Anyone change their radio antenna and still get good reception in the mountains away from the city?

[AEsco48]

Denver people in particular, or others not in a major city with good FM signal.

I get ever so slightly annoyed by the factory antenna bouncing around while offroading.... #1stWorldProblems

Replaced it with a Quadratec/Rugged Ridge 9" and radio reception while driving west on I70 was pretty bad. They make a 13".... But wondering if any one has changed and been happy with a particular antenna.
(I usually switch back and forth between the local\FM and the nationwide station on Sat radio)

Thx

Sponsored

 

[Mark’s Mojave]

I put the 13” on mine and reception seems to be normal.

 

[Clv22p]

Moved mine under the dash. Still get pretty good reception.

 

[Radio Guy]

I went with a 13" and checked a bunch of AM and FM stations before and after the swap. AM was affected the most reducing everything and I lost several weaker stations. FM was reduced some with weak stations getting a little weaker and a few that were barely listenable went away.

 

[AEsco48]

Sorry, to clarify.

With the new 9" antenna in Denver Metro area where signal is strong, i notice no change in reception. It's when I drive away from Denver into the mountains where reception was previously fine, now its not good.

 

[Renegade]

I'm using a 16" (just slightly lower than the windshield frame) and get great reception.

 

[AEsco48]

Moved mine under the dash. Still get pretty good reception.

Nice setup... With a good strong signal in a major city you don't even need an antenna.

 

[spectre6000]

I live in the mountains west of Denver. What you get once you're in the mountains a bit depends on a number of things:

Some stations are powerful enough to get through, others aren't. I can usually get NPR all the way from the flats to the house. Other stations are less powerful, and drop out at various distances/locations. Others might be more powerful, but just not something I would care to listen to, so I've not noticed.

Where you are also matters. Topography varies wildly, and I get a different set of stations in my "front yard" than I do in my "back yard" (several hundred feet elevation change). I can actually get a bar of "natural" cell service (as opposed to a private cell) at the top of my property. Enough to get a text, but probably not enough to make a call. Radio waves don't super like going through solid stone, but they can bounce off it a bit. If you have a big mountain between you and the antenna you're listening to, you're probably not going to get much unless it can bounce off something higher, further away, and in the right direction (and quality will suffer). I live in a canyon that runs parallel to the front range, with about a 1K' delta between my house and the mountain immediately between me and civilization. Very little makes it down here. No cell, radio, OTA TV, police radios (whatever protocol that is), etc., etc.

If you need the reception for something, every little bit helps. If it's just background music on occasion, and you can stream something from the hard drive on your phone, maybe you like the looks of the shorty better. Go for it. We run the stock whip on my wife's JK. My parents live about 30 minutes NW of us (15 miles as the crow flies maybe?), and my dad has a shorty on his JL. I haven't heard him complain.

 

[AEsco48]

I live in the mountains west of Denver. What you get once you're in the mountains a bit depends on a number of things:

Some stations are powerful enough to get through, others aren't. I can usually get NPR all the way from the flats to the house. Other stations are less powerful, and drop out at various distances/locations. Others might be more powerful, but just not something I would care to listen to, so I've not noticed.

Where you are also matters. Topography varies wildly, and I get a different set of stations in my "front yard" than I do in my "back yard" (several hundred feet elevation change). I can actually get a bar of "natural" cell service (as opposed to a private cell) at the top of my property. Enough to get a text, but probably not enough to make a call. Radio waves don't super like going through solid stone, but they can bounce off it a bit. If you have a big mountain between you and the antenna you're listening to, you're probably not going to get much unless it can bounce off something higher, further away, and in the right direction (and quality will suffer). I live in a canyon that runs parallel to the front range, with about a 1K' delta between my house and the mountain immediately between me and civilization. Very little makes it down here. No cell, radio, OTA TV, police radios (whatever protocol that is), etc., etc.

If you need the reception for something, every little bit helps. If it's just background music on occasion, and you can stream something from the hard drive on your phone, maybe you like the looks of the shorty better. Go for it. We run the stock whip on my wife's JK. My parents live about 30 minutes NW of us (15 miles as the crow flies maybe?), and my dad has a shorty on his JL. I haven't heard him complain.

Awesome! Thx for the reply J.
Actually it was NPR.... Depending on what NPR Denver and NPR satellite are broadcasting I switch between the two... Only this past weekend with the new 9" have i ever said to my self, oh man the quality is bad. In the past it was oh we are to far, switch over to Sat... This time it was over a long period of time that the quality was bad.

I may just go back to stock...

Out of curiosity... What type of private cell do you have?

 

[spectre6000]

A private cell is a device that uses your internet connection, and creates a cell signal that your phone thinks is service. It's kinda like a wireless router, but only for phones. If you have crappy internet, it's crappy. The country with the worst average broadband speed in the world is Venezuela at 1.5M/s. We typically get about 1% of that, while also being incredibly unreliable. With a hell of a lot of optimization, utilizing only wired connections, one device at a time, and myriad other "what's the point" type sacrifices, we could conceivably and very occasionally see 1.2M/s if it's not too hot and hasn't rained in a month or two.

For reasons not worth going into here, we pulled it and have been relying on WiFi calling. I still have it in a box in my office. If you want it, it's yours for the hefty price of coming and getting it.

 

[AEsco48]

A private cell is a device that uses your internet connection, and creates a cell signal that your phone thinks is service. It's kinda like a wireless router, but only for phones. If you have crappy internet, it's crappy. The country with the worst average broadband speed in the world is Venezuela at 1.5M/s. We typically get about 1% of that, while also being incredibly unreliable. With a hell of a lot of optimization, utilizing only wired connections, one device at a time, and myriad other "what's the point" type sacrifices, we could conceivably and very occasionally see 1.2M/s if it's not too hot and hasn't rained in a month or two.

For reasons not worth going into here, we pulled it and have been relying on WiFi calling. I still have it in a box in my office. If you want it, it's yours for the hefty price of coming and getting it.

Jaja

Yea familiar with that type of cell towers, though maybe you had something new.

I lived in Egypt for 3 years (2011-2013) and they had billboards advertising home internet of 3 mb/s. Cell phone internet was a bit faster so i had 6 sim cards that I rotated each month for home internet via a hotspot.

 

[spectre6000]

Nope. Plain Jane. Nothing fancy. Was an effort to make life easier for guests. A shitty neighbor abused the hell out of it and us, so we had to kill it.

3Mb/s would be a dream, even if we had to juggle SIM cards. Unfortunately, no cell service either. Best we can do is juggle two crap ISPs (at least one of which would literally be criminal were it not for misguided ideological fantasies around deregulation), and hope at least one of them is kind of working at any given time.

 

[AEsco48]

Have you looked at Starlink yet? https://www.starlink.com/

I hope at some point to be able to head of into eh backcountry with the family for weeks at a time and just work a few hours a day via Starlink.

 

[spectre6000]

Oh yeah... Signed up for the "better than nothing beta" within 4 hours of it going live (unannounced), and so far it's just nothing. At the time, it was expected to be early-mid summer, now I think it's been pushed back to early '22... It would completely transform so many things in our lives, but there's absolutely nothing we can do about it other than wait.

Sponsored