MetraElectronics 44-PW22 Motorized AM/FM Fully Automatic Power Antenna

Very reliable, bear with me for a second - I have a couple of these I use to power automatic doors on my chicken run. They fire twice a day, every day, at dusk and dawn to open and close the doors and go up and down with a small aluminum panel attached to them. Have been running for several years. The first one with a steel panel worked but burned out after a couple years. - So a slightly weird use case I know but if they can do this in a dusty chicken run they will work fine in your car with no other weight on them. The antennas are under cover so don't get rained on but they get dusty as heck.

Good quality

This is absolute garbage. Worked fine the first time used. Second time it was making multiple loud clicks before stopping to go up or down. Third time it just non-stop tried to go up or down clicking over and over until you remove power from it. THIS after having to send the first one back because it was missing pieces that were supposed to come with it.

The Metra 44-PW22 works fine for me as a replacement for the original antenna. For the car I was working on, a Jaguar XJS, I could only find two alternatives to the very expensive OEM replacement: One that is not automatic, and this one. This one does exactly what it is supposed to do, and for the price, I am very satisfied with this product. Note I just recently installed it, and so cannot report on long term reliability.A few notes for people considering buying it:- For my car, it is considerably noisier than the original.- Wiring is simple, three wires: One always 12V (red), another 12V when the radio is turned on (blue), and ground.- The way it works is this: When the blue wire goes hot, the antenna goes up. When it reaches full extension, the motor continues to grind for a few seconds before quitting. When the blue wire goes cold, the antenna goes down. When it is fully retracted, the motor continues to grind for a few seconds before quitting.- The important thing to note about wiring is this: The blue wire requires 12V to raise the antenna. However, the input is not a low current logic signal, but rather a power signal. If your radio does not provide enough current to drive the blue signal, a relay or transistor switch is needed -- and is not a part of this kit. (See more below.) I believe a truly universal automatic antenna ought to support a >low current< input signal, and provide the relay or switching transistor internally. This is my reason for the four star vs. five star rating.Notes specific to the Jag XJS:- This unit is NOT a mechanical drop-n replacement. It is a little shorter than the original. And although there are also two similar mounting screws and the drain tube outlet, they are not spaced or aligned the same as the original. As a result, you can't re-use the original bracket, but have to bend the provided mounting bracket strip into shape. It is important to get the vertical dimension right, but don't sweat the exact horizontal dimension between the screws attaching the bracket to the antenna and the car. You can rotate the bracket a bit to get the vertical alignment reasonable, and torque it down. With a single screw attachment, the result is not as sturdy as the original bracket, but it is adequate.- The Metra unit comes with a pivot assembly to abut the inside of the fender. For my car, I found it worked best to simply remove the pivot assembly altogether. I also re-used the original tubular screw from the outside of the fender. Make sure to sort all this out before you try to measure the vertical spacing for the bracket strip.- Regarding wiring, the OEM radio puts out a 12V signal when the radio is turned on. However, this signal can only source about 10 mA, and the voltage drops to about 5 V. I initially obtained a low-current relay that was supposed to switch with as little as 10 mA. However, when I wired it up, the source signal could not switch the relay on. It could keep it on once switched, but could not cause it to switch. So I had to backtrack and get a switching transistor instead. I used a TIP120 NPN. I ran the yellow/green wire from the car through a 1.5k resistor to the base of the transistor. Works like a champ. It's good practice to run a snubber diode from collector to emitter, but my initial test circuit worked without it, without immediate damage to the transistor.So in summary, depending on your car, this may be one of the few, and possibly the only choice available. The good news is that it works well at a reasonable price. It would be a five star rating for me, but I had to add some external components to get the automatic function with my radio. Not hard, but adds a bit to the cost, and definitely adds to the time/effort on the installation.

works great. would buy again

I replaced a broken power antenna on my 2002 Mitsubishi Montero with this one. The Montero has a different way of powering the antenna than this replacement model....and that took me a while to figure out. The Montero has a "switch box" between the radio power and the antenna which sends power to the antenna for about 20 seconds and then shuts the power off. The power antenna goes up when it gets power when the radio is turned on and then stays in the up position after the switch cuts the power to the antenna. When the radio is turned off or the car is turned off, the switch sends power to the antenna for about 20 seconds and this was the signal for the antenna to go down. I suppose Mitsubishi did this to keep a shorted out antenna from draining the battery. However, the new antenna I bought has a different configuration. It has two wires and one of them must have continuous power 24/7. The other wire goes directly to the radio power and it acts like the switch to tell the antenna when to go up and when to go down...radio power on...antenna up via the 24/7 power supply...radio power off (either by the radio power switch being turned off or the car being turned off)...antenna down via the 24/7 power supply. Took me a while to understand the differences and I ended up having to do some electrical splicing to bypass the Mitsubishi switch box and make this antenna work the way it should. So far, it has worked fine...even in very cold weather (7 or 8 degrees).One more thing...the box did not include the variety pack of plastic fender mounts...the ones with the different angles for different fender slopes where the antenna comes thru the fender. I called the vendor and they promptly sent me the pieces at no cost to me.

This is a good antenna with all the hardware you need. It is however the second antenna I had to buy. the first one was shorted but I didn't realize it until the was installed for a few months because the car was in a restoration shop. So. test it first. I did test it against other antennas with a rear mount location and that means 16 foot of cable and it picked up stations better than the mini rubber and a 18 inch metal antenna. So far i am happy with the product.

The project tuned out great. Depending upon the body design and access your antenna replacement project may be easy our complex. My brother does auto stereo installations so I was able to get helpful hints like don’t throw anything from old antenna away or loose any old parts until your install is functional. I had to modify the old bracket to accommodate the new antenna assembly. Additionally, the company sends an array antenna adapters, so I had to use the old one with some significant modifications. The new rig works well, but it’s not as quiet as the Los one.