I suspect that a part of the problem is that the slingshots does not provide a good ground plane for the antenna. Normally the metal body of a car acts as the ground plane for an antenna and works best when the antenna is mounted in the center - (one of the reasons you see antennas for communication radios mounted in the center of the roof) - the slingshot does not have a good flat conductive surface that can act as a ground plane like most cars do
Radio antenna not very good..
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Don't remember the thread or which forum, but I'm pretty sure I posted this before -
Some Corvette folks use self-adhesive aluminum tape under the antenna mount (and inside the body where it can't be seen) and place strips of aluminum tape in a radial pattern to basically add a ground-plane for the antenna.
A similar idea could be used if mounting the Slingshot antenna to the rear deck and just make a ground-plane taped to the bottom of the rear deck. For extra grounding, you could probably also connect a wire form the antenna nut to the Slingshot''s frame.
If you buy one of @mytoy's metal tops, I'd assume you could also mount the antenna to the metal top and it would ground through the Top's frame to the Slingshot's frame. -
Don't remember the thread or which forum, but I'm pretty sure I posted this before -
Some Corvette folks use self-adhesive aluminum tape under the antenna mount (and inside the body where it can't be seen) and place strips of aluminum tape in a radial pattern to basically add a ground-plane for the antenna.
A similar idea could be used if mounting the Slingshot antenna to the rear deck and just make a ground-plane taped to the bottom of the rear deck. For extra grounding, you could probably also connect a wire form the antenna nut to the Slingshot''s frame.
If you buy one of @mytoy's metal tops, I'd assume you could also mount the antenna to the metal top and it would ground through the Top's frame to the Slingshot's frame.yes - mounted in the center of the metal roof would provide an excellent ground plane.
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Since the MeanSling Sport Top has been reinstalled for the winter, we have been reminded of how much better range we have with the radio again................
Bill
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I never use the radio.....always use music from my phone or streaming through Spotify or Amazon music.
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I was playing around with my antenna and found that raising it so it was above the metal fame of my TD Top greatly improved reception and I plan on eventually rigging a mount for it that will place the antenna above the TD's metal frame. I'd imagine mounting the antenna to the top's frame would act like an enhanced ground plane compared to mounting the antenna to a plastic body panel and would also serve to increase the antenna height for better reception.
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I have a 2018 SL with a Bullet speed V back roof on it and had very good reception. Then I added a set of LED headlights now the radio will fade in and out so bad all you hear is some static. I started using I phone via blue tooth to listen to the radio now. I still want to find a fix for the stock radio because it has the GPS in it. Anybody else had that problem and found a fix for it?
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I have a 2018 SL with a Bullet speed V back roof on it and had very good reception. Then I added a set of LED headlights now the radio will fade in and out so bad all you hear is some static. I started using I phone via blue tooth to listen to the radio now. I still want to find a fix for the stock radio because it has the GPS in it. Anybody else had that problem and found a fix for it?
An external antenna would help but radio reception and led's don't go well together.
