OK. Let's see if I understand:

I don't know which wire (coming from the car) powers the antenna amp (if indeed there is one ... that and I didn't even SEE a free wire hanging around ). So, plan B: I should split the blue amp remote to TWO locations - the amp where it's going now, and also the power antenna lead coming out of the extension.

Is that right? That's OK to do? Do I have it backwards? (I know, dumb question perhaps, but I want to be sure. Bear with me here.)

To clarify the "hooked up to what" issue - sorry 'bout that. I meant to say the blue "antenna remote" wire coming from the wiring harness is connected to the blue "antenna remote" wire on the empeg side (basically what Greg did with his Odyssey setup).

Wow, this is probably REALLY WRONG - I have corrected this in a post further below. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS (or anything in this thread) as installation advice. I'm learning here ... there, you've been warned.

BUT WAIT! I decided to remove the extension between the Rio and the tuner module, as well as the antenna lead. Then I connected 'em back and saw a li'l battery icon on the display. Lo and behold, I HAD AM!

Now I really really really don't think anything was different, but it's obviously different. At this point, if I leave it alone and it happens again, I'm VERY suspicious of this:

There is a known bug with the antenna amplifier line in 2.0b3, where it doesn't always activate the antenna amplifier.