Antenna base Fix

Hi i got really fed up of having such crapy fm and no am in my car in the past 2 week. So today I figured I'd look at the antenna base turns out it was definitively the problem! knowing my way around circuit boards I figured I could fix it but when I saw this I knew it was gone.

Look even de component weren't even on the circuit board any more.

I really don't have the money right know to spend on a new base but my favorite scrap yard doesn't have any and since I have nothing else to do I figured I'll just fix the dam thing.
This is such an easy fix all you need is extra wire and some solder.
Cut off the wire on the base and gently strip the wire in two steps like you would any coax cable. Peel back the outer copper wire and solder it to a new regular wire. Next pass both wire through the base I made a hole with my drill.

Solder the tiny wire to the metal plate in the top of the antenna base.

Then close it all up and put it back on the car plug it in and the extra wire that was installed goes to ground.

Now I get all the am and fm channels super clear and it cost me 0$
Note do this at your own risk I didn't find any curent coming from the HU so I did it like this but if you do have curent and you do this mod you might short circuit some small electronics.
Thanks for looking

wow, great write-up
thanks for the tip

Great write up!

Your HU is a Monsoon?

lol... HU = head unit.

I wondered about doing this on my car since I have an aftermarket radio. It's good to know that it does work. I have my old antenna base sitting around here somewhere. I may try this and see if it changes the reception at all.

Today I asked my Electricity teacher that has like 20+ years of Rf experience about my little antenna mod and he says the worst thing that can happen is you wont cache your favorite radio station there is no way you will blow up you radio.

That's really clever. An plain unamplified antenna will work much better than one with a broken amplifier.

I have a couple extra bases from when impex was selling them for $20 piece (+ mast) a while back, but I'll keep this in mind if I ever run out.

phaser said:

Great write up!
Your HU is a Monsoon?

Click to expand...

Yes it is

Variant TDI said:

That's really clever. An plain unamplified antenna will work much better than one with a broken amplifier.

I have a couple extra bases from when impex was selling them for $20 piece (+ mast) a while back, but I'll keep this in mind if I ever run out.

Click to expand...

you got anymore you want to sell?

My radio says that my antannae is: Useless

I have the double DIN monsoon. We bought the car used and the CD player didn't work. A few months later, and the radio stopped as well. Now we use a tape adaptor and an iPod. I would love to get a double DIN nav, DVD unit, but money situation says I try the antannae fix first. Hope this is my problem.

mikey

Is there a trick to getting the base off? The stealer told me the headliner had to be R & R to get to it. That CAN'T be right.

No need to take off the headliner you can reach under it with out distorting it fairly easily here is a good How To on a Jetta it a little harder for a golf but i had no problem.

Louis:

Thanks for the links. I searched for more info but nothing popped up (or maybe I didnt do the search correctly). It looks fairly simple. I will try it as soon as a get a new base. My reception stinks now. I cant wait....

Thanks to all!

Ken

Yeah really easy to change. The snow here final melted enough to get a ''new'' base at the scrap yard 10$ and it's like new my Antenna fix is great but you do get better reception from the amplified basses. I change the base yesterday took me 10 minutes.

trying to solder my wire to the base, and it sure isnt sticking worth a damn wondering whats going on, using flux etc. not my first time soldering, assume i cant solder to this metal now after messing with it for a bit.

I finally changed mine out with a new one I bought online for about 40 bucks including a new antennea. It was fairly simple (45 min, but could do it again in about 15) and I now get AM stations! Thanks!

Tip: I used a paint can opener tool that kelly moore gives out free when you buy paint....has a curled edge on it that helped get the headliner out without messing it up.

Journier said:

trying to solder my wire to the base, and it sure isnt sticking worth a damn wondering whats going on, using flux etc. not my first time soldering, assume i cant solder to this metal now after messing with it for a bit.

Click to expand...

To help it stick I drilled a little hole 1/16th I think that help the solder tock no prob. It's not that you can't solder the metal maybe it's like mine to dirty/shiny with vary little surface area to take hold of.

Good luck

Drilling a hole and adding extra wires isn't necessary.

