Ok, guy, I'm going to give you the inside info on antennas.

It does not matter how it sounds. It's quite impossible for this antenna to actually grab a signal like a 60inch, 30inch 15 inch or 7.5 inch antenna. It is not tuned for the magnetic resonance of a radio wave between 88MHZ and 108MHZ.

I am an electronics tech. I specialized in RADAR for 6 years. Each frequency has it's own wavelength. I will now explain to you why I said this and try to keep it simple because this is actually a whole field of study.

Each frequency has it's own resonance, this resonance is at 1, .5, .25, and so on and so forth. When you design a pickup device you need to know the frequency for which you are designing the antenna. The reason is each frequency has a wavelength. That wavelength is measured in distance. As a wave moves it actually covers a speciffic distance between pulses. If you do not tune your antenna right that wave will come in distorted. This is the reason all car antennas are between 30-36". this is also the reason you can get a better TV reception with rabbit ears partially extended but when you fully extend them, it gets worse.

In order to calculate the lenght required to tune an antenna to a speciffic frequency, you've got to know a few things. The speed of radio waves, which is the speed of light, or 300Mm/second (megameters). 100MHZ is about the middle of the dial.

If you divide 300,000,000 meters per second by a frequency which oscillates 100,000,000 times per second, you're left with 3 meters or about 120 inches.

Now for resonance, 1/2 of that size will give you 1/2 of the wavelength, this is where the sweet spot lies, but 60" is too long. The 3rd resonance is 1/4 of the wave length, which is our antenna, about 30". the 4th resonant is 1/8 of the wavelength 15" and you start dropping more signal.

You can read more about designing an antenna by searching google. Just know that this antenna is not tuned for radio reception. It belongs on a 900mhz cordless phone.




Don't use lock-tite on the threads. it carries the signal.

 

d0od. i think everybody in gods creation knows you are a electronics tech. we also know you take your job uberoverserious. my statement to you was that :

A: you don't have one.
B: you don't know how well they work for as short they are.
C: your comment came off to a "simpleton" like me as saying they are worthless.

I pick up the EXACT same stations i listened to with my factory "eye gouger" antenna, which one is 40 miles from my house, without one bit of problems. now i don't have uberoverserious wave length signal checker gizmos you might have that would tell me I have lost .0013857684 whatever you measure it in and i could care less.

when I have my volume set at the same setting i had it set at with the factory antenna setting at it sounds the same, no fuzziness, is a shorter length and looks great, it works. simple as that. Oh, and the way it "grabs" a signal, grabs me in a NICE sortaway,almost in a wetnap sorta way. got one handy?

I don't stand behind to many products but these work and that is all a "simpleton" kinda guy like me cares about.

 

^^ it's not a matter of fuzzyness or anything, it's richness of sound

 

DrivingTibNaked, thank you for your concern. I NEVER said these antennas were made for reception. In fact, I said that if you want the best reception, keep your stock antenna. I'm glad that you're the antenna scientist and all, but I quite simply DO NOT CARE, so please keep all of this BS out of here. You're spouting information that is redundant and quite obvious.

Can you not read the thread?



Thanks for your support Urson,
Paul

 

^^ Is there a reason you didn't just add 1.5" , or take away 2? I mean, it's such a simple fix to make a proper FM antenna, rather then a non-FM wavelength?

 

The thread and base assembly adds 1.5" to the length when it is in the car. The listed lengths are the visible lengths.

Thanks,
Paul

 

^^ You should list that length then. So guys like me, who actually do the math before buying an antenna do not post that kind of thing.

 

popcorn.gif

uberoverserious is my new favorite word.

 

Wow, and I thought I was anal. Math before you buy an antenna, that you are buying for LOOKS?

Ugh.

Closed.