Stubby aerial

[Lemuy]

Hi. I recently changed the aerial for a short stubby one and basically pretty much lost all but the odd local radio station! Admittedly I didn’t spend much and just got one from eBay so I’ve gone back to the original one. I suspect it’s either really poor quality or simply isn’t long enough to receive sufficient signal. I was wondering whether anyone done similar but found a shorter one that actually works?

[B21]

Originally Posted by Lemuy

Hi. I recently changed the aerial for a short stubby one and basically pretty much lost all but the odd local radio station! Admittedly I didn’t spend much and just got one from eBay so I’ve gone back to the original one. I suspect it’s either really poor quality or simply isn’t long enough to receive sufficient signal. I was wondering whether anyone done similar but found a shorter one that actually works?

Is that am or FM stations?

Or both ?

[Lemuy]

I know it’s on FM, but hadn’t checked AM as I don’t listen to any on that frequency. I can certainly check though. What difference would it make if it was one or the other or both?

[B21]

Originally Posted by Lemuy

I know it’s on FM, but hadn’t checked AM as I don’t listen to any on that frequency. I can certainly check though. What difference would it make if it was one or the other or both?

The whippy..or stubby in your case is one of 3 FM aerials, managed by the CAS unit and depending on whether the roof is up or down selected via the diversity module…if you have poor reception through the stubby on FM it’s more likely to be a faulty diversity unit..however swapping the stubby for a ‘proper’ aerial may lead to an improvement anyway…

Pictures refer..

[Lemuy]

Interesting! Thanks. I’ll check what AM is like using the short aerial. I refitted the long aerial yesterday and FM is certainly a lot better with the long one. I wasn’t sure whether the short one was simply cheap Chinese rubbish but the diagrams certainly make interesting reading! For what it’s worth I only have the basic radio/CD and no sat nav and pretty sure no phone/Bluetooth either (or if I do I’ll be darned if I can find out how it works!!) Only had the car (2010 23i) a few weeks so still finding my way around it.

[B21]

You will usually have the very basic phone Bluetooth…

AM radio reception comes via different aerial complex not affected by stubby ‘ whippy…

Lots of Chinese rubbish polluting the E89 spares market..