Of course a bunch of us have the problem with the power antenna on our cars. The mast breaks and it doesn’t go all the way up or down anymore. So we replace it and it breaks again. What can we do? Well we can opt for the roof mounted Fuba or Zendar antenna which is visually appealing, gets decent reception, and has a fair amount of labor involved in installing one. Or we can opt for an S2000 antenna which IMHO doesn’t look just right on our cars. Or we can opt for the small low profile roof mounted antennas like the ones on the new BMWs. Nice and small but again don’t know what kind of custom job has to be done to make it work.
I’ve seen and heard of the clear tape antennas from places like radioshack, you can stick on your front or rear winshield but I’ve heard those really suck on reception.
Have any of you heard of the internal/hidden antennas like the ones used on the newer Prelude SHs? If you noticed there is no external antenna anywhere. Their antenna is mounted on the left side right by the rear window near the roof line. It gets great reception and it doesn’t interfere with the body lines at all. Dont’ know what would be involved in installing one on our cars.
But if you go to this link below this may be an alternative:
Clean, can be mounted away from view, and is still noted to have good reception. Fairly inexpensive and you don’t have to worry about breaking and replacing masts anymore. What are you guys’ thoughts on this and any of the above alternatives? Just looking for opinions right now.
hey leo, its mike, theres a stick on glass internal antenna you can get from Metra. its amplified so the reception will still be good. i have one, but haven’t put it on yet so i can’t tell how well it works. the part number for it is #44-UA200.
That would work fine. On any given car, even a foot long piece of wire attached to the center coax out of your deck would suffice for decent FM recpetion, although getto.
The antenna on that link does seem like a great alternative to external antennas. As long as you mount it as high as possible and you don’t care about AM, then it should satisfy you needs just fine IMO.
how about just adding a antenna somewhere behind on of the panels, and the antenna mast is up? Like a civic antenna in the trunk area behind something, secured. This I think would do the trick. I thought the preludes used the antenna’s that are in the glass ala the rest of the new honda’s? Its just one of the window defrosters that it looks like that is actually the ant??
I have the tape antenna and works okay on my car. Its OKAY, but not the greatest, but then again I listen to cd’s 95% of the time I’m in my car.
Here’s my site with antenna’s on it. PROMOTE IT I’m still in the process of adding though so don’t flame me about it not being finished.
My pops has an 2000 Civic that has the on glass ant. and a was wondering if you can go to honda and buy one…I’m sure that they would be expensive if they do sell them. If it could be used, that would be a great alternative cuz they have great reception, only if the price is right.
Originally posted by rcnacura
[B]how about just adding a antenna somewhere behind on of the panels, and the antenna mast is up? Like a civic antenna in the trunk area behind something, secured. This I think would do the trick. I thought the preludes used the antenna’s that are in the glass ala the rest of the new honda’s? Its just one of the window defrosters that it looks like that is actually the ant??
I have the tape antenna and works okay on my car. Its OKAY, but not the greatest, but then again I listen to cd’s 95% of the time I’m in my car.
Here’s my site with antenna’s on it. PROMOTE IT I’m still in the process of adding though so don’t flame me about it not being finished.
youre rite the newer honda antennas are loccated where the defrosters are but act as a antenna, thats pretty cool i fyou ask me, i mean no one would ever know where the antenna was…
My tape antenna from Radio Shack works fairly decent. My car came with a broken antenna mast :sad: I listen to AM 740 News Radio a lot, so I don’t miss out on the FM being a little weaker.
youre rite the newer honda antennas are loccated where the defrosters are but act as a antenna, thats pretty cool i fyou ask me, i mean no one would ever know where the antenna was… [/B]
They did it to save cost. I think all car manufacturers should do this cuz it looks better IMO, excluding some european cars. But if you were to buy a new back window it will cost you BOOKU bucks! Another downside is that they will sell with two version of the back window if you were to have to replace, one without the antenna and one with. If you get the cheaper one, well ur aszed out for a radio.
scrapin: And no you can’t add it like a reg antenna, its like printed on the back window. Only alternative we have is the tape antenna which I sell on my website
As for the tape ones you can go buy a FM radio antenna booster that could solve the problem. Don’t expect really big gains from it, but it would help, (I have one), the audiovox one.
i know about our antennas being a pain in the ass. I bought the special tool from acura to remover the cap holding the antenna in and it just stripped it out. So can i just hack that cap off and fill in the hole. Then remove the power antenna motor and put the HAB Hidden Antenna ware that was?
Leo- just a heads up… don’t get ripped off like i did from auto loc. they charge an arm and a leg on parts. don’t even let me tell you how they ripped me on my door poppers. I even picked them up in portland and they wouldn’t giv me a discount. I later was able to find similar ones for cheaper. look around first. auto loc also tends not to sell you all the necesary parts… they make you buy it later…
Yup the Civic sedan has antenna built into rear glass
My g/f’s civic has the antenna built into the rear glass. Her stereo gets better reception and you would think because I have an antenna that goes up and down that mine would too get great reception too, although it doesn’t. IMO I’d stick to the stock antenna, just for the reason that I hardly listen to the radio. Get a 6 disk CD changer and who needs radio. Does anyone have XM radio? I here you need another antenna for that, what do those look like?
I hear that in 6 months time, XM radio will go bankrupt if they dont get enough people to subscribe. At least thats what they are telling me at AL AND ED’S AUTOSOUND. I was looking into it and the guy said to wait.
xm radio haha. not even a changer. just get yourself a jvc kd-sh99 mp3 deck and be done with it
so what makes a good antennae? which ones are amplified? is there a ground? like he said, how come a small hidden one may sound better than a tall mast. inquiring minds would like to know…
how about just adding a antenna somewhere behind on of the panels, and the antenna mast is up?
I did this with my stock antenna full extended but my AM reception is nil. FM sucks sometimes like in valleys/canyons but it works. I ran it up and inside the passenger side rear pillar.
I was advised to wrap the antenna with hose or tape so that it will get better reception since it won’t be in contact with the body of the car as much. Don’t know if this makes sense, so if someone can elaborate that would be cool.
I want my AM to work for news and sports. An suggestions? I saw an amplified shorty at Pep Boys, I think it was the Rally brand. Does anybody have this?
I was advised to wrap the antenna with hose or tape so that it will get better reception since it won’t be in contact with the body of the car as much. Don’t know if this makes sense, so if someone can elaborate that would be cool.
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i guess you dont want the antennae to be grounded then. the body of the car is the ground.
I’m still in the process of adding though so don’t flame me about it not being finished.
I’m still in the process of adding though so don’t flame me about it not being finished.