Re: TQC radio antennas

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

   To the other TQC/Ur-quattro owners:

   Is there a better replacement antenna than the Fuba from Crutchfield, which
   I think is as the original?  I know it's a boosted antenna, but it is
   short.  Any better performance anyone else has found with a Harada, Bosch
   or other?  Do they require the DIN to regular antenna connector patch?

>From a coupla months back, my adventures...

					-RDH

Subject: Re:  hidden antenna, etc
Reply-to: rdh@sli.com (or uunet!sli!rdh)

Speaking of radio antennii . . .

Yesterday I decided to finally replace the ****ing Audi antenna on my
UrQ. I misremember (don't even want to...) the OEM/dealer price, but
instead went down to a local "electonics/hobbyist" partes shoppe ("U-
Do-It" in MA) and bought a Harada "GM Firebird/Camaro" replacement
unit that the MasterIndex claims fits "Audi, Coupe". It was around
8 or 9 dollars (change back from my Hamilton). It's just a straight
whip antenna, doesn't retract (wouldn't fit with the spare), but does
unscrew at the base for car washes (and replacement when the your
friendly LocalTeenageScum try to make a pretzel out of it).

*WOW*

My fancy expensive top-of-the-line-minus-one Denon actually works!

I was immediately able to RDS-seek (which requires a "good strong
clean signal") to a classical FM station that I didn't even know
existed!!! (I had previously manually tuned each 200KHz looking for
what stations I could even *detect*...)

Best damn $10 I ever spent on the car. WCRB comes in too!

The catch? Yeah -- it is an Audi! And they use the funkiest bleeding
connector on their ****ing OEM antenna unit. And they use the *FUNKIEST*
antenna cable that I have *ever* seen. I've played with "coax" radio
(and audio) cable for over half of my life, and this stuff was a new
one on me! It's actually coaxial *tubing* -- the center conductor is
an incredibly fine-guage (30 maybe? it's bigger than a [my] hair is,
but it makes 24g "phone" wire look like a hose! It makes the individual
strands of a stranded "phone" wire look like a cable!) wire that freely
floats (and *kinks*) in a tube, with woven braid sheild over the tube,
and finally insulation jacket over the braid. I was easily able to pull
a "spare" 1/4inch from the 1/2 inch of the tubing that I exposed (to
solder on a female "Murican" [Japanese too!] car radio antenna fitting
to mate to the new generic (OK, "Harada") antenna cable fitting that
normally plugs directly into most "car radios".

Typical noxious afternoon project (Oh No! I have to pull the rear seat
*again* [Well, I didn't *have to*, but as long as the replacement an-
tenna came with 5 feet of its own antenna cable, I figured I might as
well skip five feet of the Audi cable...I'm glad I did...]).

Wonderful!