Has Anyone Installed A LandCruiser Antenna Switch?

[Robb235]

When I put a new HU (Pioneer???) in my 4Runner I got the mini antenna cable adapter and a 'Y' splitter and hooked up the rear window antenna as well as the retractable. Previous owner who swapped in the first HU had just hooked up the retractable, because it's a single cable, normal size, easy to plug in.

At the same time, I installed a small switch in the back end of the DIN storage cubby underneath the HU. It just completes/breaks the wire going from the HU to the antenna. With the switch off, the antenna goes down, stays down. With the switch on, it goes up and down as directed by the HU.

What I've found is that the rear window antenna works *great* without needing any help from the retractable. I have the retractable turned off 99% of the time. If you get way out of town, to the point a stations starts getting fuzzy on the window antenna, putting the retractable up barely helps.

For some reason I had the opposite experience when I combined my window antenna with the front mast antenna.

I bought the y-splitter and adapter and was excited at the idea of getting better reception. Instead, with the two antennas combined, my radio reception went to crap. So then I tried using the window antenna only. Still my radio reception was crap. Went back to using the front mast antenna only and found that it gave me the best reception. Not sure why.