Why does the FD have 2 radio antennae?? One on the hatch & one on the fender. Can the fender antenna be eliminated & only use the hatch window one?

 

it doesn't have 2 external antenna. are u talking about the washer nozzle on the hatch?

ive heard that the defroster grid doubles as a AM antenna though. and u can hook up FM to the defroster... how to do it im not sure.

 

No there is an antenna that sticks on the window of the hatch. Is it only for AM ? I remember reading somewhere that the head unit (radio) picks up whatever antenna is receiving the best signal, cause there are 2 cables going to it.

 

thats a cell phone antenna or aftermarket

 

The FD has the fender antenna and one integrated into the hatch that looks like defroster wires. I think the hatch one is supposed to receive FM signal, but I could be wrong.

 

Notice on the radio face it says "Diversity"?

What that stands for, in laymen terms, is using two separate antennas that lessen fade of radio signals.

Nissan has a similar system in their cars.

Google search came up with this............................


Characteristics of antenna pattern diversity branches in urban mobile radio

Fumio Ikegami, Tsutomu Takeuchi, Susumu Yoshida
Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan 606


The performance of mobile communication is greatly degraded by the multipath fading which is a large problem in future digital mobile communication.

We made a detailed analysis of the urban propagation characteristics and found that use of a directive antenna in a mobile station reduces the fading by the effect of antenna pattern itself.

We suggested that excellent diversity branches can be realized by combining more than one directive antenna.

 

So are both antennae directive ones?? Can I omit the fender one & install an after market one on the front window as well?

 

Yes, there are two antennae, one embedded in the rear glass and the obvious mast antenna on the fender. The radio automatically chooses the antenna receiving the strongest signal. This helps cut down on the picket fencing effect when listening to the FM band in areas with tall buildings. It doesn't do anything for AM. Trying to rely solely on the embedded antenna and doing away with the mast antenna will doom you to inferior reception.