I.c.e.

[DennisR]

Yeah I know wash your mouth out, mentioning In Car Entertainment in the same breath as a Model A, but, here goes..........
Wanted local news, traffic etc. as well as music so I bought a Sony Mechless head unit (for the un-initiated solid state no cd etc.) keeps the size down just has a usb slot, powered thru my 6 to 12v converter and a couple of small speakers can be removed in minutes, anyhow I have a problem.............
The whole shebang is totally separate electrically from the car body, being - earth and I am having a problem with getting an aerial. I bought a `hidden` rectangular box thing that goes anywhere out of sight, useless, I bought a gutter mount mast type, easily removed, worked, but noticed the cable was getting hot ! the mast was earthing to the body, no good.........
So I need an aerial that doesn`t earth thru the body ? done some searching and looks like I need a magnetic mounting aerial ? not a pretty sight but again easily removed, if I can find one............
Over here all they want to sell you is a `Bee Sting` or a `Shark Fin`!!!!!

[Synchro909]

You might try mounting your aerial under a running board or behind the valence.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Synchro909

You might try mounting your aerial under a running board or behind the valence.

Yea a google search for hot rod or street rod radio antennas with give you a good selection of hidden antennas.

[biggieou]

Dennis, I'm thinking about something as well, but I'm leaning towards Bluetooth speakers and using my phone. Totally removable and won't have the pain of wiring anything up.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[René W]

an arial needs to be earthed otherwise it does not work properly

[DennisR]

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The double mount cowl type would fit under the running board, but, I`d still have the earth problem because the radio is isolated from the car, I`ll keep working on it for now, I have been using an mp3 player....

[Charlville]

Heard some good feedback on this one http://www.tunetrapper.com/index.html

[Kurt in NJ]

The converter I used on my + ground MG allowed the radio and antenna to use the car ground too ---but once I had a speaker wire chafe and ground--that made the speaker smoke

the converter only had 3 wires--- ground, negative in, plus out---both the plus and negative used the common ground

[DennisR]

Charlville - that looks like what I`m looking for, thanks, I`ll follow up on it.

Kurt - mine has + and - in and + and - out so I guess that`s what caused the gutter aerial to start cooking, luckily I caught it before any damage was done

[KGBnut]

I don't think it will help with your problem, but Pop had a car many years ago that used the chicken wire in the roof as an antenna. I seem to remember it go pretty good reception, but I think it was only A.M.

[Glen in Hillman MI]

Dennis,
What you need is a 6 volt pos. ground to 12 volt neg. ground converter that you can get in the popular Model A parts book or google Antique Radio sites. They are cheaper through antique radio suppliers.
Good luck on your project.
Glen

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Just SING to yourself---EASY!
Bill Hoarse

[RawhideKid]

WTH are you guys thinking?? KGBnut has the right idea!!

Henry said you could use the chicken wire as an antenna, even before there were radios mounted in the cars.

Now here is the trick. You take the antenna plug off of one of those antennas and clean out the center pin and ground, throw away everything else. Now, take a single wire and run it from a soldered connection on the chicken wire to the center pin on the antenna connector. Plug connector into back of radio. Instant antenna.

Now, this is not an end-all fix, and may give you extreme ignition noise when listening to AM, but for everything else, FM, Sat, etc, it should work just fine.

Just be sure you do NOT connect the radio body to anything metal on the car itself.

[Dick Steinkamp]

I've used this one successfully (not on a Model A)...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hidden-Anten...VYGJsp&vxp=mtr

[captndan]

What happened to the cheap transistor radios that you could hold in your hand? They did not require an external antenna.

[California Travieso]

I don't want to mess with the wiring or deal with the polarity, so I just use an iPhone or iPad plugged into a small car starter/charger and blue-tooth speakers. You can use radio, music or GPS with maps. You can get a 12 volt Lithium Ion car starter/charger with USB ports for $50 - $75 here in the U.S.

Most of the time I'm too busy driving the roadster, e.g., shifting, adjusting the spark advance, checking traffic and braking, to worry about music or the radio. Can't hear it with wind and road noise anyway.

David Serrano

[California Travieso]

Originally Posted by captndan

What happened to the cheap transistor radios that you could hold in your hand? They did not require an external antenna.

If you can find one at second hand store, swap meet, or E-Bay, most were battery powered.

David Serrano

[5lugnuts]

I run my portable gps and cell phone off the 6 volt battery in my Model A.

These devices want 5 volts negative ground DC current. You can check the spec sheets to be certain.

If you have the plug (power plug) to charge your cell phone in your 12 volt negative ground car, you can use that to power a cell phone or GPS. The plug only allows 5 volts negative ground DC to the device it is powering.

For less than 5 dollars you can buy the power receptacle to connect the power plug into and wire the receptacle to you 6 volt battery which will supply the necessary 5 volts negative ground to your device when wired correctly.

CAUTION when wiring. The plug for your charger has a button tip for Hot and two or one contact on the barrel of the plug for ground, NEGATIVE in this case.

Check to be certain the barrel connections are powered from your negative post on the battery before final connection(plugging together).

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by California Travieso

I don't want to mess with the wiring or deal with the polarity, so I just use an iPhone or iPad plugged into a small car starter/charger and blue-tooth speakers. You can use radio, music or GPS with maps. You can get a 12 volt Lithium Ion car starter/charger with USB ports for $50 - $75 here in the U.S.

Most of the time I'm too busy driving the roadster, e.g., shifting, adjusting the spark advance, checking traffic and braking, to worry about music or the radio. Can't hear it with wind and road noise anyway.

David Serrano

X2
Three years ago I quit turning on the radio in my modern car because there is no good music played in the Twin Cities. I don't miss the radio one bit and find I'm even more aware of stupid moves by other drivers.

Yesterday I went to Menards, and a mile from there a woman stopped right in the middle of the road and was leaning over searching for something on the floor.

[pgerhardt]

Originally Posted by biggieou

Dennis, I'm thinking about something as well, but I'm leaning towards Bluetooth speakers and using my phone. Totally removable and won't have the pain of wiring anything up.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

The "sound block" works well for me. It has great sound and fits easily out of sight in a door pocket. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/SoundBlock-Wi...ohm+soundblock

However until I get much more time driving my tudor, listening to the car rather than music seems to be a good idea.