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Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

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Recently updated on March 30, 2021 at 09:16 am

Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

A sport antenna or short rod antenna (also mini antenna) is a particularly short car antenna, which is usually mounted on the car roof. For new cars, it is often already part of the standard equipment today. If she does not, the exchange can be well worth it, if your car is not a vintage car whose original style you really want to get.

What is the purpose of the antenna?

Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

If you want to listen to the radio in your car, you need an antenna. Even if it is often no longer visible at first glance these days, no radio can do without an antenna as a radio receiver. It serves as a receiving device for the free space waves arriving via radio through the air and converts them back into electromagnetic waves, which are then played back as tones by your radio. So without the antenna you would have no reception. Perhaps you remember from your childhood the long antennas made of nested metal tubes that you could pull out and turn in all possible directions if the reception was bad? Especially the last segments were very thin and easily broke off if they got stuck on something and thanks to the length of the antenna this sticking was almost inevitable.

Nevertheless, this type of antenna was also used on cars. At that time they were found mounted in front of the windshield and in newer vehicles the antennas extended automatically. This should probably give them some protection from getting stuck and the wind. Later, more flexible models were developed that were placed on the roof of the car. In order not to be damaged by the airstream, they pointed backwards and, thanks to their flexibility, swung along with the waving while driving. However, they were still long and thin and could easily break off. The antennas most commonly used today are sometimes up to 40 cm long.

The modern short-rod antenna

Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

To avoid the risk of breakage and to give the car a sportier look, short rod antennas were developed. They are called short rod antennas because they are comparatively thick rods less than 10 cm in length, which can still provide almost the same reception performance as the 40 cm antennas. Due to the sportier optical impression, they are also often referred to as sports antennas. Due to their small size, they are hardly noticeable on the roof of your car and do not disturb the elegant streamlined shape. Usually they are mounted exactly in the middle at the back of the roof so that the symmetry of the car is preserved. You can find them everywhere in specialist shops and you can easily assemble them yourself by unscrewing your old antenna and screwing the new one onto the same thread. Suitable adapters are almost always included. So there is no special skill and no special expertise required. You should just make sure that the antenna is screwed really well and cannot come loose while driving.

Shark Antenna / Shark Antenna / Shark Fin Antenna

Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

The so-called shark antenna is also popular. While the long rods are only intended for radio reception, these antennas can also be used for mobile communications and navigation. The “shark fins” on many car roofs are no longer uncommon today. But there are also more and more vehicles without visible antennas. The automobile manufacturers install the antenna ex works as invisibly as possible as a window antenna. The function and efficiency of the window antenna is at least comparable to that of a rod antenna. Several antennas can be combined in the pane to form a multiple antenna system.

Such vehicles are often given a so-called antenna dummy from tuners (SHARK Dummy Deco dummy, roof antenna cover etc.) to still have the cool look of the shark fin antenna. Such a dummy, of course, has no function and is only installed for the optics. There are many names for such a fake antenna. Some more are Roof antenna cladding, car shark antenna cover, roof antenna cover, roof antenna cover panel or Decorative antenna. The result is always identical with a dummy. He has no function!

Small: Tuning with a sport antenna / short rod antenna

Of course that had not happened yet!

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About Thomas Wachsmuth

Thomas Wachsmuth - He has been an integral part of tuningblog.eu since 2013. His passion for cars is so intense that he invests every available penny in them. While he dreams of a BMW E31 850CSI and a Hennessey 6x6 Ford F-150, he currently drives a rather inconspicuous BMW 540i (G31/LCI). His collection of books, magazines and brochures on the subject of car tuning has now reached such proportions that he himself has become a walking reference work for the tuning scene.  More about Thomas

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