I need a better antenna

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My Genesis Coupe has a back window grid type antenna. It is the worst I've ever had. And the AM is almost unlistenable. Full of static and weak. There is a built in factory amplifier that is working.

I've switched radios thinking it was an OE radio problem but it's not much better.

I've tried an electronic one that was installed across the top of the windshield. it was just as bad.

Help!!! Particularly with AM.
 
Originally Posted By: FermeLaPorte
The problem is that it is a Huyndai
My Accent has great AM and FM. It has a short fin stick antenna on the roof though. Though about putting one of them on.
 
Reception is poor where I live (mountains, hills, valleys etc) so I stream radiostations from my phone and it barely ever cuts out.

Tunein Radio for Android. Link
 
Originally Posted By: FermeLaPorte
The problem is that it is a Huyndai
The guy is looking for help not a useless reply like this.....
 
I have the OEM corkscrew SDARS-type roof antenna on my Hyundai that works excellent for AM/FM and Sirius/XM. I think it's just hard to get around the performance of the window-embedded antennas from many if not most makes.

On an older car, I used a magnetic antenna "puck" that was a smaller version of the shark fin antenna that stuck to the trunk lid after being wired under the carpet/molding and threaded below the rear deck lid and out the top of the trunk. I don't know if there are options like that with your configuration, but I'm sure it would work better than the windshield antenna.
 
My wife drove her car for, mmm, about 10 years, not knowing the rear defogger grid was never plugged in from the factory.
I'm thinking maybe the same thing for your car.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

And the AM is almost unlistenable.


I have great AM reception but find the same thing.


What, you don't listening to Rush and Beck?
 
Ive heard that is a common complaint with the Defrost grid antennas having poor AM reception. The Panthers have the same thing and I hear someone complain every now and then.
Metra AM/FM Antenna

You have to drill a hole though. But if you leave it in, I dont know that anyone would notice there is an extra hole in the car.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: spackard
My wife drove her car for, mmm, about 10 years, not knowing the rear defogger grid was never plugged in from the factory.
I'm thinking maybe the same thing for your car.
I need to take the panel off where the antenna connections is and the amp too, so I can see what kind of wire I'm dealing with.

I was thinking of getting anther Accent antenna but want to make sure it would work.

s-l1600.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
Originally Posted By: spackard
My wife drove her car for, mmm, about 10 years, not knowing the rear defogger grid was never plugged in from the factory.
I'm thinking maybe the same thing for your car.
I need to take the panel off where the antenna connections is and the amp too, so I can see what kind of wire I'm dealing with.

I was thinking of getting anther Accent antenna but want to make sure it would work.

{snip}


You might have to do some soldering, or you could check at Crutchfield dotcom for an adapter, but a window-wire antenna is conventional technology so you have a lot of aftermarket choices for FM, including any Junkyard pull (eg: Many Chrysler vehicles). You will need to drill a hole in the fender (typically) but they all have decent gaskets that should not cause problems, and even should look OEM to a buyer.

AM is another story; it uses a different antenna technology, commonly internal to the receiver. There are aftermarket AM antennas available, some are passive (no need for a power hookup) and even though most are intended for home use, you might be able to hide it somewhere. As AM technology works, you can even use an inductive type (no physical connection to the receiver) which just has to be placed near the factory unit to work.

There are a couple of gotchas with antennas. For starters, there is a danger of overloading the input circuitry of the receiver which will cause distortion. Powered antennas (contain an "amplifier") are more likely to cause this problem, and generally I avoid them, even in the home. They also tend to be noisy and will amplify noise as well as wanted signal. With passive antennas it rarely is a problem; you might say there is no such thing as "too good" of a passive antenna.

With AM, due to the frequency involved, there is a danger that the antenna itself can interact with vehicle electronics, adding noise, which can cause havoc with sensors, CPUs, and instruments. I would keep any AM solution very close to the deck itself to minimize the chance of that happening, as it's probably been taken into account when designing the vehicle's wiring layout.

