B5 amplified aerial - is mine broken?

[achundee]

Hi all,

I was messing around with my head unit and I managed to break the inner wire where my aerial cable goes into the Fakra style aerial connector.

I managed to buy a cable from the main dealer and I gave it to my mechanic to fit into the car when it was being serviced. When I got the car back, I was unable to speak to the guy who actually did the work, but was told that the connector was "spliced" into the existing cable. So rather than unplugging the flylead that goes to the radio in the kickpanel and replugging in the new cable there and routing it to the stereo, he just bodged the cable onto the end of the existing flylead with the old broken Fakra connector cut off.

Lo and behold the radio was not working, which he had not checked because he didn't know my radio code for when he reconnected the power (it auto learns off the ecu if you wait and give it 30 seconds!)

I spoke to a mate where I used to live in London, and he said that I might be really up the creek here. He said the aerial is amplified, and that if the cable was shorted (as it might have been with how the mechanic tried to fit it in), it might have blown the amplifier, which is about £250?!?!?! He also said it is a pain in the backside to change over because it is behind the headlining.

So, a couple of questions here if you don't mind please:

If i put a multimeter on the two wires of the aerial cable, should I see any voltage? When i broke the wire before, I do remember seeing a spark there which i thought was odd!

Are there any conclusive tests to see if my amplifier is shafted, and if it is, what is the best course of action please?

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks,
Ajoy.