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Maximizing radio reception in car

I know this topic may not fit perfectly with the forum, but you guys seem to know tons about maximizing radio reception, and I'm having a hard time locating anything even after tons of web searches.

I'm wondering if anyone could help me with designing an antenna system to maximize radio reception in my car. I often drive through the boonies, and even when I'm at home, there's an FM station 90 miles away that comes in sometimes but all too often is unlistenable.

I already have a Pioneer head unit that has the best FM sensitivity specs I could find (plus good anecdotal reviews from owners), so now I need to fix my antenna. I drive a 2000 BMW 3-series that, like more and more cars, uses the rear glass heating element for an antenna. That doesn't work that well (especially after getting my windows tinted), so I may be the first person ever :) who has installed a VW-style (Audi, actually) 1/4 wave rubber whip on the roof. There was already a hole there for the little cell phone antenna, so it was pretty easy. :) This has helped quite a bit, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do.

Would the real VW antenna that is amplified help much? Mine is almost identical to the VW, but it's unamplified.

Would it be worth it to try to replace the existing cable with some better coax? I'm not sure what the stock cable is, but it seems pretty flimsy -- definitely nothing like RG-6. I know the run is short, so that may not matter.

Would trying to find some other kind of longer mast, maybe a 1/2 wavelength, give me that much improvement?

Sometimes I wish I had a truck with a 35" mast so I could add something really big if I wanted to. :)

Anyway, thanks for reading this far. If you have other website suggestions, I'd really appreciate that, too. Like I say, I've tried to search on this but I can't find much. I'm sure there were a thousand magazine articles on this topic back in the day, but as we all know, no one seems to care much about FM radio anymore. :(


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Topic - Maximizing radio reception in car - ChocolateLab 14:52:00 07/20/06 (6)


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