96 850 Wagon antenna question.

[Bob Mazzi]

This started when I broke a right rear quarter window. And, I started reading on what was involved in replacing it. I ran across a mention that the v70 wagon had antennas in both rear windows rather than just the left as the 850 has. And that the V70 has better radio reception than the 850. So, I got the bright idea to upgrade my radio a bit while doing the window. After some searching I found a window from a V70, and got the antenna cable as part of the purchase. Last week I got the glass in and after a bit to make sure that it was not going to leak, I started to think about the antenna. I bought a two female to one male cable adapter. I had read that the later cars sent both antennas all the way to the radio so I figured that the adapter was the way to go.

So, this afternoon I decided to pull the quarter trim panel and clean out all the bits of glass and install the antenna cable. Which went fine. Then I started looking at where the existing cable went to see what I needed to do to install the adapter. But, my 850 is not the same on the left as the v70 was on the right. There seems to be an amplifier mounted in the left quarter with wires that go into the harness as well as an antenna lead. Not what I was expecting.

So, the question. Should I just extend the adapter and tie in the other antenna after the amplifier? Or, is there a better way?

[scot850]

Which radio are you using in your car? The SC-815 single CD unit if I recall only has one input on the back for the antenna. The later SC-816 single CD unit has 2 plug ins side by side.

Neil.

[Bob Mazzi]

Well, I don't know the exact model, but it has a rear mounted six CD changer.

[Bob Mazzi]

Looks like a SC-710 based on an e-bay listing for a 710

[Bob Mazzi]

Well, I just walked out and looked. It's an SC-811.

[scot850]

So the SC-811 is the non-CD unit. It has radio and CD only. It also only has the one antenna input on the rear. It does have the 6 CD output connection as you have said as well as the amplifier connectivity.

So I don't know if connecting the 2 antennas somehow will improve the signal or not. That is over my paygrade!

Neil.

[Bob Mazzi]

Well, "Robert" commented that the V70 had better reception than the 850 and attributed it to the second antenna. I'm just unsure how to proceed with the one side wired as the 850, and the other as a V70. Especially as the 850 side seems to be powered. I don't see that I could do any harm by just hooking them up, But I'm hoping that I'm not the first to want try this and to learn from someone else's experiences.

[BEJinFbk]

Dual antenna Diversity Tuning in a 70 series P80
consists of two antennas, two antenna amplifiers
and the power runs to energize them, individual
coax runs from each amplifier location up to the
head unit and a tuner that’s designed for two
antenna inputs.

The tuner scans for the strongest signal from
either antenna and that’s what you hear.

IIRC, the first was the Alpine built SC-816.

Short story, you can add this feature to your 850,
but you have a long way to go to make it happen.

[Bob Mazzi]

That's a newer system. The early V70 had dual antennas. And the wire from the antenna ( on the right at least ) had a small non powered converter of some sort after about 6 inches of wire. Then a couple of feet of coax. That's what I was expecting from the left on my 850. What i found was a powered unit of some sort that the coax plugged into. And, at least some of the V70s had radios with only one antenna input. The later system that you describe has 2 antenna leads all the way to the radio in the dash. And the radio has two inputs, but from what I read, NOT a standard coax connection.

I should mention that I've looked at some of the aftermarket systems and did some reading on how to combine the leads for a head unit that only has one antenna input. The big plus is that some of them have rear camera capability and tie in with a phone for navigation. The minus as well as actually having to buy one is that the ones I'm looking at have screens that would cover at least part of the heater controls.

[BEJinFbk]

All 70 series cars came with two antennas
for the purpose of supporting Diversity Tuning
equipped head units like the SC-816/900/901.

In those cars, you’ll find a regular sized Motorola
plug for the main antenna in the left window, and
a mini-motorola plug for the sub antenna in the right.

The left side has a powered RF amp under the window,
and I was told by a master tech that the right side module
is also an amp, but I don’t see an external power feed, so
is may just be a transition box for converting the on-glass
antenna lead to coax. There may be a matching transformer
in there, too.

In any case, these antennas aren’t engineered to be combined,
in fact, doing that may actually interfere with each other and
reduce your reception.