FUBA antenna

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » March 13th, 2005, 8:36 pm

I"m painting my car in a week (spring break next weekend). and since i'm doing bodywork, I'm going to remove the rear washer nozzle since I already removed the reseviour and motor to reduce weight (never used it anyways, worthless to have IMO).

Anyways, I just picked up a fuba antenna from an 03' lancer from the junkyard yesterday, but the thing requires an extension cable. Any clues where to buy antenna extension cords? I'm not sure how long it'll need to be, i'll be running it from the rear roof through the left or right a pillar down to the radio. I'm thinking 10-12 feet should be fine.

Also, it has an additional wire going to it, no clue wtf it is for. Any ideas? Apparently this antenna is used on jettas, lancers, protege5's, the new 3 and the new corollas (same exact antenna).

TekPmp · Post by **TekPmp** » March 13th, 2005, 9:40 pm

Most Bestbuy Stores with an installation garage sell a 144" (12') Standard Antenna Extension. Its just a 12' coaxial cable with a standard male connection on one end and a standard female connection on the other. In my garage on Long island we sell this part for $6.49

-Remember to tape up any exposed portion of the plugs before finalizing installation. That is a common source of interference / poor reception!

What does the extra wire you mentioned look like? Can you describe it?

Hope this helps - Joe

monty73741 · Post by **monty73741** » March 14th, 2005, 3:03 pm

u need to paint my ride too LOL

you should add a war driving kit also......that be killer

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » March 14th, 2005, 5:42 pm

i'm gonna see if walmart has an extension cord as well, they sell schosche stuff and i saw on ebay someone selling the perfect cable that was made by that company so maybe walmart will have it.

And the extra cable is just a 18awg cord, no special co-axial cabling or anything. It was run from the antenna to the radio alongside the antenna cable. No idea wtf its for but its integrated into the antenna housing. I'm thinking its a power or ground wire or something, but i don't see why that'd be necessary.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » March 14th, 2005, 6:01 pm

Gro
I believe the antenna itself needs to be grounded. Although the outer shiething of the co-ax fills that roll, this may be a supplemental set-up to reduce inductive noise. Is the mounting base look somewhat like it would be isolated (rubber?) from the frame ie - no metal to metal contact? I'm guessing that the attached wire is probably not very long, unless it was cut of course. If so, I would suspect that this is a ground and that it would attach to the nearest quality grounding point available. Hope this helps.

TekPmp · Post by **TekPmp** » March 14th, 2005, 6:16 pm

Most VW antennas are amplified. In my experience the only band it made a difference on was AM. If reception becomes a problem try hooking that wire to the blue/white wire on your deck harness (Shows 12v only when the deck is powered on) ....if grounding the wire does not improve reception of course

hotsiit · Post by **hotsiit** » March 14th, 2005, 7:54 pm

Hey all.
I have been wondering this same ting also. I have had a fuba antenna on my mx for like 2 years...never hooked up

. It has been a while since i looked at it, but I believe it has 3 wires coming out of it. The one I got had the wires / antenna wires cut. These standard extension antenna wires, with a male and female plug...could that still be used? Im guessing I could use it, just have to splice the wires to the correct ones. I dunno, not one for wiring things. maybe I can see if i have a pick to better describe what i mean.
Later all!

spano · Post by **spano** » March 14th, 2005, 8:54 pm

how much did the antenna cost you? and how much would it cost if you were to buy it brand new? anyone know?

TekPmp · Post by **TekPmp** » March 14th, 2005, 9:05 pm

I saw a few decent ones with the internal signal amp for around $30.00 (US) on Ebay, im curious to hear what Gro paid for his at the wreckers.

Heres more info on the fuba antenna you may find helpful:

"The Fuba antenna on the GTI/GLX cars is an amplified antenna which
requires DC electrical power from somewhere. On the non-Fuba cars,
they
use a standard passive antenna, which gets it's gain (amplification)
from
it's length, hence, the Fuba is less than 17" long, and most standard
(passive) FM antenna's are 29-31" long, which is about a quarter wave
length of the FM band (87-107 MHz). In antenna theory, antennae that
are
certain fractions of a given wave length (1/4, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, as well
as
a whole wave length) in length, will resonate at that corresponding
frequency, hence providing an increase in the signal (voltage) produced
by antenna, which provides the front end of the receiver with an
amplifiable input. The Fuba does the same thing using a powered
amplifier, so a much shorter antenna mast will work. This is why VW
uses
the same head/receiver unit for both amplified and non-amplified
antennae. This also explains why the Fuba equipped cars don't pick up
didley without the power lead to the antenna connected."

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » March 14th, 2005, 10:26 pm

spano wrote:how much did the antenna cost you? and how much would it cost if you were to buy it brand new? anyone know?

fit in my pantleg nicely

u can get them new on ebay for like 10-20 plus shipping. I even saw "upgrade" version of the antenna i had. Apparently i can swap the mast out for a stubbier one if i want.

The antenna i have looks like this:

(see the two wires)

And u can buy stubby ones that look like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... gory=33639

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » March 14th, 2005, 10:29 pm

no clue how much they cost new either...probably 30-60 i dunno. You can unscrew the mast and replace it with a stubby one.

And I'm guessing i'll have to hook that small wire into my blue "remote-turn on"lead. Makes sense.....that will be easy as hell to do anyways since I have a miniature distribution block for the remote turn on wire lol.

I'll let you know how it works when its installed, might be a month or so. I plan to install/mount it in a week but I won't have the extension cord by then and i'll have to install it later. I can live w/out the radio for a month if needed.

hotsiit · Post by **hotsiit** » March 15th, 2005, 5:38 pm

My fuba came off of some kind of VW...not sure what, but im thinking a jetta...I got it from a friend 3 or 4 years ago for free so im not sure on prices for them either.

Mine looks similar to the pic Gro posted...Its long in length.
The wires look to have been just cut to get the antenna off the car, and they are cut very short (close to the base of the antenna) No plugs or anything.

For a long time now, its just been installed and not working. Maybe I'll get one of those cables and see what i can wire up

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » March 15th, 2005, 7:53 pm

From the pic it looks like this is a non collapsable type of antenna. If so, makes it little harder to put the car cover on...IMO. Does this type of antenna pose a more significant increase in signal gain?

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » March 29th, 2005, 3:43 am

Its INSTALLED!! Painted car this spring break & mounted the antenna. Shaved the stock one too.......i surprised myself, it looks completely shaved, no indications of the stock one existing.

Here are a couple of pics like I promised:

fyi, sunroof is primered until I can go home again & spray it in NON RAINY weather

And I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that "amplified" wire. I'm not sure if I should rig it to my remote turn-on wire or not (the blue one on the head unit going to my amp. I don't know if that would supply it with enough power or voltage.

I still have to buy an extension cord too for the antenna too. I'll prolly order a 10 or 12 foot one this week sometime.

And I removed the stock washer nozzle & used that hole for one of the two studs that you use to mount the antenna. Its pretty tight in the area where I put it. I had to cut away some metal from the hatch to put it in but it fits fine nonetheless.