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Thread: Antenna options

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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    Default Antenna options

    I wasn't able to find much of a discussion about options for the radio antenna. They're ugly and since I am opening my dash soon I was curious to about getting people's thoughts and experiences. What I want to do is remove the big exterior antenna while having minimal impact on radio reception. I have an HD-capable radio but when I listen to radio stations it's usually AM & FM talk stations since I play MP3s for music. So while I don't have much of a need for pulling in radio at a high quality, I still want it to do so reliably. Hopefully since I live in the flat state of Florida near Orlando it will be easier for my options to work well.

    I've looked on both Amazon and Crutchfield, and it seems like everything has poor reviews. I'm definitely open to using one of these, but since the factory antenna seems terrific at what it does I thought about fastening it horizontally under the wiper cowl or in the front bumper. I'm certain I read about someone doing that here but I don't see it.

    Eventually when I need a repaint I will have the hole filled.

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    tk9298's Avatar
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    What about xm radio?

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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    No, I want standard terrestrial AM/FM radio. I have no interest in the pay radio services, even if I did I'd still want the capabilities of the AM/FM radio. My plan is to start opening stuff up tomorrow and see what happens.

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    niebs's Avatar
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    i dont think there is a "good" hidden antenna. They will probably be good enough for local stations. but doubt itll be as good as factory. have you looked into antennas off of cars like a bmw or so. they look like a little shark fin haha. may be better looking then the original tho

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    9t9-5.2's Avatar
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    I relocated mine to the roof with one very similar to:http://guide.alibaba.com/shop/car-to...e_9681617.html it is mounted to the rear center of my roof, will likely get replaced one day with a shark fin in the same location. You can kind of see it in the attached pic.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by 9t9-5.2; 01-27-2016 at 10:08 PM.

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    OG DRTC

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    Had one of these on my Charger. You would have to re-locate the antenna base to the roof, but it didnt cut down reception over the stock antenna at all.
    http://www.amazon.com/2008-2015-Char.../dp/B009SPZ7ZQ

    They sell on EBay as well I guess and will paint them to match. Just need to give them your paint code. Visual Garage is the company. Their website is getting updated right now so doesn't work.
    http://www.visualgarage.com/home.html


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    99dart's Avatar
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    I was going to install a power antenna several yrs ago. But, there isn't enough room below to get all the power mechanism in there...
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    ScojoDak's Avatar
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    I recently bought a shorter version of the oem one. See link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00
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    OG DRTC

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    Quote Originally Posted by ScojoDak View Post
    I recently bought a shorter version of the oem one. See link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00
    How is reception? I have a 12" billet antenna on my truck and I lose about 30 miles of range compared to stock.


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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    I took off the antenna today and opened up the dashboard for the first time in a couple years. I spent most of the first few years of owning this truck with the dash looking like this. I even unscrewed the antenna and was surprised that I can still pick up FM, poorly, but I can still easily make out what it is.

    The location I initially imagined to hold the antenna won't work because I didn't realize that hood covers this section when I thought this up. I don't know much about antennas but I'm sure they don't work very well when they are virtually enclosed in metal. I have another idea that I'm going to work on though. At this point I'm not yet ready to try one of those modern fin-style antennas because I still want to see if I can make it disappear.

    I was able to figure out why windshield washer squirters weren't working. I did the reservoir-relocation mod in order to install an efan shroud so I was afraid that the pump had gone bad. Thankfully it is just fine and it is the Y adapter on the spray hose that has gone bad. If I pop off the adapter the hose squirts a lot of water, but with the Y adapter hardly anything comes out. It's a little fancier than a Y adapter though so I went to the dealership just to see if they had them, and I can get one for the low price of $43! But to be fair that comes with the 3 new hoses! They told me that it is actually a valve, so I assume it seals off the pumping when not in use so that it reduces the change of drying out.



    Right now I have it soaking with the hopes that whatever might have gunked it up with soften and leave, but I'm afraid it really is just broken.

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    ScojoDak's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hskr View Post
    How is reception?
    Haven't got it yet. Will let you know.
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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    I have now tried two different antenna with disappointing results. The first was basically a loose wire design that would allow you to route it anywhere you wished, but it fails to pick up much of anything outside of standard FM even when you hold it stretched out.

