Toyota surf 1994 power antenna

[surf1994]

Hi there
Firstly been a long time since I last been on the site. I have finally bought my 4x4 and looking forward to been more interactive.

My question for any electrical gurus out there. My power antenna works but will only go down when I have switch the car off. something like this

Car on and radio off and the antenna stays down
turn the radio on and the antenna goes up
turn the radio off but the car is still running the antenna stays up
turn the car off the antenna goes down

QUestions:
1. Whats the best way to get manual control of the antenna. My first thought was to put a switch somewhere so that I can bring the antenna down when the radio is still running, so it does not get in the way when 4x4ing. I have found the antenna relay box so would I wire a switch to break the power to the relay box or put a switch in line with the radio somewhere.

2.is it better to get an internal antenna and what works best?

Many thanks

[Jay]

Hey there - welcome back

I am no electrical Guru - but I also rewired my electric antenna for the same reason... I wired my antenna relay off Acc, so it would go up and down with the key, regardless of what the stereo was doing...(instead of using the 'antenna' wire off the back of the stereo itself)....but also ran it through a switch, so I could turn it off (put the ariel down) when offroad. So in the 'on' position it would go up and down with the key, and 'off' would stay down.

Cheers,

Jay

[surf1994]

Thanks for the reply

I got a bit intimidated by all the wires so I have wired a push switch to the antenna line from the radio. The result is that the antenna only goes up if I push the switch and I can control the height of the antenna. This does not solve the problem of lowering the antenna while the vehicle is still on. But I have noticed that the radio reception in town is not too bad and therefore do not actually put the antenna up. This has made me think about getting the internal antenna when/if the automatic one packs in.

[T-Boon]

you can get the windscreen stick on ones, and ive had a few, they can work really well.