on the head unit. Some will keep the antenna up as long as te radio is on, FM, tape, CD, no difference. The more sophisticated units will retract the antenna when you play a tape or CD. My factory Bose unit does that.

I just fixed my antenna. It has a little logic box built on to it that had six wires going to it. The antenna motor then had two of its own. Would be a bit of a challenge to get that working with a head unit that provides only antenna power.

My suggestion would be to figure out how the wiring should be, and then check if your wiring matches the target.

Good luck.

John

 

I have a top of the line JVC head-unit. Cost me a few hundred bucks. I'll look at the manual, see if it says anything, not sure if it will though.

 

John pretty much hit the nail on the head, Marke. Most head units have an antenna turn-on lead (I believe it's blue with a white trace on the JVCs). It seems to me as though someone put your power antenna activation wire to your 12v switched power wire instead of that wire. You can always test this theory by pulling the radio out, getting a good digital multimeter, and checking the wiring.

In theory, there should only be 1 wire running to the yellow wire from your JVC. 2 wires running to there or the red wire (this is why I said get the multimeter) will confirm this without cutting anything. Unless, of course, you have something else slaved onto the head unit's power supply, such as an EQ or processor or such.

If, by some quirk of fate, all the wires are properly run from the radio to the car, then you might want to install some sort of switch to interrupt power to the power antenna wire. Just my thoughts.