Using defroster wiring as radio antenae
 

I tried a search on this but came up empty. I'm not too fond of the antenae and rarely have it up. I usually have a cd in and tuck the antenae down but when i do turn on the radio while driving i have to open up the window and pull it out.

Question is if i could use the rear defrost as the antenae. My friends bmw uses that but when the defroster is on it gets alot of static. Also another friend had an audi that had a wire that traveled along the perimeter of the windshield. Has anyone thought of or tried this. I'm gonna try and roughly wire my receiver to the defroster and see if i get signal today.

radio works by picking up all the wavelengths that are sent through the air, and the user selects the frequency at which he/she wants to listen to. If your refering to maybe a specific band of wavelengths to receive i could understand, but it is just a piece of metal. Although glass is an insulator it does not have a significant impact. I didn't pay too much attention when i took that physics class so you may be right.

Either way, I tried it and with a generic speaker wire and picked up a decent signal, so it definately does work ( though not as clear as the antenae). I was able to pick up 98.9 and 100.3 out of philly ( where i'm currently in allentown), which if you're not from the area compare it to a similar large city station 50 miles away and not specifically directed to your area. I'll try it with a larger gage (gauge?) wire and better connection and see how that performs.

I have been thinking about this also , because I want to shave off my antena on my Protege.. There should be some type of rear window wire that can stick to the glass, out there on the market somewhere.
If you look at the 99+ Honda Accords , non of them have an antena , and damn it looks sleek ... they have a wireing on the back glass that looks similar to the RD wiring...
Something like that I would like to find and put in , because the Protege is not living it's days out with that cheap ass looking pull on me antena on the damn A pillar
Bruce

I've thought of this a long time ago (since I saw a neighbor's camry) I also thought about eliminating the antenna and installing a Jetta or P5 antenna on the rear since I like the look of the car with a dummy celphone ant.

you know you may be able to run a regular mini antena , run it to the back and then bolt it up behind the paneling ...
How good the reception would be would be another story

goodorange, 100.3 is a weak broadcast signal for every car i've been in. this happens in northeast philly, west philly, center city, south philly, out here near horsham sometimes, out in west chester, and up in new hope... there is no salvation for 100.3... thought they've got a great set up. currently, i can't tune 103.9 in my car. at any rate, i believe someone was talking about this before, saying some saabs or some european style had an antenna that was short and sleek and you could cut in right where the good ole' radio flyer style whip antenna goes on the first gens. buick lesabres i think come with this feature as a standard feature, except the antenna is built in as a solid line going across the very top of the front windshield. good luck with the antennas... i like my 'whip' :)
peace

What happens when you turn on the rear defroster? D'oh! :D You know, the Mazdaspeeds have a rear window antenna, you may look to how that is done for some inspiration, too ;)

has anyone ever tried one of the universal powered antennes??