head unit with power antenna and amp wire

I'm looking for a head unit in the $200 price range which has both a turn on wire for the power antenna, and also one for the amplifier. The point is the power antenna is supposed to be up only when the radio is in AM/FM mode, not while playing a CD, for example. While the amplifer is turned on always by the blue and white wire. Does anyone know of a head unit manufacturer who has such an item? Richard

its not the head unit you gotta worry about ,its the radio wire harness that will have the wiring. your blue/white is always amp turn on only. if someone tell you you can hook your antenna wire to it as well they are wrong dont do it. an your solid blue wire is power antenna. the wire harness you bought for the radio[vehicle side} should have a solid blue wire already there for your antenna. what kind of car is it?

It's been a long time since I've done much with aftermarket radios, but I'm pretty sure it was always Alpine and Sony that had the separate blue and blue/white wires. I installed an Alpine radio yesterday, and it did have both wires, but it was a used unit that was several years old. So, I would say to look at Alpine and Sony, but only buy the unit if you can look at the wiring harness and make sure that both wires are present.

Thank you. It's a 92 Mercedes 400E without a dashboard power antenna switch. The original Becker or Alpine radio powered the antenna only when in AM/FM mode. The Pioneer I bought only had a blue/white amplifier wire, and I used it for that purpose. The previous owner had a more sophisticated system, and he took it out and left the console with no harness, just a tangle of wires. And in the Mercedes you'll recall it has a fader control on the driver's right hand console between the power window switches, plus this car has two OEM amplifiers, which are not in use, but nevertheless along with the fader control make for a dizzying array of short cut wires up at the console. All of that was bypassed and my new system sounds great, except I can't raise the antenna. So I'm thinking that if I can figure out which Mercedes wire is the antenna power, then I'll buy a new radio with a separate signal wire for the antenna. Otherwise, I'll either use a separate switch to power the antenna up, running the wires directly to the antenna motor itself, or I'll use the amplifier signal wire to power up the antenna, which is not ideal for me.Richard

Alpine CDE-153BT 200.00   9 band parametric EQ 6 channel time correction. Separate crossover for front and rear speakers. Tune-it app which allows you to store the radio's settings in your smart phone, so when you change the car battery, you simply connect the phone and dump the settings back into the deck. And of course as the model number suggests it is a bluetooth unit. BT audio and for phone calls if you wish.

Just back from a camping trip where my nephew connected his i.pad to my Alpine CDE121E. As above, Alpine seem to have sep amp & power antenna. But it should only matter if they do not have the same signalling - eg, +12V with HU on but antenna only with radio on.

Correction. Last Year's CDE147bt had separate crossover frequencies for front and rear. I just assumed that this unit had the same. But unfortunately both the 153bt and the 154bt lost that feature.