Ugly mobile phone aerials on nice cars!!

[RED_EL_XR8]

Originally Posted by blinkau

I stuck it up the passanger front windscreen up the top in the tinting area and you wouldn't even know it was there from the outside unless you looked really hard.

Behind the tinted section of the screen will actually degrade the performance of the antenna. But saying this I have mine there too. Just try and use the less tinted portion its a trade off of performance and aesthetic.

Originally Posted by blinkau

I would definatly recommend this to anyone I was suprised that it worked better then the external units.

Thanks again useless.

Also a more offtopic question the phone doesn't mute the radio on an incomming call. What part would I require for this and roughly how much? Iv got a nokia 6250i

The Nokia kit has facility to mute the radio. What Vehicle do you have? Some have the facility to mute inbuilt some dont. You can but accessory kit that mutes the radio via speaker wires need a bit of caution with these. Post the details of your car and if you have a factory or aftermarket headunit and I'm sure Useless will be able to advise you.

[Stav]

I do not believe the factory window tint strip at the top is metalised tint and should not really make a noticeable difference agst reception.However if it was metalised it would cause probs with reception

[Stav]

Originally Posted by RED_EL_XR8

Sponsor You say! -
Big Stav is Excited LOL
: :1syellow1 : :1syellow1 :

ahhaha ...reminds me of great Aussie icon Big Kev

[eb2flyz]

how much are these arials worth?
i get sick of having s**t reception in my truck as the windscreen wipers always knock the arial off, and i do quite a bit of country driving aswell so better reception would be good aswell.

[Duffman]

Iv got an AU2 forte with the standard head unit. Iv got the nokia 6250i incar phone kit iv had a few problems with it before. Mainly one of the cords kept comming out of the box meaning id have to pull out the center console area around the gear stick to get in there and plug it back in. Though i have now resorted to electrical tape it hold it in.

I was thinking of going back to strathfield to get them to put a mute thing on but after their last dodgy attempt I don't want them near it.

[RED_EL_XR8]

Originally Posted by blinkau

Iv got an AU2 forte with the standard head unit. Iv got the nokia 6250i incar phone kit iv had a few problems with it before. Mainly one of the cords kept comming out of the box meaning id have to pull out the center console area around the gear stick to get in there and plug it back in. Though i have now resorted to electrical tape it hold it in.

I was thinking of going back to strathfield to get them to put a mute thing on but after their last dodgy attempt I don't want them near it.

The AU has a pre-wired harness for phone kit. Yellow wire from car kits pulls to ground on a call. The wiring of the AU plug should be in your owners manual, should be a direct connect some still wire a relay in, I've never had to.

What wire is pulling out of the car-kit?
BTW profession cowboy installers dont use tape, they use cable ties. :

[Stav]

The au 2 has no mobile phone radio mute wiring.You must purchase the wiring from ford to plug into the back of the radio.The au 1 did have mute wire.Just another cost saving short cut by ford .Pm me if you want some instructions on doing it. I have another way of..

[RED_EL_XR8]

Originally Posted by useless

The au 2 has no mobile phone radio mute wiring.You must purchase the wiring from ford to plug into the back of the radio.The au 1 did have mute wire.Just another cost saving short cut by ford .Pm me if you want some instructions on doing it. I have another way of..

Cheap-Asses the EL has it as does the BA.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by useless

The au 2 has no mobile phone radio mute wiring.You must purchase the wiring from ford to plug into the back of the radio.The au 1 did have mute wire.Just another cost saving short cut by ford .Pm me if you want some instructions on doing it. I have another way of..

my dad had a phone kit installed in his old company car (au2 forte) and whenever he answered a call, the radio muted and the display read "TEL"

not sure if this is what you guys are talking about, but thats what it did...

[Lightning Strike GT]

Originally Posted by RED_EL_XR8

This is and isn't true. The pop port phone kits do have the cradles available seperately. However nothing other than the Speaker and Mic from the CARK91 can be reused.

CARK126 is the common kit for Pop-Port phones requires Antenna Coupler and Cradle to suit your phone. What model phone there are already several different cradles available. The antenna coupler works very well and I am getting good results with 6100 and 7250i. CARK91 kits are stil getting reasonable dollars on E-Bay so this may offset your cost of the new kit a little.

And there is a bluetooth kit for handsets so equipped but with the bluetooth you obviosly wont have option for in car charging or external antenna so dependending on your use of the kit they may not be the best option.

Thanks for that I thought it was too good to be true yep you are right the CARK91 and the 6310i are pulling big dollars on EBay almost as much as they were brand new

[Peuty]

Useless, recieved my parcel today, and as far as I can tell, there is an improvement over the external aerials. I will give it a proper test on my Toowoomba run shorty, but first impressions are good.

