Stubby out. Reception back!

Don't think it's a cost thing.

I was sitting in traffic in a city centre yesterday when a bus pulled along side me and I totally lost Radio 2.

At that point, I'm not going to get out and swap it, even *if* i was sad enough to carry the long one around. Who knows whether the signal from the long one would have been sufficient at that point, but it crosses ur mind and that's annoying.

It's a bit like having a hardtop and the sun comes out in Winter.. you want to put the top down and can't.

But.. if you didn't have the hardtop, you'd put the roof down and sometimes decide it was too cold anyway.

If anyone was listening, what was the answer to the maths puzzle on Jeremy Vine? I got " 1 ". :?
 
wegras said:
come on guys
the cost of the Stubby from Peugeot / Citroen is £5.16
reception depends completely on where you live/drive in effect no difference or C**p
BMW clearly OEMs the long one for a reason .....reception under all reasonable conditions
The stubby looks "better" imho but for £5.16 try it ................its a gallon of regular :headbang:
If it doesn't work for you bin it :cry:
Click to expand...
As Andy says, you've got the wrong end of the stick - it's nothing to do with cost (for me at least). I quite like having a decent radio signal (I've tried a mate's stubby from his Pug and the signal was inferior) and personally, the appearance of the regular aerial doesn't offend me in the least . So, why should I spend £5.16 on something that IMO looks no better and does a worse job :-?
 
strangely my reception improved dramatically when fitting the stubby :|

I'd now say it was perfect where as before with the OEM jobbie the reception was terrible.
 
Andy said:
If anyone was listening, what was the answer to the maths puzzle on Jeremy Vine? I got " 1 ". :?
Click to expand...
'1' was the correct answer.

BTW, I switched back from the stubby to the normal aerial after losing too much signal on my regular Liverpool to London runs (worst reception was around Oxford/M40).
 
mmm-five said:
Andy said:
If anyone was listening, what was the answer to the maths puzzle on Jeremy Vine? I got " 1 ". :?
Click to expand...
'1' was the correct answer.
Click to expand...
Woooooooooooo !! Thank god, you have no idea how much sleep I was losing over that. :oops: :lol: :rofl:
 
Forgive my ignorance, but does nobody make a stubby that's actually any good and the single thing it's designed to do - receive signals?!
 
glastoveteran said:
Forgive my ignorance, but does nobody make a stubby that's actually any good and the single thing it's designed to do - receive signals?!
Click to expand...
My Mangowalk stubby gives perfect reception as I just said.

I couldn't listen to a lot of stations using my OEM aerial.
 
TH3R4POR said:
glastoveteran said:
Forgive my ignorance, but does nobody make a stubby that's actually any good and the single thing it's designed to do - receive signals?!
Click to expand...
My Mangowalk stubby gives perfect reception as I just said.
Click to expand...

Sorry missed that, which is what happens when you post a reply from page 1 of the posts... :oops:
 
my OEM aerial was terrible though, I can only assume the connection was dry or there was some damage or something, it couldn't have left the factory like that.
 
1) Am I the only Z4 owner in the country who doesn't give a flying **** about the aerial? I've never even noticed it and think the stubby looks daft.... :o

2) You will get poor reception because aerials are a certain length for a reason...it all has to do with the the length of the waveform it is trying to capture. 300 divided by the frequency (in Mhz) gives the wavelength, so (assuming 100MHz - somewhere in the middle of the FM band), this comes to a 3m wavelength. For 100% signal quality, that means a 3m aerial....so for practicality, car makers use 1/2 or 1/4 length whip as a compromise or hide it....

That Pug stubby might be tuned to a different part of the band, it may have more aerial within the car to give it it's full length (without which it may not be a clean multiple of the waveform length), may have different booster settings once it reaches the radio....so signal will always be poorer.

