Stubby Antenna

C2tuck · Dec 23, 2017

Jomax said:
How do cars get away without those little wing antennas on the roof? It’s factory too..

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Kinda what I was thinking. Even the old 80’s Chevy trucks that had them inside the windshield worked decent

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Dave_Nevada · Dec 25, 2017

Jomax said:
How do cars get away without those little wing antennas on the roof? It’s factory too..

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It all depends on what frequency they are being used to receive. The higher the frequency, the shorter the antenna. They two are inversely proportional.

Cell phone antennas are very short due to their higher frequency band. Those 'wing antennas are usually for GPS and or Cell phone. They are big enough to house both.

For instance, in radar, the actual antenna is about 1/8" tall inside the feed horn of the dish.

Back in the 80's, when servicing a down Satellite receiver, my first job was to inspect the massive dish feed horn for 'critters'. Often I would find a spider that decided to take up residency inside the feed horn, and every time the little dude would move, the place complained of poor or no reception. That's because the spider was literally blocking the signal from the dish from being received on the 1/8" tall antenna. So part of my tool kit to repair those 3 meter dish installations was 1 can of bug spray, and another can of contact cleaner to remove the oil from the bug spray.

Why was the antenna so small?

The microwave frequency band is very high on the light spectrum.

Same reason for the winged antenna on the roof of a car, or a 'nub' style. It all depends on what they are being used for.

Thus, a short antenna for GPS or cell phone in the car.