2009 Sierra: Hd Radio + Ipod Integration

nickvrebel · April 19, 2010

I ordered what I thought was everything for the install and it arrived Friday.... GREAT, I can do it right after work.....

I open the box, I find my PAC adapter with iPod cable and my HD-RT HD radio tuner plus an antenna adapter. I go outside and start the install... my truck is a 2009 Sierra SLT, pulling that trim panel on the radio on this truck was very tight, I'm used to pulling trim on plenty of other vehicles. Ok, so I remove the radio, and plug everything together.

before putting everything back together I decide to check everything for function...... I was a little worried about reception.

well, it worked... kinda. The way everything is setup it takes your factory antenna and routes it into the HDRT and after that point all radio tuning has to be run through the HDRT, which is NOT what I wanted. So after all of that work I pulled everything back out.

That night I was thinking over and over again what kind of solution I could use... they I thought about adding a second antenna to the truck. Saturday morning I went to a local audio shop. They were out of amplified antennas, but they sold me a cheap "marine" (wire) antenna. I went home and installed it, best routing I could find was to run it up the A-pillar on the passenger side behind the trim. I was able to barely tune HD stations, but I still had my regular radio tuner working as stock.

Sunday I went poking around and found an amplified antenna made by Metra at Advance auto... this sounds promising. I took it home, removed to "marine antenna" and installed the new one. The new one sticks to glass with adhesive tape and is located right at the top of the windshield on the passenger side. After routing the wire in place, but before running the 12v+ I tested the radio again, I had reception... good reception. The ground is connected to one of the visor screws (routed under the headliner). I decided to test the unit more before connecting power to the antenna and so far it seems to work pretty good, but it could be better.

Possibly later this week I'll connect power to the antenna through an ignition sourced power wire and see if I can get even better reception.

As for the iPod part, it's routed to pop out at my center console, the main purpose of it so far is a convenient place to charge my iPhone, I'll get around to using it more in the future, but after a quick function check it seems to work fine.

The cons to this install:

*having to install another antenna, not a big deal b/c it's fairly hidden, but I wish I knew that from the start.

*the modules don't fit behind the radio, or at least I didn't take enough time to figure out how to stash them deeper in the dash, they are currently taking over my glove compartment, which isn't a biggie b/c I don't use that much anyway.

here's what the antenna looks like

LawmanSS · April 23, 2010

I have the same setup as you, but I'm running this antenna. I ran the cable under the passenger side A-pillar and mounted the antenna under the headliner. I left the factory antenna attached to the radio and used the new antenna on the HD tuner. The HD radio reception is fair...depending on geographic location.

nickvrebel · April 23, 2010

ah, my update:

I have shoved the modules up in the space under the dash above the glove box so now it's a 100% clean install, with the truck off the only thing you would see is the ipod cable hanging out in the console.

I connected power to the antenna, I don't know if I need a noise filter or what, the HD clarity is awesome when it's there, but it's spotty, I think it's more of figuring out the best antenna solution.

nickvrebel · April 30, 2010

ok, last night I pulled the ground wire and completely shielded it with electrical tape, then removed the antenna from the windshield and shoved it above the headliner. It seems work better so far, I kept it on HD Radio the whole commute in to work.