the remote turn-on lead for the amp was tapped off of the power antenna turn-on wire, so the only time the amp comes on is with the radio. to fix that, you can change that wire to anything thats only powered up when the key is in the acc. and on positions. i believe the + cig lighter wire is like this.
as far as bad reception, perhaps the antenna was never plugged back into the headunit when the installers were putting the amp in? theres a thread about 4 or 5 down from this one on bad reception, you might want to look at that.
