Antenna again - LotusTalk

Phil S · 10-09-2008, 10:52 PM

Has anyone tried using a windshield antenna. They are available on ebay and may not look too bad
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I have searched the forum and came up empty. I did the Polk install (front and rear) and the sound is acceptable with the cd player but the radio reception is so poor it is better to listen to the engine. I have an 07 elise with the stock radio.

Cheers......Phil

Amarao · 10-09-2008, 11:17 PM

People listen to the radio these days?

You know, God invented the ipod for a reason...

Phil S · 10-11-2008, 09:38 PM

Ipods are fine but, I would like to listen to the radio from time to time. Does anyone have a fix for the antenna (poor reception)?

MightyMike · 10-12-2008, 07:11 PM

My radio reception was extremely poor with my Blaupunkt stereo, but reception improved dramatically when I installed my Alpine.

qball · 10-12-2008, 07:20 PM

I can't hear the radio in my car. I terminated the XM. I rarely have it on.

I'd rather listen to the intake whine and the exhaust.

stinkyonion · 10-12-2008, 07:40 PM

On my stock alpine I get jazz, spanish station, religion and nothing else. Hope someone contributes something meaningful here...I badly need tunes.

ryoung99 · 10-13-2008, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qball

I'd rather listen to the intake whine and the exhaust.

You are so right.... since I got my ECU back on Friday and have been tooling around, I have been doing so with the radio off so I could hear the s/c whine. It is a beautiful sound.

...m... · 10-13-2008, 11:23 AM

...i've never turned on my radio and honestly have no clue what sort of reception the stock aught-fives get...

Domino · 10-13-2008, 12:32 PM

I tried one of these:

... and it was completely worthless. Took it out and put the stock setup back in. Tried a regular 30" antenna too and it didn't help either. I think the only way to improve it is to swap the head with something that has a better tuner.

kestrel74 · 10-13-2008, 12:38 PM

Just don't tell us you listen to......( gasp ) AM.

TimMullen · 10-13-2008, 02:00 PM

A problem with antennas on a fiberglass bodied car is - well - the fiberglass.

The typical car antenna uses the metal body of the car as it's "ground plane" and a fiberglass body doesn't work that way. A typical antenna has the center of the antenna connected to the center wire in the antenna cable. The shielding on the cable is connected to ground where the antenna is mounted to the metal body of the car.

In the case of the Elise, we don't have that grounding.

The cure is to install an antenna that doesn't need the ground plane - they make antennas specifically for boats that don't need one, and some of the "dipole" antennas (I suspect that what we have from the factory, although I've never checked into it) - an antenna that typically has two wires branching out in two directions (they make simple ones to attach to your radio at home).

When I installed a radio in my Elan, I had to come up with an antenna. The Elan has a metal rod that connects the top and bottom of the center of the windshield (holds things together). I ran the antenna wire to this rod. It didn't work very well, until I connected the shield to the sheet metal chassis (which provided the ground plane). I don't know what it would take on the Elise for a good antenna...

Yellow Peril · 10-13-2008, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimMullen

A problem with antennas on a fiberglass bodied car is - well - the fiberglass.

The typical car antenna uses the metal body of the car as it's "ground plane" and a fiberglass body doesn't work that way. A typical antenna has the center of the antenna connected to the center wire in the antenna cable. The shielding on the cable is connected to ground where the antenna is mounted to the metal body of the car.

In the case of the Elise, we don't have that grounding.

The cure is to install an antenna that doesn't need the ground plane - they make antennas specifically for boats that don't need one, and some of the "dipole" antennas (I suspect that what we have from the factory, although I've never checked into it) - an antenna that typically has two wires branching out in two directions (they make simple ones to attach to your radio at home).

When I installed a radio in my Elan, I had to come up with an antenna. The Elan has a metal rod that connects the top and bottom of the center of the windshield (holds things together). I ran the antenna wire to this rod. It didn't work very well, until I connected the shield to the sheet metal chassis (which provided the ground plane). I don't know what it would take on the Elise for a good antenna...

Tim is right on, the factory antenna is technically a dipole. A real dipole has two elements pointing opposite directions from the central connection point (ie: 180° from each other, forming a T shape) with a balun transformer in the middle for impedence matching. The Elise installation is a piece of coax with extensions of the center conductor and outer conductor as two element arms at probably more like 120° (a Y shape), each element extending from about where the lotus badge is towards the a-pillar, one on each side (kind of like in the attached) all taped to the underside of the clam. This less-than-ideal structure compounded with it all being just direcly created from the coax wire (no balun etc.) makes for a poor antenna, but right on par with the $hitty audio system. I call that optimal engineering and perfectly aligned with what the Elise is all about...

knucklehead · 10-13-2008, 05:21 PM

The early '05s have a hole on the top of the boot lid that was originally for an antenna. Do you think adding the non-Fed antenna would help?

