Just wondered if there is any particular practical reason for the plethora of diverse mounting of radio aerials on vehicles. Those on the roof / wing areas do nothing for the asthetic appearance and are vulnerable to malicious / accidental damage whilst others are a more discreet device on the rear of the roof or rear screen and some are totally unseen re incorporated into the rear screen etc.
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On the whole screen aerials aren't as good as external ones. My Skodas had an aerial in the sun roof and it wasn't all that good.
Anything will do to get a signal of sorts, my daughter's rusty coat hanger for example.
LJK Setright used to say that the aerial should be kept impeccably clean for a proper signal. Hi-fi was one of the bees in his bonnet.
It's a good idea to keep the aerial a good distance from the engine, people always used to say.
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the aerial in the rear screen of the Prelude seems to have an amplifier but still isn't very good - gives most trouble when trying to listen to the cricket on longwave (remember longwave?)
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The long chromed telescopic jobs can be quite aesthetic. A Merc W124 coupe I had , had such. It extended/retracted when you turned radio on/off. I always made a point of cleaning it (extended) & wd-40'ing it, then twisting it at the telescopic joints to keep good conductance.
It came out at a rakish angle on the rear wing, with a nice whirring sound. When retracted, it left no temptation for vandals.
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Many roof aerials do more than just the radio, many do telephone too and some also satnav and DTT too or at least . So if the top models need a roof diversity aerial that does those, they will use roof mounted ones on the basic models with a basic aerial too.
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Remember those 10ft long ones that you mounted on the front wing - then bent over and clipped to the back bumper? no? - well they were rubbish! what were they thinking when they brought them out?
Billy
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It was usually the other way round - they were mounted on the back bumper or thereabouts and extended straight up when not clipped to the front bumper. When extended they were an electrical quarter wave in respect of citizens' band frequencies, or with a little trimming, in respect of ham band 10 metres too.
I had one or two contacts across the herring pond with one.
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Remember the XR4i-the one with the double wing spoiler?It had an electric aerial on the rear wing and was wired into the bootlight switch so that the aerial retracted when you opened the boot so the aerial and spoiler didn't tangle.
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