Automatic antenna; '79 W123

So last night I replaced the completely-frozen antenna on my car with a
fancy new $15 one from Autohaus. Excellent!

Thing is, I'm not sure that it's adjusted right. It seems to pull
pretty hard at the end, like once it's down, the switch/spinner thingy
maybe turns one or two more "clicks" 'til it stops. Should I pull the
mechanism back out and adjust it so that it stops "just right," or will
everything just slip as it's supposed to and adjust it to the right
place? ...I ask 'cause now with a half-dozen cycles up and down, it
doesn't seem to be lessening in duration at all.

I was disappointed that there was no guidance on doing this in the CD
manuals. I took it way more apart than I needed to, 'cause I didn't
know if the cord was fixed in there somewhere. ...plus I completely
failed to remember that the radio had to be on for the antenna to go up;
flicking the spinner made it go down regardless of the position of the
switch, and that was infuriating to me while working on it... <sigh>

Anyhow, it's now in. I got this MTC one from Autohaus, some Chinese
thing. Their door switches are garbage, but the antenna seems to work
ok, although I wonder, are all antennas created equal, reception-wise?
....'cause I'm suspicious that this one is yielding slightly different
results (less-good, that is) than my previous one.

thanks,
-tom!

--

On May 20, 11:08 pm, Tom Plunket <t... (AT) fancy (DOT) org> wrote:

So last night I replaced the completely-frozen antenna on my car with a
fancy new $15 one from Autohaus. Excellent!

Thing is, I'm not sure that it's adjusted right. It seems to pull
pretty hard at the end, like once it's down, the switch/spinner thingy
maybe turns one or two more "clicks" 'til it stops. Should I pull the
mechanism back out and adjust it so that it stops "just right," or will
everything just slip as it's supposed to and adjust it to the right
place? ...I ask 'cause now with a half-dozen cycles up and down, it
doesn't seem to be lessening in duration at all.

I was disappointed that there was no guidance on doing this in the CD
manuals. I took it way more apart than I needed to, 'cause I didn't
know if the cord was fixed in there somewhere. ...plus I completely
failed to remember that the radio had to be on for the antenna to go up;
flicking the spinner made it go down regardless of the position of the
switch, and that was infuriating to me while working on it... <sigh

Anyhow, it's now in. I got this MTC one from Autohaus, some Chinese
thing. Their door switches are garbage, but the antenna seems to work
ok, although I wonder, are all antennas created equal, reception-wise?
...'cause I'm suspicious that this one is yielding slightly different
results (less-good, that is) than my previous one.

thanks,
-tom!

--

AFAIK, there is nothing to adjust on the Hirschman antennas when you
replace the mast. Nor can I imagine what there would be to adjust.
It basicly winds the plastic cord back in till it won't go any
farther. If it's spinning more, the only thing I can think of is the
new mast/cord may be shorter than the old one?

In any case, I wouldn't worry about it. Also, I doubt there is any
difference in reception due to the mast. Not much they could do
differently, IMO, it's just a piece of metal.

trader4 wrote:

AFAIK, there is nothing to adjust on the Hirschman antennas when you
replace the mast. Nor can I imagine what there would be to adjust.
It basicly winds the plastic cord back in till it won't go any
farther. If it's spinning more, the only thing I can think of is the
new mast/cord may be shorter than the old one?

Well, presumably it's going up as far as it's coming down, so it's just
sorta unsettling-sounding at the end. I didn't follow anything akin to
"proper procedure" for installing it in the first place, though, so I
just wondered if there might be one with a step that I should do. I
suppose I could listen to my wife's to see how it compares on runtime to
mine.

It's kind of a pain that you can't swap out the mast while the unit is
in the car. It's so close to allowing you to do this, except the unit
is mounted with the needs-to-be-removed part facing the fender! Agh!
....and they could have even put a "manual" switch on the outside of the
case to force it in or out. <sigh>

In any case, I wouldn't worry about it.

I suppose if I break the cord it's only another $15 to fix it again and
try it slightly differently.

Also, I doubt there is any difference in reception due to the mast. Not
much they could do differently, IMO, it's just a piece of metal.

I couldn't imagine there would be any real difference, but it's been a
lot of years since I tried building anything to catch radio signals.

thx,
-tom!

--