TimMullen · 10-13-2008, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knucklehead

The early '05s have a hole on the top of the boot lid that was originally for an antenna. Do you think adding the non-Fed antenna would help?

Don't know how it would work, but I would think that running an antenna cable from the dash to the engine compartment and the boot lid would be a major pain. I wonder if the engine's electrical signals would generate noise or not?

Phoenix SRT · 10-13-2008, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimMullen

Don't know how it would work, but I would think that running an antenna cable from the dash to the engine compartment and the boot lid would be a major pain. I wonder if the engine's electrical signals would generate noise or not?

How does the non-fed Elise route the antenna wire from the dash to the engine cover? As for electical interference from the engine, isn't it reasonable to assume that the non-fed Elise has no such problem and that the fed Elise won't have the problem either (once you figure out how to route the external antenna back there)?

chilelise · 10-13-2008, 11:49 PM

I tried this antenna also and found it to be completely worthless.

HD radio is pretty good. But breaks off time to time when reception isn't too good.

Satellite radio works well. Very good reception. But programming are based on eastern standard time. Not so good for CA folks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Domino

I tried one of these:

... and it was completely worthless. Took it out and put the stock setup back in. Tried a regular 30" antenna too and it didn't help either. I think the only way to improve it is to swap the head with something that has a better tuner.

MikeVR4 · 10-14-2008, 12:33 AM

TurboPhil did this mod recently:

HID Radio Fuzz Gone!

TimMullen · 10-14-2008, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix SRT

How does the non-fed Elise route the antenna wire from the dash to the engine cover?

I have no idea.

Quote:

As for electrical interference from the engine, isn't it reasonable to assume that the non-fed Elise has no such problem and that the fed Elise won't have the problem either (once you figure out how to route the external antenna back there)?

Don't know that either. But with the antenna right over the engine/spark plugs/fuel injectors, I would suspect that there is a possibility of electrical noise.

But the OEM antenna works just fine for my purposes.

glb · 10-14-2008, 09:12 PM

the elise ant. is marginal, but not bad enough for me to work on.

On my elan, a trunk mtd ant. worked wonderfully but: Had to be extended much beyond the ~37" length on steel cars. I tried grounding it, but that didn't seem to help.

Domino · 10-15-2008, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimMullen

... In the case of the Elise, we don't have that grounding...

When I tested a conventional antenna I tried various grounds to the base of it and it helped a little but not much. It may not be just the fact that it is grounded... but the surface area of the ground or something.

And yes... I do listen to AM.

10-09-2008, 10:52 PM	#1 (permalink)
Phil S 2007 Phantom Black Elise Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 211	Antenna again Has anyone tried using a windshield antenna. They are available on ebay and may not look too bad I have searched the forum and came up empty. I did the Polk install (front and rear) and the sound is acceptable with the cd player but the radio reception is so poor it is better to listen to the engine. I have an 07 elise with the stock radio. Cheers......Phil

10-12-2008, 07:11 PM	#4 (permalink)
MightyMike Legend in my own mind Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Colorado Springs, CO Posts: 833 Images: 9	My radio reception was extremely poor with my Blaupunkt stereo, but reception improved dramatically when I installed my Alpine. __________________ 06 ST Elise 02 SLK32 AMG BWR Supercharged w/CharlieX tune, Borla Exhaust, OCC, ACT XTSS Clutch, Zeitronix A/F Meter, LETSLA, Manly Mounts, RTD Brace, ReVerie Diffuser, Scoops, Side Skirts, & Shifter Ball, Forcefed Spoiler, & a bunch of other stuff

10-13-2008, 11:23 AM	#8 (permalink)
...m... Denuo Volatilis Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 2,714	...i've never turned on my radio and honestly have no clue what sort of reception the stock aught-fives get... __________________ 2005 Federal Elise \| Touring \| Storm Titanium ...73,000 miles and aging beautifully... 2000 New Beetle \| Turbo \| Reflex Silver ...107,000 miles of steadfast service...