    The seconds was this that I bought today. I was close to Best Buy and decided to give the Metra Amplified AM/FM antenna adapter a shot, but it's going back right now: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/metra-am...&skuId=8264638

    My radio pulls in AM, FM, and digital FM. Typically if you tune to an FM station with a digital simulcast transmission it will bounce over to that signal automatically after a couple seconds. Without power, this antenna brought in digital FM and little AM, but when it was powered I could pull in only staticy standard FM and a slightly stronger AM. I'm certain I had power running to it too because the little LED lit up when I had the power connected. After a couple seconds of putting power to the antenna it would lose the digital FM signal and fall back to standard FM. On the one hand it's unbelievable that it's worse with power, but on the other hand I know that tech is built with such shitty quality anymore that this shouldn't surprise me. I'm not even going to bother replacing it, so I'm taking it back for a refund.

  13. #13

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    Is there no way to ground an antenna, like that loose wire one, to the roof, so the roof, if not the whole cab, becomes the antenna?
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    The powered antenna had a separate ground wire, but the loose wire version did not. I believe the exposed metal portion of the connection is a ground, I did seal it up with glued heat shrink tubing but I could cut it off and try again.

  15. #15

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    Ground may have been the wrong word. I'm not well versed in antennas, but I'm guessing that the ground on the powered version is a standard circuit ground, and not involved with signal. What I was thinking was make the cab itself the antenna - rather than stringing a loose one inside it. So it would need a wire to connect the cab to the radio, and the loose wire antenna seemed the likely choice. However, perhaps that's the wrong gauge wire for that task. And perhaps there needs to be some sort of amplification of the signal. Again, I don't know antennas that well. Some research is in order, but that's the direction I would look in - making the body the antenna. It's metal, so I would think it would work better than anything hidden inside it (unless the paint on the outside causes problems maybe).
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    I used a Dakota digital amplified antenna that I put inside at the top of my windshield, I didn't notice any loss in reception with it and that was back in 2005.
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    OG DRTC

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dark(a)RT View Post
    Ground may have been the wrong word. I'm not well versed in antennas, but I'm guessing that the ground on the powered version is a standard circuit ground, and not involved with signal. What I was thinking was make the cab itself the antenna - rather than stringing a loose one inside it. So it would need a wire to connect the cab to the radio, and the loose wire antenna seemed the likely choice. However, perhaps that's the wrong gauge wire for that task. And perhaps there needs to be some sort of amplification of the signal. Again, I don't know antennas that well. Some research is in order, but that's the direction I would look in - making the body the antenna. It's metal, so I would think it would work better than anything hidden inside it (unless the paint on the outside causes problems maybe).
    Does t work that way. A properly designed antenna has a tuned length to maximize reception. You can't just.make an piece of metal.an antenna and expect it to work good.


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    If there's a valve in that y-fitting, it's gotta be an anti-drain back valve. Likely there to prevent having to run the pump an extra 2 seconds to refill the lines.

    Mine quit working too. I replaced it with a simple plastic vacuum fitting that cost me .15?

    Wiper juice works fine

    Also, your antenna is an ingenious design. It actually uses the flat surface it's mounted on to increase its effectiveness. I don't remember a lot from that portion of EE, but it has to do with dipoles and sine waves an' shit.

    This is why so many 'hidden' receivers suck. Your factory radio antenna is tuned specifically for the frequencies used on the local FM dial. This includes overall antenna height and the physical location of the antenna.
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    Hugh Jassole's Avatar
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    just put Sirius in it and be done/happy. You can then eliminate the stick ant. altogether
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    BluRT00's Avatar
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    You could pay me to sit in the passenger seat and sing?

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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Jassole View Post
    just put Sirius in it and be done/happy. You can then eliminate the stick ant. altogether
    It actually had a Sirius antenna silicones to the roof when I bought it and that got yanked the first time I gutted the interior. Sirius is great in theory but I'm too cheap to pay for radio.

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    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BluRT00 View Post
    You could pay me to sit in the passenger seat and sing?

  23. #23


    Steve '02CC's Avatar
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    I'm going ghetto:


    I kinda neglected this for a bit but now I've ghettoized my factory antenna and am gonna test out some things. Sadly this crude riggup works better than anything I've bought.

  24. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Filthy Filbert View Post
    This is why so many 'hidden' receivers suck. Your factory radio antenna is tuned specifically for the frequencies used on the local FM dial. This includes overall antenna height and the physical location of the antenna.
    On that note, I have just been realizing how good the stock system really is. I'm in SE PA and am able to pick up Hershey/Harrisburg (mid PA) stations pretty well in certain areas. That's nearly 2 hours (about 83 miles) away. It comes in so well around work (8 miles from my house) that I added it to my programmed list. I lose it about 90% by the time I get to my house though. But that's still pretty damn good.
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