Re: Fitting a Fuba to a type 44 sedan

[Larry Mittell <lmittel@ibm.net>]

If I'm interpreting your question correctly, it sounds as though you're
making the assumption that the Fuba has a separate RF preamp.  It doesn't.
The preamp is within the antenna base, so it's actually *above* the
roofline.  The only room required *below* the roofline is that occupied by
the RF coax and the 12 VDC leads.  I'm operating on the assumption that
you're talking about those short, fixed, swept-back Fuba whips like the one
on my 89 200TQW.

BTW, Antenna World (http://www.antennaworld.com) has good prices on the
Fubas.  There are no doubt others that listers will chime in here with, but
stay away from AoA.  Even with a substantial discount, you may have trouble
distinguishing between their price and your Social Security number.

One additional point-- the guy I talked to at Antenna World said that some
head units don't like the amplifier.  I assume that the amplification
swamps the RF input stage.  For that reason, AW stocks the Fuba both with
and *without* a preamp.  I scooped the preamp out of mine because it had
been playing up.  I can't tell the difference in FM reception with my stock
non-Bose head unit, but AM reception seems slightly degraded.

HTH,
Larry Mittell

At 01:48 PM 1/20/99 -0800, Buchholz, Steven wrote:
>As reported before I am currently living with a compromised antenna system
>on the V8q thanks to a local dealer.  I've always kinda liked the Fuba
>antenna on the Avant, but I assumed that that bulging trim piece on the
>Avant was needed to cover up the amp, so I never investigated any further.
>This morning I saw a new Passat with a Fuba mounted above the rear window,
>centered on the roof ... so now I'm curious.
>
>Has anyone seen the mounting of the Fuba's amp in a sedan in that location?
>Any thoughts as to how much difficulty there's going to be with the
>headliner on the V8q if I do decide to install one?  It seems to me that
>since the amp for the rear antenna is built into the C-pillar I should be
>able to power and a cable to it fairly easily.  Finally, has anyone seen
>what the Fuba looks like in that position on a type 44 sedan?
>
>TIA!
>Steve Buchholz
>San Jose, CA (USA)
>
>