Radio aerial

[Konrod]

Hi all

The reception on the (original) radio is patchy, I'm fairly sure from other threads that it's the aerial. The display on the head unit is very faint so I'm thinking of changing it, but it's pointless unless I can get a decent signal to it.

My question is whetre is the aerial - I think it's in the passenger side wing, but does anyone know what type of aerial it is and how I can get at it. I want to check the earths at least, and maybe try and add a signal booster as a first pass.

Thanks in advance

J

[Konrod]

I've looked the bee sting and the sharks fin (I have a black car so it's an option with minimal paint shag and hassle) but they all seem to have a long bolt and nut that hangs below the boot lid, and I'm concerned about it damaging the roof when it's stowed in there, as well as routing the wiring around the hinges - after that it can follow the CD changer wiring. I'm less concerned about drilling the hole.

I have a screen mount aerial somewhere in the garage, but I have a thing about stuff on the windscreen that obscures vision especially when the Tuscan screen isn't that big anyway - even my tax disc used to sit high behind the driving mirror and I've made up a plate so the phone/sat nav holder can sit beside the radio rather than on the screen.

With the tax disc going, I could try putting it there and extending the earth wire down.

I did consider DAB, but to be frank I don't really need it. I'm not a music/radio afficionado, the car just has two speakers in the back panel (no over the shoulder items) so it's just a case of a) making FM reception work reliably when the signal is poor and b) getting a head unit I can read albeit with a USB/aux port so I can lose the changer (I'm not that much of a luddite!)

So what does the current aerial look like? What am I groping for in the dark wing void, a rubber bee sting, old style extending car aerial, coathanger :-)

Thanks

John

[Konrod]

Please tell me that TVR earthed the aerial as standard..............

[Konrod]

OK, Gotcha. I've had a look at that thread which is helpful - I'll have the bonnet off this weekend and have a broggle in the void after checking my nuts.

Cheers

John

[Konrod]

Sorted it in the end, but not as expected. Spent 30 minutes with my arm in the passenger side wing void looking like James Herriott but nothing found.

Decided to tackle it from the other end and saw a 12V wire going with the aerial cable that had come out of the relevant ISO socket, so there is already an amplified aerial but it didn't have any power. Reconnected it, but never found the aerial - my guess it's under the dashboard top panel but my hands are too big to get to the nuts to remove it and look.

Swapped the radio for a Blaupunkt 420 Toronto - no DAB but SD card, USB, AUX in, Bluetooth plus rear connections for USB and microphone. Easy swap as the ISO plugs are already there, you just remove the mass of adapter wiring for the Pioneer and plug them in. Getting the radio back in without lifting the dashtop to pull wires back through was frustrating, but got there in the end. When properly fitted the radio stands perhaps 10mm proud of the door buttons but it looks factory and the bezel works well.

The radio sounds good, but as importantly works in my interior which is black - I wanted something understated, without lots of bright backlit buttons.