I had an aftermarket headunit put in recently and soon noticed that the antenna raises and stays up when the headunit is powered up, even when I'm playing CDs.

I would like to put in a toggle to manually raise/lower the antenna. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

If you put in an aftermarket headunit then the antenna will be up whenever the unit is on, not just when the radio is on as it does with stock. To manually raise and lower the antenna you would have to install a toggle switch in the power antenna wire. This is really easy to do you just have to look at the manual for the head unit and identify which wire it is. In my experiences it i usually is blue with a white stripe.

 

Thanks 97BlackSEGold. That gives me something to go on.

 

The function of the power ant is dependent on the HU, my Excelon brings the ant down whenever it isn't needed (IE when the tuner isn't in use). If a shop installed the unit, they may have hooked it up wrong also, check the manual and their work, ensure the correct wire was connected to the ant. I'm not convinced that a manual switch would be worth the trouble, after a few weeks you will get tired of raising and lowering the ant, also, what will the switch look like in the car? Something to think about.

 

the stock bose unit has two antenna wires and many after market decks dont- so they run the antenna, which is actually just an amplifier, when the hu is on at all. i had the same problem and couldn't find a good place to put the switch, so i just cut the wire and have had no problems with radio reception. i dont really suggest doing, this cuz i dont use the radio all that much, so its fine for me, but i toggle would be the better way to go.

 

My aftermarket HU (Panasonic 1300) came with a wire specifically for the antenna.

Antenna is up only when the radio is on.

I'd double check the wiring diagram that came with your HU.

 

Wetballon / JPMax --You guys make good points. I will check the manual and pull out the hu to see how he connected it.

 

RicoSuave98 Unfortunately I didn't have the Bose system. I hear that that system really sounds nice in the Maximas. I wonder if this is the case here with my after market deck. After all I did buy it from Circuit City.

 

is it possible to disconnect something near the antenna to stop it from rising at all? i hardly use the radio and i cant stand the look of it up.

 

just take out your headunit and snip and tape off the end of the antenna wire and problem is fixed

 

I believe if you want the antenna to just stay down all the time, you can just unplug the power connector at the antenna.

There should be a passive antenna built into the rear windshield which the radio uses as an alternate.

 

I had an alarm installed at Circuit city once, only once. When I looked under the dash I quickly realized that I could have done a better job. After I bought my truck I needed a new unit so I went to circuit city, bought everything I needed, including the mount bracket that they said wouldn't fit and turned down the free installation. One crappy installaion from that company was more than enough to ensure that I will always do my own installations. Cheap work is cheap work. If you need help finding your way to the back of the HU, I have Crutchfield's master sheet I can scan in and email you. Getting in there is a bit tougher than it should be.

 

Well ill be damned...this is the same problem i have. I have a pioneer premier 860 hooked up to the bose stock system with my 96 max and every time i eject a CD the antenna goes down, and when i put one in it goes up. Very frustrating, and i was worrried that the antenna would wear out and the shop that i got it installed at was like "haha dont even worry about it" ... besides the fact that it looks retarded driving down the road and have the antenna go up and down a couople times i want this **** fixed....i cant remember the last time i listened to the radio, so i htink i may just snip the wire. They said that there is nothing i can do about it. Well there is something now and i would love to stick it in thier damn face. Bastards. Thanks for the help guys.

 

i have the same problem with my antenna and it's driving me crazy, it looks so much better with the antenna down.

Travibe - i have a Pioneer cd player too. what wire did you snip?

any advice from you peeps would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

 

how do i do that? forgive me, i'm a n00b in the truest sense of the word.

 

depends what kind of headunit u have, my antena is down when im playing my cds on my alpine 9831, and it raises up when i put the radio on

 

yeah the pioneer 860 does not have an antenna out, only an amp turn on, so whenever the head unit is on there is a signal coming out from it. i have the 8600 which is the same thing pretty much and that is how it is. i think that most if not all pioneers are like that now.