My NEX8000 has had really crappy radio reception for about a month now ever since I installed a reverse camera.  I thought maybe I had not pushed the antenna all the way back in or something, but today I installed a new microphone and checked the input for the antenna and it was solid.  I pulled it out and pushed it back to check it.  My car has 2 antenna plugs, 1 large and 1 small, I have the large plugged in which I think is correct for a 2006 Lexus RX330.   Does anyone have any suggestions of what to check?

Thanks for any help!

For the HD radio, I would think that the car antenna should work.  Might be a grounding issue with the HU (a guess)

On another note I know when I got my Kenwood installed, I asked if they would just use the car antenna for the Nav (the OEA had Sat) but they said it wouldn't work and put my Nav antenna on the dash.

I just installed a 5000 in my 2006 subaru this weekend and my FM reception seems very spotty based on where my car is on the road.  Some spots work great and some get no reception at all.  My stock radio had no problems at all with reception.

I have a 5000 and have crap reception AM and FM.  I asked the installer to check the antenna and he said its all in connected.  Im streaming most of the time but its nice to have the local channels coming in clear if you want them.

I fixed the problem on my subaru.  There was a wire marked power antenna on the car harness not connected.  I did a little research and found out that it was the stock antenna amplifier wire.  Hooked it up to the remote control wire for 12v and now the reception is perfect.  

I fixed the problem on my subaru.  There was a wire marked power antenna on the car harness not connected.  I did a little research and found out that it was the stock antenna amplifier wire.  Hooked it up to the remote control wire for 12v and now the reception is perfect.  

Upon reading the original post (OP), I was going to suggest checking if its an amplified antenna.  Perhaps the small plug he referred to supplies amplifier power...

Yep.  Most modern vehicles have an antenna amp and it needs to be hooked up; the usual connection is to either switched power or the amp enable wire.  The Pioneer NEX radios do not have a "power antenna" wire, which used to be the one you'd use for that purpose.  I recommend switched power (typically red in the radio harness) as that usually has an amp or so of capacity where the head unit's amp-enable wire is designed only to be a signal wire to an external amp to turn on.

...where the head unit's amp-enable wire is designed only to be a signal wire to an external amp to turn on.

True... but FWIW, the 8000 installation manual says 300mA max... so not connecting an antenna amp is not an absolute.  An antennna amp shouldn't require much current.  It is quite possible the wire could power the amp... but I wouldn't try unless I knew the current draw of all connected equipment or inserted a 300mA fast-blow fuse inline (which BTW isn't a bad idea connecting anything to this wire).

The other possibility would be where the system is installed to trigger or power satellite equipment using a the HU "turn on" wire to control a relay coil, where the satellite equipment are powered through the normally open relay contacts.

You can run it off the red (ignition) wire; it will be "on" whenever the ignition is, but that's ok.  That is typically good for at least 1 amp (most of the afternarket steering wheel control interfaces such as the PAC unit are); the actual power feed from the car, if you get it directly from the harness, is typically fused at a much higher level (3 or 5A is common.)

You can run it off the red (ignition) wire; it will be "on" whenever the ignition is, but that's ok.  That is typically good for at least 1 amp (most of the afternarket steering wheel control interfaces such as the PAC unit are); the actual power feed from the car, if you get it directly from the harness, is typically fused at a much higher level (3 or 5A is common.)

You already said that... my reply was merely pointing out that other options exist where that the antenna amp would not be powered unless the HU is on.

Thanks for the input guys, I've dealt with shitty reception for weeks now and it freaking sucks. I am going to try to fix it this weekend by checking the antenna amp wire.  Maybe something disconnected.  I had the unit professionally installed and everything was working great, it was only when I installed the backup camera that I started having problems with the whole unit including this reception problem.  I'll let you guys know what I find this weekend!

Did hooking up your antenna amp wire to switched power solve the problem? i'm having the same problem with my Subaru, poor FM and AM reception with my 4000NEX.

UPDATE: connecting my blue power amp wire to switched power solved my problem.

Crazy how my European F60DAB has an option to turn off the DAB aerial's power supply, while this is connected to the remote wire... Ignition wire is the way to go I guess.