Hi,

Finally got round to assembling my tuner kit (thanks Patrick!). Amazingly, it worked first time, but I have the following niggle: the power antenna mast is up all the time the player is on. I know there's been some discussion about adding 10k pull-down resistors to the antenna output line; I've now tried this and it produces no difference in the state of the antenna.

So, does anybody know: what part of the software is responsible for controlling the antenna line, and is it currently working for PCATS tuner kits?

Any dollops of insight would be welcomed...

Cheers,

Gavin

The FAQ entry is here. I'm guessing that you've done one of two things:

- You may have connected your power antenna's activation lead to something other than the antenna lead on the tuner module. For instance, you may have connected it to the amp remote wire instead.

- You may have the RDS Traffic Announce feature turned on in the software.

And the recommended resistor, by the way, is 1k, not 10k, I don't know if that makes a difference.

Hmmm, thanks Tony. However, I'm pretty sure the antenna is on the right wire, as it's the one that comes out of the tuner module (not the empeg harness), and anyway my amplifier is hooked up to that other line :-)

I'm assuming that when the "TA" indicator is off on the radio info screen, then RDS Traffic Announce is off? This is the current setting, and it makes no difference. I wonder if I should have used that smaller resistor...

niggle [...] dollops

I love the way everyone talks over there. Really.

Can't help, other than to consider that PERHAPS, just maybe your antenna is expecting to be connected to ground to make it raise, then cut off to make it lower... i.e. Ground common..

Although I doubt it, I *HAVE* seen it. Just required a relay between the antenna and the driving wire..

I guess a check would be to see if the antenna goes down when it's disconnected from the tuner. If it does, then soemthing may have gotten shorted in the tuner box..

Me.

I'm having the same issue with my PCATS tuner. The antenna is connected to the power antenna lead from the tuner and TA is off. If disconnected, the antenna goes down.

Just to point this out you two may know this but there are two blue wires that come out of the PCats tuner. One is constant power, and the other is the antenna power. If you're still having issues you could use a relay that is activated by the remote wire.

Yes, one blue wire goes into the tuner and one comes out. The one that goes in provides power to the tuner, the one that goes out should provide 12V only if the tuner is switched on. However, for me, that wire has also constant 12V (or the antenna wouldn't be up). Since I have two blue wires with constant 12V, what wire should I use to switch the relay with?

Those having trouble with the antenna not going down... You've read this right?

Of course! The FAQ is the first thing I look at if I have a problem, then the BBS search function. This is how I found this thread. The problem is, that the antenna goes up and down with the player, irrespective of tuner on or off. I'm 99.9% sure TA is off (as there's only a "TA ON" menu item and no "TA OFF" menu item and there's no TA on the radio display anywhere), but I'll triple check.
I'm also running 2.0, and Hijack 394, so firmware should not be the issue either. That's why I posted in this thread, to find out if maybe more people with the PCATS tuner had the problem and it may be related to something that's different in this vs. the original tuner.

From his first post:

Quote:
I know there's been some discussion about adding 10k pull-down resistors to the antenna output line; I've now tried this and it produces no difference in the state of the antenna.

Emphasis mine.

Of course, if he put a 10k resistor in there, it might still not work. 10k ohms is like, what, rubber?

The first post in the thread was not by the same person. The user names are different.

Oh. Duh.

The description at that FAQ link indicates that your reported behavior is in fact one of the possible symptoms. So try the resistor, it's easy enough to do.