Radio install

I'm sure this has been discussed before.
I want to install an underdash radio.
How do I solve the antenna issue? I don't
want a antenna on the body.

Just tie it with a few wire tie wraps up under the dash. I used electric one on my build - by Harada which goes flush to body.

I know that this is an emotional topic. I play in a rock band and love my tunes. However, after owning a convertible before, I realized that I had to turn up the radio so loud that it was embarrassing. My Speedster is way louder and it already draws enough attention. Sinnce the original didn't have one, I decided to go without. I know other Speedster guys who've had them and removed them. Food for thought before you take the plunge.

Sorta mixed here. AM has too much static to hear anything but FM works fine. My radio can select the strongest 8 stations wherever you are so I do listen mostly for weather and news when I'm going through towns.

On the highway with the top up I can hear the radio fine if I use ear plugs and turn it way up.

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Pistols are the same but that is another story.

Thanks Tom, You're the voice of reason. I initially
didn't want a radio and I guess exhaust sounds will
do just fine.

Terry - IMHO I would do what Wolfgang suggested about zip-ties to secure an antennae to the under-dash cross-member.

The stereo, iPod, or whatever, will come in handy when you're just cruising the boulevard and not cranking through the gears at 4,000-4,800rpm. Some cool tunes will be a nice supplement to the exhaust note!

Buy yourself a cheap car radio antenna (not telescopic - the kind that has a solid whip of 30" length) that fits into the antenna receptacle of your radio (virtually 99.99% of those available all have the same connecting cable for the radio end).

Cut off the coax cable at the antenna end. Throw the actual "antenna" away but keep the coax.

Strip back the Coax cable outer sheath (the rubber/plastic cover) about 3-4 inches.

Unfurl the outer braid and then twist it together into a semi-thick braided wire. Solder a 1/4" tab blade (the male end) to the twisted end.

Strip back and twist together the the inner conductor, then solder a 1/4" ring tab connector to the end of it.

Remove one of the two nuts from the bottom of the windshield center strut (under the dash) and then assemble the ring tab from the coax onto the center strut, then re-assemble the locking nut. (you may locktite the nut before you tighten it)

Find a suitable ground stud under the dash and affix a ground wire to it with sufficient length to reach to the 1/4" tab on the aforementioned coax, then crimp a 1/4" female tab terminator to the end of it, and then insert it onto the coax tab.

Voila! You have now turned your windshield frame into a very respectable AM/FM Radio antenna, virtually invisible to the informed eye. BTW, that windshield frame has become a dipole antenna of approx 30" per side - almost perfect for FM radio stations.

gn

Gordon, where DO you come up with this great stuff huh ?
Youz must be spending too much time on the crapper... we all know that's where the best thoughts occur.

Our Speedy came with the windshield antenna setup.

Thinking that there must be something that will do better on the AM band, I bought and installed a hide-away amplified antenna, then a long antenna placed in the trunk and a noise suppressor somewhere along the way.

At the end of the day, the original windshield antenna worked the best.

whats an AM band?

"Angry Morons," mostly.

" Talk Radio " aka...Verbal Intercourse Radio

"Angry Morons"

Love it.....Have to remember that one.

BTW: The best length for an "average" AM band antenna would be.......ahhhhh....Let's see.....185 meters gives us......ahahhhhhh.......lesseeee......(185)*3.28= about 606 feet. THAT's how long your AM car radio antenna should be. Not exactly practical, is it??

The best way to get there is to get one of those 6" tall coil "Antenna booster" that used to be sold at Radio Shack and truck stops. Cut off the antenna about 1" above the mount, slip on the coil and tighten the set screw, put the top (cut-off) part into the top of the coil and BINGO! Decent AM reception for all you guys needing a fix from that drug-addled gas bag, Rush. Of course, then your FM reception will suck. Ya can't win.

We always used to listen to WOWO in Fort Wayne, IN on the way back from skiing trips to Vermont. Not especially good programming in the '60's, but it was 50,000 watts of clear channel and came in like a ton of bricks.

Ahhh yes, WOWO, 1190 radio....Jay Gould did the farm report every day at noon for what seemed like 50 years....I always figured him from his radio persona to be a real hayseed. Met him one day at a social event...looked like Clark Gable...not exactly your Indiana farmer look...but WOWO in Ft. Wayne, WBZ came in well at night from Boston, and WLS from Chicago...provided most of our late night tunes in the midwest until 8 tracks were invented....

What's an 8-track?


Just kidding--sorry to admit I know what it is.

Shoot..... 4 tracks came 1st.
Did I just date myself?????
Doug

Ahhh 4 Tracks I remember them well

Remember the player that attached under your dash to play 45's (only old geezers like me will understand the 45 reference).

...they didn't have speed bumps back then, Of course reverb with those springs that would "crash" were cool!

Ah yes- WLS, the 50,000 watt flame-thrower.

Larry Lujack in the morning, Tommy Edwards 10-2 (with "Animal Stories" at the shift-change at 10- "Your charming and delightful OLD UNCLE LAR! ... and his faithful sidekick, little snot-nosed Tommy"), Bob Sirott 2-6, and John "Records" Landecker 6-10 (Boogie-Check- "you talkin' to me? About what?").

Many, many hours of wasted time before the advent of "album" FM stations in the late '70s.

I'm black and grew up in Chicago. In the early '70s, we also listened to WLS. It was really,really popular.

WVON was the big "urban" station. We would switch from one to the other.