10-13-2008, 12:38 PM	#10 (permalink)
kestrel74 G-200 Driver Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: North of Detroit; Watkins Glen, NY Posts: 9,268	Just don't tell us you listen to......( gasp ) AM. __________________ 74 Europa Zetec TC Special 3614R Elise #2292 / Chrome Orange !! / Starshield / Nitron Sport SA / RTDbrace / Uprights machined / Down Low rails / ChaseCam / V1 / SS lines w/ R4-S "My daily driver does .85 Mach" " I started flying when Sex was safe and Hang Gliding was dangerous " BUY My Europa ! http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f94/...pa-sale-43829/

10-13-2008, 02:00 PM	#11 (permalink)
TimMullen Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Chantilly, VA Posts: 11,363 Images: 19	A problem with antennas on a fiberglass bodied car is - well - the fiberglass. The typical car antenna uses the metal body of the car as it's "ground plane" and a fiberglass body doesn't work that way. A typical antenna has the center of the antenna connected to the center wire in the antenna cable. The shielding on the cable is connected to ground where the antenna is mounted to the metal body of the car. In the case of the Elise, we don't have that grounding. The cure is to install an antenna that doesn't need the ground plane - they make antennas specifically for boats that don't need one, and some of the "dipole" antennas (I suspect that what we have from the factory, although I've never checked into it) - an antenna that typically has two wires branching out in two directions (they make simple ones to attach to your radio at home). When I installed a radio in my Elan, I had to come up with an antenna. The Elan has a metal rod that connects the top and bottom of the center of the windshield (holds things together). I ran the antenna wire to this rod. It didn't work very well, until I connected the shield to the sheet metal chassis (which provided the ground plane). I don't know what it would take on the Elise for a good antenna... __________________ Tim Mullen --- There is no such thing as Touring suspension or Touring wheels. I love being married. It's so great to find that one person that you want to annoy for the rest of your life. - Rita Rudner Chantilly, VA http://members.cox.net/elans4/ 05 Lotus Elise - Chrome Orange - No Touring - No LSS - No Hardtop - Lotus Driving Lights - Lotus "Chin Guards" - plain and simple. 94 Miata R Package - Black 72 Lotus Elan Sprint - Colorado Orange/Cirrus White

10-09-2008, 11:17 PM	#2 (permalink)
Amarao Hoon Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,415	People listen to the radio these days? You know, God invented the ipod for a reason...

10-11-2008, 09:38 PM	#3 (permalink)
Phil S 2007 Phantom Black Elise Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 211	Ipods are fine but, I would like to listen to the radio from time to time. Does anyone have a fix for the antenna (poor reception)?

10-12-2008, 07:20 PM	#5 (permalink)
qball Wizard of Pugz! Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 4,507 Images: 3	I can't hear the radio in my car. I terminated the XM. I rarely have it on. I'd rather listen to the intake whine and the exhaust.

10-12-2008, 07:40 PM	#6 (permalink)
stinkyonion Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Oak Brook, IL Posts: 230 Images: 2	On my stock alpine I get jazz, spanish station, religion and nothing else. Hope someone contributes something meaningful here...I badly need tunes.

10-13-2008, 12:32 PM	#9 (permalink)
Domino Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Nor Cal Posts: 201	I tried one of these: ... and it was completely worthless. Took it out and put the stock setup back in. Tried a regular 30" antenna too and it didn't help either. I think the only way to improve it is to swap the head with something that has a better tuner.

10-13-2008, 05:21 PM	#13 (permalink)
knucklehead TWRD & Blip advertising Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Marina del Rey, CA Posts: 3,834	The early '05s have a hole on the top of the boot lid that was originally for an antenna. Do you think adding the non-Fed antenna would help? __________________ Jacob Join Lotuscar.ning.com for LA Lotus social events 05 Exise, 2bular 6 inch exhaust. BWR double adjustable Penske shocks, Hypercoil springs, HIDs, BWR front sway bar, Light weight PC680 battery w/BWR brace, BWR Black badges and wheel centers, Custom SCC paint job, SCC OEM Exige mesh kit and Exige rear clam details, LSD, Lotus sport clutch and light weight fly wheel. Sector front splitter. Stebel horn. Multivex Mirrors. Volk CE28 wheels

10-14-2008, 12:33 AM	#17 (permalink)
MikeVR4 Elise Test Pilot Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Pacific Grove, CA Posts: 140	TurboPhil did this mod recently: HID Radio Fuzz Gone! __________________ Mind the Gap!

10-14-2008, 09:12 PM	#19 (permalink)
glb Unattractive Nuisance Join Date: May 2005 Location: Chester, NJ Posts: 4,510	the elise ant. is marginal, but not bad enough for me to work on. On my elan, a trunk mtd ant. worked wonderfully but: Had to be extended much beyond the ~37" length on steel cars. I tried grounding it, but that didn't seem to help. __________________ 05 elise (PES chip, SSRs, shift tower mods, Multivex; HID low beams); 05 Corolla XRS; 72 Elan Sprint, 170 hp (Sold) "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable." G. Orwell. 6. "A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company." - Gian Vincenzo Gravina

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