I screwed up and pulled the antenna cable from the back of the radio on my 07 Ultra. I thought it was a male jack. It wasn't and I messed it up.
Can I cut it off and install a jack? I know the antenna jack on the internal antenna I bought fits into the radio fine.
I want to put a Y adapter in the radio and still use the stock cable to the external antenna.
Can I just replace the end with something from Radio Shack?

 

I'm not sure about the repair, but wouldn't keeping the external antenna defeat the purpose of having an internal antenna? I mean, the main reason that I installed an internal is because I didn't like the look of the external and the fact that it got in the way when I had my rack on.

BTW, I did the same thing (pulled the external cable out of the radio & trashed it) when I was installing the internal. Damn thing looked like a regular plug.

 

You might be right, but I was thinking when I go on long trips and put the tourpak back on the extra antenna would help reception in rural areas.
Or, even without the tourpak and using the relocated connection on the frame.

 

I tried the internal cable and y cable thing - i got really, really bad reception. It might work for you, but for me it was not successful.

 

What you are trying to do is called diversity. It's two antennas fed into a radio and the strongest signal will be used by the receiver. I'm not sure that you can do this successfully by splitting an antenna line with a Y though, the setups I've seen on cellular and 2-way had two isolated antennas and inputs.

 

I came close to doing the same thing but I took it easy because I had a feeling and managed to get it back together without any damage.

It has to unplug somehow, right? But how??? If the cable is wrecked is there an easy fix?

 

Antennas are a tuned length---- the length is determined by the frequency of the radio waves you want to pick up.

The antenna also has an impedance.

using a Y cable changes both of those to some random value, that won't work-

you could perhaps run an extension cable to a point where you can reach it and plug in the hidden antenna in town, then unplug and plug in the tour pak antenna when the tour pak goes on

a 'diversity' system, is 2 complete antenna and receiver units with sensing circuitry to send the stronger on the 2 signals to the output.
( i use diversity wireless systems in the concert world for mics and guitars)

mike

 

Thanks for the info. I like your idea. Any idea how I repair the connector on the original cable?

 

Thanks for the reply. That's two of you that say it probably won't work.
Any idea on how to repair the connection on the original cable?

 

I ran into the same thing. Does anyone know, how does the antenna unplug from the back of the radio?