[LUXO_8]

i recieved my aerial last week, im just waiting till i get a handsfree to try it out.

looks good though...:

I gotta ask. What brand are these?

Reason is I have long used and sold RFI ITG2000 and 4000 aerials ( www.rfindustries.com.au ) as these are internal mount. They offer great reception and I haven't found better. At least two other brands have been offered and I have tried them. Pulling them apart is a lesson in marketing - no substance whatsoever. One aerial had a single wire running across it!

All my customers who use the ITG series have been happy. I use the 4000 for country customers as it offers a slight increase in gain, however having said that I personally use the ITG2000 on my own car fitted on the top of the front screen behind the tint and blackout.

These aerials being offered here, do you have a gain map to show their performance?

Sorry for the questions, but there's so much rubbish out there.

Also, I haven't had any issues doing the mute on AU2 and found all the cars I have done have had the wiring. What am I missing???

[Stav]

Originally Posted by Aussie Pete

I gotta ask. What brand are these?

Reason is I have long used and sold RFI ITG2000 and 4000 aerials ( www.rfindustries.com.au ) as these are internal mount. They offer great reception and I haven't found better. At least two other brands have been offered and I have tried them. Pulling them apart is a lesson in marketing - no substance whatsoever. One aerial had a single wire running across it!

All my customers who use the ITG series have been happy. I use the 4000 for country customers as it offers a slight increase in gain, however having said that I personally use the ITG2000 on my own car fitted on the top of the front screen behind the tint and blackout.

These aerials being offered here, do you have a gain map to show their performance?

Sorry for the questions, but there's so much rubbish out there.

Also, I haven't had any issues doing the mute on AU2 and found all the cars I have done have had the wiring. What am I missing???

Mate they are my st 100 stingray aerials.I believe they are the best aerial on the market except for the 5 db solid mout rf industries aerials.This is why I am getting guys to try them out.

Mate I tested them with a db metre which can be enabled on the 6210 nokia mobile phones.I measured db figures against most leading brands of aerials and yes they beat them all so far.I like rf aerials but was told that you cannot put a digital aerial on cdma network.Guess what I did and the customer was happier with the rf 5 db aerial than the cdma dedicated aerial.So as you probably guessed...I am less than optimistic to pay big dollars for quality that I cannot deliver to my customers.If you are interested pm me and ill send you one for your feedback.

CDMA and Digital are not exclusive on some aerials as you found out.

As for testing, I'd rather see proper test data such as that published by RFI. Subjective assessment and adhoc dB Gain tests aren't much use except where a customer has a specific problem.

Good luck with these.

[Stav]

No problems here mate ill send you some for your evaluation.Ps all the numbers posted by aerial manufacturers cant help the customer who cant make a call . In a company I recently did 3 cdma phone installs with 5 db aerials from RF Industries. 1 was a digital aerial and the other 2 were cdma aerials from the same manufacturer.Despite the available data on their products the customers who had cdma phones and aerials complained of poor reception around Bathurst ,the third who had a digital aerial on his car said that it was very clear. Not trying to bag that company,I really like them but this real life example illustrates that numbers did not help these guys or me.I had to buy 2 more digital aerials to install on the cdma car kits and have had no problems since.
If you want to test one in reality put it in your car with others as i did and compared.If you cant make a call with one switch to the other. I love the blackspots for this type of testing.

Good points. Remember gain is not the be all and end all. Fitting an 8dB gain mast for cell phone to vehicles travelling through mountain areas (say Sydney Wollongong or areas of the Hume Hwy over the divide, or the Blue Mountains) is the wrong move because the flattening of the signal (and thereby concentration and direction) is the exact opposite of what you want - a braod wide scoped signal that intercepts a cell tower.

3-5dB gain is more than adequate. I typically figure most people need no more than 3dB to get the best spread of performance. They must be dual band capable though to prevent city drop outs (is this one a 900/1800?)

[Stav]

Originally Posted by Aussie Pete

Good points. Remember gain is not the be all and end all. Fitting an 8dB gain mast for cell phone to vehicles travelling through mountain areas (say Sydney Wollongong or areas of the Hume Hwy over the divide, or the Blue Mountains) is the wrong move because the flattening of the signal (and thereby concentration and direction) is the exact opposite of what you want - a braod wide scoped signal that intercepts a cell tower.

3-5dB gain is more than adequate. I typically figure most people need no more than 3dB to get the best spread of performance. They must be dual band capable though to prevent city drop outs (is this one a 900/1800?)

Heheh spot on!!!! I think its more the charm of bigger is better theory