If you'd like a different idea, take a roughly one inch piece of wire, strip, and tin both ends. Take a pick and scratch the tiny lines on the pc board all the way through around the upper antenna tab (square piece on the top that attaches to the bottom of the mast). I did this just so there wouldn't be any odd connection from the board left. Now, solder this piece of wire to the top tab where it connects to the pc board. Why? Because there's already solder there. Attach the other end to the existing solder connection where the wire comes up out of the antenna base and attaches to the pc board. Mine had a little clear coat of insulation around it. Solder onto it where it connects to the board...there's already solder there. At least six years fixing F14 avionics taught me to be a hacker.

Good Idea!

Good idea but if your board would of looked like mine there would of been no way you could of shouldered on it the board. My board was so dry everything was just pealing off.

Would it be just as effective to ground the coax sheath at the radio, where there's more room and a handy ground wire?


Is there any circuit problem with grounding the coax sheath (like a short or something) anyway?


My new HU just has bad AM reception with this antenna. Plugged in a big ol AM antenna at the store, and it's better than the factory radio that was there. Hmm. What to do? If only 680 News was simulcast on FM.

Be great to hide a loop antenna somewhere - or on my home stereo, an 8-ft long wire. Does that attach to ground, or to the signal wire (or none)?

je said:

Would it be just as effective to ground the coax sheath at the radio, where there's more room and a handy ground wire?

Click to expand...

No you want to ground on both end since you want to divert all interference to ground.

je said:

Is there any circuit problem with grounding the coax sheath (like a short or something) anyway?

Click to expand...

There shouldn't be any problum with a short since the radio is reciving (signal in) and not emitting (signal going out allot trickier). But you want to make sure that the shield dose not touch the center wire of the coax or if it dose all the signal will be diverted to ground and if vw used multiplexing to power the amplifier in the base you might short circuit some thing (but I'm not sure about that).

je said:

My new HU just has bad AM reception with this antenna. Plugged in a big ol AM antenna at the store, and it's better than the factory radio that was there. Hmm. What to do? If only 680 News was simulcast on FM.

Be great to hide a loop antenna somewhere - or on my home stereo, an 8-ft long wire. Does that attach to ground, or to the signal wire (or none)?

Click to expand...

Yes I don't see the problem with this you could always do like the audis and get the antennas that stick in the back windows too.

Confused

So, are those of you that are doing this fix having problems with AM or FM reception? I get fine AM reception but FM, I can get stations to tune in, but the volume level is so low that with the HU volume at max, I can barely hear music, but once in a while, it'll crank up to max volume for a second or two, which is annoying...

I checked the antenna connection at the HU and it's good.

Thoughts?

tivoKlr said:

So, are those of you that are doing this fix having problems with AM or FM reception? I get fine AM reception but FM, I can get stations to tune in, but the volume level is so low that with the HU volume at max, I can barely hear music, but once in a while, it'll crank up to max volume for a second or two, which is annoying...
I checked the antenna connection at the HU and it's good.
Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I would have a look at the antenna base but I would suspect the internals of the HU

Darn

Well, I'll look at the antenna base tomorrow, but my AM reception works, so I'm leaning (again) towards the HU.

Bummer.

let us know when you find the problem

Are the Hong Kong antenna bases any good? Should I just do the gut and solder trick? I can pick up a Hong Kong base for $10. I don't know if there is anything wrong with mine except the base gasket.

Is it possible to retrofit one of the nittle nub antennas on instead of the standard mkiv long whip ones? I'm thinking like the ones that are on the new jettas or audis...

RGI, Check the thread you made.

I answered your question there.

FWIW, I just changed the base today. The nut that holds the base on takes a 22mm socket.

I took mine apart and it wasn't too bad. I used a 7/8" wrench bc I didnt have a 24mm handy. The pant can opener worked good to be able to get that lip pulled loose from the back glass, but not worth crap to get it back on. I made a custom tool out of a coat hanger to slide it down the edge and zip it back over on re-installing. Since I didn't see any corrosion, I sealed it back up better than it was when I took it apart, and used di-electric on the connections. Lots better on reception, and since I tend to spend time stuck in traffic, probably one of the best things I have ever done to the car.

For "OEM" amplified antenna bases try: antennamastsrus.com. Price was under $24 each.