The Fuba Betaflex antenna: Where does it go?

[Normy]

I have a cellphone repeater antenna on the top of my '85 928S2. One of the previous owners, probably the ******* PO that I bought the car from....most likely installed it.

My cellphone works fine in my car, though I pull over when I talk on it. I'm not sure if this tiny device does any good or not- it looks exactly like the tiny whip antenna that Mark Anderson has installed on his white race car, the one on the cover of the current 928 International catalog.

According to the WSM's, the Fuba Betaflex antenna, which debuted on the 1986 VW Scirocco and made its way to the 928 in 1987, is actually mounted to the roof. The tiny cellphone antenna that I have right now is mounted to the hatch, about 4 inches back from the leading edge.

I'm thinking of removing the tiny antenna and adding a Fuba. I don't know if it will work at all- I drilled a hole in the roof of my 1985 VW Scirocco and actually added one of these, removing the original retractable antenna and caping off the hole with the white nylon bottom of a table from my apartment. I painted it black and it worked perfectly, it was just the right size. Running the wire to the stereo was a big pain in the butt though!

Since this won't be hooked up at all, I won't have to worry about this last problem. I have a radio antenna in the windsheild, and don't care anyway about radio signals since I have my iPod installed in my car through a buss that connects to the head unit. I simply don't listen to the local radio stations in Fort Lauderdale, since the only one that was decent shut down in February, 2005.

Thoughts? How would it look? Here's a picture of the hole that I would re-use to mount it:

N!

[Danglerb]

Hard to choose between the classics.

[gattaca]

Hi Normy, Since you already got the hole in the right location for the Betaflex have you tried looking at a shark fin type antenna instead? AM/FM reception somewhat decent from what I heard, but you don't really use that anyway, definitely lower profile. XM capable doesn't receive GPS though. Let us know what you come up with. -Joel

http://skyyear.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4&HS=1 (no affiliation)

[Danglerb]

I was thinking the other day about using the rear window defrost as an antenna, might work. Maybe not well, but in most areas signal strength isn't an issue, plus how much longer will anybody be depending on AM/FM anyway?

[gattaca]

Good point Danglerb. Come to think of it I don't really use the AM/FM that much anymore either. Normy, you could be better off just plugging up the hole like you did w/ your Sirocco...cheaper fix too. -J

[rhjames]

Ah, a shark fin for my shark. just what I have been looking for.

with my paint removal/resto going full throttle, I was trying to come up with a replacement for the radio antennae due to filling the stock antennae hole (among other things).

this is just the ticket-----

--Russ