shark fin aerial?

[kingl8]

i was gettin tired of the horsetail of an aerial on the roof of my VE, has anyone replaced it with a shark? i find only the fake ones from ebay

 

[davey g-force]

I too am interested in this.

I've found the short bee sting ones on ebay, which look pretty cool, but a shark fin would look the goods! Plus, I keep getting out-bid on the bee sting ones! :bang:

I know you can get fake shark fins but obviously I'd want one that is actually functional and fits the roof contour / hole properly.

PS: shouldn't this be in the VE section?

 

[PhantomVE]

Should be in the VE section probably, but either way, good thread.

I have a bee sting arial and it does look a lot better than the old horsetail lol but your right, the shark fin would look the goods. Doubt anything is available though, it would have to be specially made for a VE to fit the contours.

I wonder if a fiberglass one could be made?

 

[bigfut]

i went to toyota and got a rav4 aerial. Its about 15cm long, so a lot shorter and looks better. Same fitment, so screws on no worries.

 

[kingl8]

so i took my search to Google and "shark fin aerial" doesn't find great results. however, thinking outside the box here, the term "shark fin antenna" found me lots!

sharkfinantenna.com sells their aerials for G8's, the North American version of the commodore ... and they even list Heron White for my VE ... has anyone tried this before?

 

[SSZ Ute]

I know its not a sharks fin but I put a Mazda CX7 aerial on my SSV. Less than half the lengths of the standard one and screws straight in. Only cost $24 from the local Mazda dealer too...

 

[vicarious]

that looks good, what length is it?

 

[SSZ Ute]

Sorry not with the car right now but I am guessing 15 - 20 cm.
If you go into a Mazda dealer just have a look at a CX7

 

[davey g-force]

Suzuki Swift aerials also bolt straight in and are about 15cm long. The ebay bee sting ones are shorter though ( between 5.5cm to 9cm) and look nicer.

I've done a bit more research, and the probelm with the shark fins is that you have to take your roof lining off to fit them! Bugger that...

I then found some shark fins on UK ebay that actually fit over the existing base and have an internal wire which screws into the top of the existing base to transmit the signal. Not sure how well they work, but a great idea...

 

[TehFastyOne]

Beware of buying smaller antennas. You risk losing reception for the benefit of looks. Anyone here that has done a communications course knows that antennas are sensitive equipment to certain frequencies. Part of that requirement is the length of the antenna. Antennas are only receptive to certain frequencies at certain lengths. By making the antenna smaller, you are reducing the effectiveness of receiving the FM/AM radio band. You'll also likely pick up spurious crap being transmitted from sources that are designed to be received by a smaller antenna due to their specific frequencies. You won't pick up a handheld CB transmitter outright but when you listen to a radio station you might get faint clicking or intermittant levels of static if you're in range of one for example. Had that on a friends car with one of those bee sting aerials and as a test to cure my curiosity, I used my handheld CB and sure enough, there was slight interference.

The BMW shark fins are made from fractal antenna technology, not an actual aerial. Fractal antennas are a very small array of sensitive elements that use surface area rather than length to receive a certain frequency band. So buying a little aerial (not fractal) that fits in a shark fin is kidding yourself. Probably be only good for a mobile phone receiver booster. Also, BMW radios are more thought out in that they have better filters that cater for fractal antennas. You can install one on your car, just be prepared that the performance might go either way depending on your head unit or factory radio. So bear in mind that using a fractal antenna doesn't necessarily mean you'll get reception just as good as the factory antenna. You need to weigh this one up.

Whilst they do look good, the BMW fractal antennas can be a piece of crap. Depending on where you live the reception can be great or poor. Fractal antennas are ones that are not generally designed for a small amount of frequencies and can actually be used for wideband comms due to their design. It's how they're designed that determines the application. Proper antennas are sized to the correct frequency of radio FM/AM signals. Hence why fractal antennae technology is used mainly for mobiles and microwave links where 3G / HSDPA and other protocols benefit from its wideband reception. However it is a small receiver and it still follows some basic electromagnetism laws. The one reason for that is that radio only needs one large transmitter in the city to project for a good distance before it needs a repeater to boost the signal compared to mobile phones which need a repeater station 20 - 30km around metro areas and more often still if the network is very busy. When you travel further away from the radio station, you might also find that you lose reception more quickly compared to the car next to you with a proper FM/AM aerial which can still get good reception for another 30km travelling away from the transmitter. It's alright to buy a shark fin antenna if you live in a metro area however you are more likely to suffer poor reception.

Radio and mobile phones use different communication technologies even though it seems like it operates on the same thing. Don't be fooled by ads that say explicitely 'factory antenna replacement' cause really, it's not.

Might've repeated myself in that but I'm trying to cover all angles. Besides which who listens to the radio when all the play is Hot 40 teeny bopper crap