The correct length for a half-wave FM antenna is around 57 inches long (or high). You can double (not likely your choice) or evenly divide that length (one-half, one-quarter, one-eigth, and so on) but every time you reduce the length you reduce it's efficiency. Most auto antenna (wire type) are quarter-wave, or about 28 inches in height.

The small "fin" types are multi-interface (phone, radio, navigation) and are almost certainly too integrated into the car's electronics to be swappable.

The common wire antennas used on vehicles are a "ground plane" design; it uses the metal fender as a ground plane which improves reception. It's possibly an issue with the ground plane that makes your back window antenna so ineffective. In that case, the ground plane is the actual surface of the road, and both it's distance from the antenna and it's low position relative to the FM broadcast signal (FM travels in a straight line from there to your reception antenna, so the curvature of the earth is conspiring to place that element below the line-of-sight ideal location.

Similarly, the deviation from vertical of your window-glass antenna (technically a folded dipole type) is an issue ... that type worked reasonably well on 70's~80's era GM vehicles as the front windshield is more vertical in the first place, and was also more vertical in those era vehicles than they would be today.

Modern automotive FM/AM radios use an integrated circuit chip that encompasses the entire radio section, and with aftermarket decks they all use more-or-less the same chip, and often a lower-grade chip than OEM radios (radio quality is not a saleable feature in an aftermarket deck), which tend to be pretty good in vehicles. But one wonders if Hyundai economized there and the radio is just not as well designed or used a lower cost chip than other carmakers use. The point being replacing your OEM radio with an aftermarket deck may not improve anything.

It's probably more than you want or need, but the very best aftermarket FM antenna (in my experience) is the Magnum-Dynalab ST-2, but the cost (about $100) and installation might turn you off. It's not sleek at the base like most car antennas, and it's near 57" high. But since they all more-or-less work the same, If I were you I'd be shopping the junkyard and just pulling something that looks the part. Get all the cable with it (you may need to change the connector, and there is no point in extra length of cable).
 
Here's what I have at the antenna. The amp has power and when power or ground is removed the reception worsens. I did not have it on when I first took the amp down. It's grounded to the body with the bolt that attaches it. It seems the reception is better after removing and installing. But i won't know until I drive around a bit.

FM was just about as good with the antenna lead off the glass as it was with it on. I ripped the ground connector off and it makes no difference when sitting in the drive whether it is on or off the glass when holding it.

Could not get the antenna wire out of the amp.
 
The problem isn't just with the antenna. The AM band electronics inside the radios now days aren't very good either, and neither is the quality of the AM broadcast band itself. The manufacturers don't think that anyone listens to AM radio anymore and the receiver electronics that support good AM radio reception and sound quality have become an afterthought.
AM radios that support AM HD Radio (yes, there is such a thing as AM HD Radio) have much better AM receiver electronics in them. Unfortunately, the broadcasting of AM HD Radio signals (which are digital and use a wider bandwidth) have harmed the reception quality of standard analog AM radio, so even with a good antenna and receiver, AM radio reception quality is not as good as it used to be.
 
I bought an aftermarket radio head last year with the hopes of getting better AM. I only listen to one news station so high quality audio isn't as important as the static that was there.

It may just be the weather so I'll wait until after the weekend to put it all back together as it will be hot and humid which seemed to have made it worse.

I'll improve the ground today. It appears the original install did not penetrate the paint when mounting bolt for the antenna amp was installed.

Don't know what to do about the negative for the antenna. I'll probably just leave it off as I don't know how to reattach it.
 
I have the loose antenna ground clipped to a wire and grounded to the frame. It makes no difference whether grounded or not. But I realize the antenna is not normally grounded when attached to the glass.

So how do you reattach the connector lug to the antenna glass?
 
It looks like they use the Cold Solder ultrasonic solder tools to attach the connector to the glass on top of the wires. So I ordered on off the ebay.
 
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