Can't beleive they still make these stupid telescoping antennas. Just bought a 2006 XK8 and antenna is already sticking.

Stupid question, but if I disconnect it, I'll loose radio reception, correct?

 

Hello, the answer is yes and no. It will still pick up reasonably wel,l strong stations in town, but forget weak stations and even strong may go in and out or strain for reception.
You can also consider doing a on and off switch for the antenna itself. There are plenty of forum threads on how to do, it is quite easy.
The other big bonus to having the antenna done is you will be surprised at how much noise it produces going 40 MPH and above with the top down.
Good luck and

Happy Motoring...

 

If you pull the fuse you will still get some signal, but only in strong reception areas.

A lot have people have added a switch or used a hidden antenna:

Jaguar XK8 Antenna Switch - YouTube

How to eliminate the antenna on a Jaguar XK8 - YouTube

 

If you just disconnect the power feed that sends it up it will still work to a certain degree just don't disconnect the coaxial wire going to the head unit

 

Lol all in a space of a couple of minutes

 

It is actually really easy to install a switch to control it. I mostly play from CD, so I rarely ever use my antenna. I have the switch in case I want to listen to weather, talk radio or for sports...

 

On the 99 XK8 if you pull the antenna fuse it will also drop the power amp if you have premium sound. I pulled the plug on the antenna and just enjoy CDs or the sound of the engine!

 

I've recently added a switch so antenna goes up when i want.
problem is, I wanted to make it little cool so got the one with LED...I've connected it to cigar lighter connector wires (12v) and it worked great till i turned on headlight.
It seems when the headlight is on, LED goes off, headlight off LED on...
can anyone advice me on where I should get 12V to light up the LED?

thanks

 

Normally on lighted switches you have three terminals, ground, load and power. The load and power are just a normal closed or open contact depending on which position the switch is in. Most folks switch power when using this type of switch that's why it's labeled like that. The LED pulls power from the power being switched and the ground terminal completes the power circuit for the LED. In the case of the radio ant control you are just breaking the signal to the ant I believe not actually powering anything so I don't think a lighted switch will work correctly in this application. But what do I know, I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn last night!

 

Sorry I didnt make it clear, the switch I've installed has 3 pins for the actual switch and 2 more pins for LED. another word, LED is suppose to be on the whole time whenever and forever...hence I plugged it into cigar lighting.
My question is, if there are any 12v supply near by which i can use to power the LED?

 

Well that's a whole different animal, you will need a battery switched power supply but you already know that. I would think the power to the cigar lighter would be the ticket for that. Curious as to why it turns off as I know of no reason why you cannot light up a stogie when driving at night! Does the cigar lighter work with the lights on? If so then something is wrong with your wiring. All I can suggest is recheck everything using a meter to confirm power and grounds.

 

mine definitely does not work well without antenta....My mast is broken off

 

took me a long time to check it out. Jandreu is right, I had wired 12v from cigar surrounding light and grd...
now it works as it should!