VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Radios, Tools, Accessories Hidden Antennas do they work?

Living in the Netherlands I had problems finding the corect Radio for my 48 Fleetmaster but thanks to 2 generous VCCA members I now have a nice working original radio.
There are only acouple of local AM stations here so not realy sure if I should instal a proper antenna.
My questiom is have any of you installed one of the modern hidden antennas and what are the results

Thank you in advance

Jianis

I tried to differant ones when I built my 41 neither one worked very well. I think they work best in a fiberglass car. I just listen to my iPod.

I wound about 10 metres of insulated hook-up wire Around my front bumper brackets, under the splash pAnel, and connected one end to the centre of the co-Axial antenna wire. Don't connect the other end to anything, just make sure it doesn't touch the car metal parts. The sheild (braided outer ) of the co-axial goes to the vehicle ground .
I receive AM and FM with no problems, but I live in a metropolitan area, have not tried it in the country yet.

I bought a new antenna, knew I paid too much money, so I hid it from my wife, but she found it anyway.

So for me, the hidden antenna didn't work.

Your homemade antenna sounds cool and it appears to be practical. Let us know how the reception is with the antenna when you try it out in the country.

Thank you all for your inputs

I see Hidden antennas are no good.
Almost nothing is to be hidden from wives.
I should give it a try to make an antenna myself or perhaps I can use an antenna I already constructed for bench testing the radio.
I measured the available area between the frond bumper and the radiator and it should just fit.I will let you know the results.
If no good I might start drilling for a *proper* Antenna.

Jianis

What about taking a small wire and running it around the inside of the windshield?? If I recall correctly, the early to mid 70s chevys had a windshield embedded antenna. They didn't work great but did function.

Our 1970 Impala had a antenna for the radio embedded in the windshield glass and the reception was horrible.

I also had a Chevy with the windshield antenna and it was very poor unless close to the radio tower.

My 72 Monte Carlo has the antenna in the windshield and the radio. Has always worked good from new.

Ya, that's how our 1970 Impala was too. If we were in town the reception was fairly good but out in the country where we live the reception was mostly static. However, our 1969 Impala with a "real" antenna on the front fender worked great always no matter were we were in the area.

In the southern part of the state where I live it is mostly flatland and here the reception was not too bad. Both my wife and I had family in the north country (near the Canadian border) so when traveling to visit once we got into the mountains (45 miles) we lost most reception except for a few local stations as we passed thru. By comparison growing up in the north country I could pick up some New York stations in my 54 chevy with the fender mounted antenna.

Funny, I guess it depends where you live too.
My Mom's 75 Chevelle had good reception. However, we lived in a major city with lots of high power 50K watt stations.
My idea was if you ran a small wire along the windshield inside molding, it wouldn't show very much and might work better than the embedded wires. AM has better range than FM too, so the AM stations really pulled in.

Would love to know if anyone has tried it.

Rick

I will eventually give that a try too !!!

Jianis

Sure thing. Ya got nothing to lose. You could even try grounding the antenna to use the entire car body as an antenna. Also, there are antenna boosters out there that can be wired in. Lastily, try adjusting the antenna trimmer located at the back of the radio if there is one. You tune it to the low end of the dial around 900 AM and adjust.

Good luck.

All Chevrolet radios have an antenna trimmer. The trimmer is adjusted for maximum volume at the HIGH end of the dial say 1500. The antenna must be extended to the max for this adjustment.

I am very glad the radio was repaired and now has a good new home. It was in too good condition to be trashed. The lack of AM stations is pretty universal I think. Happy motoring.

Yep. In my area we only have 5 or 6 AM stations and they are all talk radio...except for one....which has music but it is a Spanish station.

Our AM stations are few, but the clearest, strongest one is a Spanish music station. I'm ready to use my castanets.

Up in the Northeast, we still have a ton of AM stations playing classic rock, big band, country, and of course talk radio. We even have a Stereo AM station.

There is a choice to add fm and auxiliary to a working radio. With the Aurora Design (see: Billtheradioguy.com) FMC-1 you'll get lots of what you want. Beautiful thing it doesn't change the appearance or fit and no alterations except rerouting the antenna wire internally.

That's what I do.

Bill Newman (360) 427 0513

You won't be able to use the car body as an antenna, as the radio ground and the car ground are the same (neg,. Earth set-up). This would be like having a antenna input which is shorted to ground.