:)
 
a11y said:
wegras said:
come on guys
the cost of the Stubby from Peugeot / Citroen is £5.16
reception depends completely on where you live/drive in effect no difference or C**p
BMW clearly OEMs the long one for a reason .....reception under all reasonable conditions
The stubby looks "better" imho but for £5.16 try it ................its a gallon of regular :headbang:
If it doesn't work for you bin it :cry:
Click to expand...
As Andy says, you've got the wrong end of the stick - it's nothing to do with cost (for me at least). I quite like having a decent radio signal (I've tried a mate's stubby from his Pug and the signal was inferior) and personally, the appearance of the regular aerial doesn't offend me in the least . So, why should I spend £5.16 on something that IMO looks no better and does a worse job :-?
Click to expand...

I think I have exactly the right end of the stick . Posters are agonising over spending £5 on an aerial that might look better....or not and may affect reception or not.
As I said , it may , it may not , depends on where you live and where you drive I have one on both cars and all over SW and up to London reception is fine and makes not a jot of difference to iphone
signal strength with stubby verses OEM ( with Blue Tooth cradle )
 
wegras said:
I think I have exactly the right end of the stick . Posters are agonising over spending £5 on an aerial that might look better....or not and may affect reception or not.
As I said , it may , it may not , depends on where you live and where you drive I have one on both cars and all over SW and up to London reception is fine and makes not a jot of difference to iphone
signal strength with stubby verses OEM ( with Blue Tooth cradle )
Click to expand...

Does the aerial affect your phone reception?

Might I be so bold as to suggest you come across a tad rude wegras?
 
mikedav said:
1) Am I the only Z4 owner in the country who doesn't give a flying **** about the aerial? I've never even noticed it and think the stubby looks daft.... :o

2) You will get poor reception because aerials are a certain length for a reason...it all has to do with the the length of the waveform it is trying to capture. 300 divided by the frequency (in Mhz) gives the wavelength, so (assuming 100MHz - somewhere in the middle of the FM band), this comes to a 3m wavelength. For 100% signal quality, that means a 3m aerial....so for practicality, car makers use 1/2 or 1/4 length whip as a compromise or hide it....

That Pug stubby might be tuned to a different part of the band, it may have more aerial within the car to give it it's full length (without which it may not be a clean multiple of the waveform length), may have different booster settings once it reaches the radio....so signal will always be poorer.

:)
Click to expand...

I'm with you!
 
And me!

If a shorter Aerial would work as well as the longer one, wouldn't BMW have fitted one?

Form over function! But if that's your thing, nothing wrong with that either.
 
Blacklines said:
wegras said:
I think I have exactly the right end of the stick . Posters are agonising over spending £5 on an aerial that might look better....or not and may affect reception or not.
As I said , it may , it may not , depends on where you live and where you drive I have one on both cars and all over SW and up to London reception is fine and makes not a jot of difference to iphone
signal strength with stubby verses OEM ( with Blue Tooth cradle )
Click to expand...

Does the aerial affect your phone reception?

Might I be so bold as to suggest you come across a tad rude wegras?
Click to expand...

Sorry how so ?
I was responding to a suggestion that I had " the wrong end of the stick " or possibly aerial
 
I love this thread, so many different opinions, but lots of good facts too :D

I also have a 1" Mangowalk stubby which I purchased for "looks" because I had no intention of using the cars cellular capabilities, which I believe the factory aerial was design around.

For me, in the wide open plains of Oklahoma USA, this stubby Mangowalk works just fine. I get very good reception for over 40 mi/64 km, with best reception in the 100mhz range. I've gotten decent reception for a station at 97.5mhz for close to 60mi/96 km on many days.

Form vs function. Yes I agree. Which is more important to someone. That's the real question.
 
Given that this is a forum about a performance car we seem to be spending a lot of time discussing the fitment of a non standard part that will in some cases degrade the performance of a system of that car.

So I still say “Down with all things stubby”

Also “mines smaller than yours” just doesn’t seem right.
 
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