Old school mod info needed. Wondering what shark fin antenna to use to convert the whip style antenna on my B5. My whip style is getting pretty baked from sun and it's starting to leak, so I thought as long as I'm in there...
Have you ever had a shark fin antenna off? I just had mine off for a repaint. It just has a wire attached to the whip base with a screw. It’s double face taped to the roof.
For your AM/FM reception? Maybe someone with radio electronics knowledge can weigh in, but I thought those 'shark fin' antennas were only for satellite radio frequencies. For instance, my B6 A4 has a roof fin antenna for satellite, but uses conductive paint "wires" on the rear window for broadcast radio.
If you are fussy about appearance, check out Visual Garage (https://shop.visualgarage.com/) You will pay about $100 but to me it was worth it. You will get an antenna with a paint that perfectly matches your VW and performance that is essentially the same. When I ordered mine in 2015 it was through Amazon. I don't see that Amazon has it listed any more so I don't the status. I recommend it if they are still in business.
Note that you will experience a loss of signal strength over the standard whip. Simple physics. Some people feel the shark fin is still "good enough" and are willing to do it for the look.
Looks? I'm doing it so I can hit the 155mph mark, with the whip I'm maxed out at 153. :lol:
Seriously, I was wanting to do it more for the look and not having to replace the whip every other year from the sun drying it out and making it look like splintered fiberglass.
Maybe I should stick with what I got. Put a new gasket on and call it a day.
I had tried the $19 variety of shark fin antennas and they provide basic AM/FM performance, not as good as a whip. All they have inside is a bit of pigtail wire. My experience with the VirtualGarage one is much better. It has a pc board inside with an etched 'meander line' providing more effective antenna length and loading. My road experience is good reception, even for a low wattage FM station in San Francisco.
I don't have a good solution for you, because a whip antenna will outperform almost any of its better-looking competitors. I have had to replace mine exactly once because of the UV-induced plastic and rubber rot mentioned by others, but this was cheap and obviously painless.
Word to the wise, I found (on my B6 A4) that the antenna's coax cable shield was not grounded as I assumed, but had to be 5V DC. This is how the antenna's amplifier circuit board above the rear window is powered. Until I figured out this little detail, I had practically no radio reception after installing an aftermarket sound system.
A got to admit the responses from this post are not what I expected. I appreciate the people who chime in, really I do, but I thought I would be getting a different set of responses.
It must be that the crowd I remember doing this kind of thing don't check into this forum anymore. This forum has changed a lot since I registered. The types of mods being done today don't seem to be as prolific as they were back in the day.
Well, I swapped out the antennas just to see how the shark fin would fit. It was a no-go. As wagons are scarce in the salvage yard I go to, I pulled one off a sedan. The roofline curvature on my wagon is too flat for the rubber mount to accomodate.
Dave, since you also have a wagon, ask VAGguy to pull one from a wagon when he goes looking.
Although my mast-type antenna is still in good shape, I'll keep looking. I already bought the adapter.
Well, I swapped out the antennas just to see how the shark fin would fit. It was a no-go. As wagons are scarce in the salvage yard I go to, I pulled one off a sedan. The roofline curvature on my wagon is too flat for the rubber mount to accommodate. View attachment 89951View attachment 89953
Dave, since you also have a wagon, ask VAGguy to pull one from a wagon when he goes looking.
Although my mast-type antenna is still in good shape, I'll keep looking. I already bought the adapter.
Just got back from the junk yard. Sampled 2007 Passat, 2009 Jetta and 2012 gti. ALL the later model VW shark fins are either sat radio, or both sat radio and gps antennas. The circuitry for AM/FM is in the window or a module connected to the window.
Looks like I’ll get getting an aftermarket sharkfin and a signal booster. Even if just for looks, because I only stream Bluetooth in my Passat.
Back on topic...ALL the later model VW shark fins are either sat radio, or both sat radio and gps antennas. The circuitry for AM/FM is in the window or a module connected to the window.
That's what I thought. My 3.0 wasn't GPS-equipped, so when I installed the aftermarket, but factory-OE looking NAV audio system, I mounted the GPS antenna above the glovebox housing, but under a part of the dash without a steel layer, where it works fine.
This one will be here tomorrow. Should be able to report back this week on how it does. I will be using a powered antenna adapter behind my aftermarket radio to boost reception though.
Got off work early today so swung by the salvage yard for another look. Found one off a 2005 wagon. Funny, one 2005 had the shark-fin and another had the mast-type. That might be the transition year.
This second one is much smaller and also has the same type plug-in as my 2002.
Can't swap 'em out yet - Yukon is taking up the garage and it's looking like rain is imminent.
I am late to the game but I looked into the different fins and none gave me the confidence to try them. I never liked the whip on either my 01 or my 04 due to it being way too long and breaking apart.
Solution?
I peeled the bottom inch of plastic/ rubber off (where it was breaking off around the spring/ amplifier) and left the rest since the top part was fine. I then cut 3" maybe 4" off the top part of the whip/mast then used appropriate sized heat shrink tubing to cover everything but the threads on the bottom. I doubled up on the spring area to make it more rigid.
It looks soo much better and unless you are looking for it you don't notice what I did. The reception actually got better as I know pick up more stations.
Gotta admit I never thought of that. That might be a solution.
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