Antenna Options - any suggestions?

My '72 S1 currently has a dealer fit antenna (they were all dealer fit in those days) in the front wing. It’s very ‘period’ but not that great looking.

The car is going in for body restoration next month and so I’ve got the option of putting a new one in anywhere I want. I think I’d probably prefer not to have an antenna on the body externally anywhere if I can avoid it. Anything which distracts from the lines is to be avoided.

There look to be some quite good interior antenna options now. I have a windscreen one on a '71 Alfa which works OK but is still maybe a bit more visible than I’d prefer.

Just wondering if anybody has real world experience of interior antenna, hidden or not in the interior of an XJ

Bertie,

modern DAB+ receivers make do with very small antennas to be glued into the screens. There are even reports claiming good reception even with the antenna hidden underneath the center console.

Even if SI cars all came without antenna and admittedly the antenna spoils the line, on SII cars there were stainless antennas on the tip of the left rear wing (maximum distance to the coil) that are immensely practical when backing up …

Good luck

Jochen

75 XJ6L 4.2 auto (UK spec)

On my 78 xj6 I have the long cable going along the side of the car to
the external antenna, had very good reception with the radio, even
though I had the antenna always disconnected.
Walter

1972 XJ6 Series 1
We installed a Retrosound HPA1 hide-away amplified antenna tucked inside the boot wall cover. It’s completely hidden. This does require running a lead wire from the antenna to your radio/entertainment unit, but it completely eliminates the need to raise/lower the old antenna. We decided, BTW, to keep the vintage exterior antenna (lowered) instead of filling the rear wing hole in the body. Designed primarily for AM radio and won’t handle HD FM. With modern entertainment units, it’s better to use smart phone for high quality audio. However, if you want to listen to AM, especially with the old original radio, this works great.

Here is Amazon link … under $30.

Hahaha! Not available in the US (or Canada?), of course. We have what is basically a subscription service called HD radio. Everyone thinks it means high definition (like the TV) but it means hybrid digital. We plan to adopt DAB+ when we adopt the metric system.

1 Like

“when we adopt the metric system” … Are we allowed to engage in political discussions on this forum;-)

DAB+ has been “on” for a couple of years now and as of now network cover is pretty good over the road network - much better than highspeed mobile data, at least.

The extensive research Huawei engaged in to provide the Spanish high speed trains with mobile data access indicates that even with strong mobile data connections data transfer fails, maybe due to quick changes of logon modules that occur when you travel at +100 mph. So DAB+ is certainly easier to supply a signal for smooth audio entertainment than a streaming service via mobile data.

Best wishes

Jochen

75 XJ6L 4.2 auto (UK spec)

Dear ,

an homemade coax dipole,easy , free , good Rx , and you can fix it under dashboard or carpets , where you want.

looking for " homemade FM dipole" , thousands of answer , cut exatly at 1/2 wave and use exatly impedence indicated because an uncorrect OHM wire cut RF signal.

So… not in my lifetime.

Got it.

Thanks chaps, some good suggestions here and my experience is that the radio signal is pretty good with the Antenna down so I am pretty confident that one of the concealed units suggested will do the job but keep the car lines clean. I use a Bluetooth speaker and my phone if I want to use my playlist or digital radio.

The original Motorola looks so right in the dash I don’t want to replace with a modern retro look unit and switching it on and having to twiddle the tuning button to get a good signal is part of the '70’s experience.

Don’t get your hopes up for DAB. It has failed to take off as fast as expected in UK because the coverage in real world use is substantially worse than FM. Slowly being rectified with more transmitters but if geographical coverage is an issue on a tiny island like the UK then for sure it’ll be an issue in the much bigger US