My most recent project has no antenna. The previous owner decided the car would look better with the antenna removed, and the hole filled. He was right, but since my commute is an hour, I'd like to get some reception. I will not be installing anything externally.
The local car audio place says there's something called a powered antenna that goes under the dash, and I've seen a few things like this
That I could install in the rear window.
Anybody have experience with this?
Sirius?
Once I switched to satellite radio, I couldn't imaging switching back again. It's worth every penny, and you can easily hide the antenna.
GM has been embedding their antennas in the front windshield for what? 100 years? You could tape a dipole to the windshield. 
Woody wrote:Sirius?
Once I switched to satellite radio, I couldn't imaging switching back again. It's worth every penny, and you can easily hide the antenna.
+1 a small magnetic antenna is all you need to listen more than you could imagine.
I once used a 'through the glass antenna' Basically it came with a piece that sticks to the inside of the window and an antenna that sticks right over top of it on the other side of the window. It worked ok. Eventually the antenna on the outside fell off and the reception wasn't really affected. It was only $5-10 at princess auto.
Also, when I had sirius, I just put the magnetic antenna on the dash and it worked fine with no external antenna. I did get rid of the sirius, since I didn't find it worth paying for.
Wally wrote:+1 a small magnetic antenna is all you need to listen more than you could imagine.
They don't really need to be outside, either. I hid one in the rollbar padding of my old Jeep and found that the signal was no different when I put on the hardtop for the Winter. Same deal for the Miata. I put the antenna under the carpet on the rear shelf and it works fin with or without the hardtop. On the Subaru, I hid one under the carpeted package shelf beneath the rear glass.
Once you get Sirius, you will be suitably appalled the next time you are in a friend's car and hear the first of a hundred McDonald's commercials in an hour.
Satellite radio (XM or Sirius, though they're both practically the same now) is great, especially if you spend a lot of time driving. I listened to it constantly when I was doing courier work, and certainly got my money's worth out of it.
Glass mount antennas, properly done, aren't bad. My current ham radio antenna is one of those - not only for receiving, but transmitting up to 50 watts of power. In theory it isn't as good as a physical connection, but I've had no problems with my signal reaching as far as I want it to reach.
Most likely, you could take the coax from a broken antenna, plug one end into your radio, run some exposed wire somewhere convenient on the other end, and your reception will be just fine. Could even try connecting it to a ground and use your entire car as the antenna. 
i'm done with siruis, artie lange is going to kill himself with drugs like every other fat funny guy that makes it so since he isnt there to listen to i can not justify $180 or so a year for radio. it was nice on trips but now that i am not in my truck every single day and my radio is obsolete so i can't get a second dock to pop it in the work van, i hardly listen to it.
anyway /rant on sirius. plus with all the iphone apps i just need a head unit with an input and i can have pandora or espn radio anywhere i want.
back in the day i got this sticky tape antenna. it was about 1/2" wide clear tape with a wire in it and it stuck inside the back window along the bottom. it worked OK. in my P71 whoever installed the police equipment cut the antenna wire. i took a universal antenna, plugged it in, and stuck it behind the seats on the floor and picked up all the stations i needed before i got around to drilling the quarter for it.
Some good ideas
Sat. radio isn't an option. Monthly bills ain't my thing, and the free radio here is quite good.
I've got one of those electronic antennae in the 914. It's in the front trunk on top of the gas tank, I didn't want to punch a hole in the body. It works fine.
I plan on putting on in my 4-Runner because my wife clipped the the antennae with a tree branch. It doesn't go up & down, crappy reception.
Dan
Forgot about that, hot rodders put a steel antennae horizontally under the rockers.
I love you guys. You give me solutions to issues I have that I haven't even started to address yet. 
For all you Sirius/XM guys (like me) - don't pay full price, it's possible to get it as cheap as $77/year just by telling them you want to cancel. Then again, the po of my current car must have bought the lifetime sub since it's been on for the 25 months I've owned the car without me paying anything.
They probably wouldn't let him cancel. I still can't believe how hard it was to end service on a radio that no longer exists 
Fiberglass car? Us Esprit guys run a wire up the A pillar. Mine runs up the A pillar then across under the headliner.
pigeon wrote: Then again, the po of my current car must have bought the lifetime sub since it's been on for the 25 months I've owned the car without me paying anything.
The 3 month demo that came with my wifes car when she bought it has been active for over a year now. I think they aren't very good at keeping track of these things sometimes.
I detest the local radio stations with their hip hop and whatever that 'grunting and roaring' alleged 'rock' music formats are and their 'wacky morning DJ's' make me want to hurl. So for me XM has been fantastic.
But back to the OP: yeah just lay the antenna pretty much anywhere. I found during my stint as an electronics installer that you can turn the radio on and move the antenna connector close to the plug, when it's 1" away the radio will suddenly pick up the signal clearly. Sometimes this used to happen when I put my hand near the radio. Maybe there's something... electric about me.
I just laid a generic antenna in my raintray of my VW, reception was just as good as when it was mounted on the fender.
zomby woof wrote:Some good ideas
Sat. radio isn't an option. Monthly bills ain't my thing, and the free radio here is quite good.
Where are you? I live in the Pocono Mts and get radio from the Lehigh Valley, Scranton - Wilkes-Barre ad Northern NJ and it is all bad. I would die without my Sirius.
Geek alert: I mostly listen to CNBC during the week.
