Quote: Originally Posted by Stonewall78
Hey Mike how much was that sharkfin? Also where did you buy the connector to that gps? I was thinking of adding one of these to my mk4 golf.
Stonewall78, I have put together the following information about the shark fin in hopes that if you do decide to take on the mod it will go as smooth as possible.
Gps shark fin/ 1K0-035-507-C
The antenna is part of VW's navigation system and cost $110 US. Should be able to get it at any VW dealer . I purchased it online here...
Antenna
Cable 1
The first cable you will need is available on ebay. This cable is the one connected to the GPS module and runs to the back of the case. $12.50 US
Link
Cable 2
This is probably the hardest to aquire and runs from the back of the case to the antenna. The cable you will need is RG174 or RG316 and terminated with a male BNC connector. I acquired this at work and didn't need to buy it but have done some searching and you can buy cable assemblies with BNC connectors on both ends fairly cheap.
Link
This leads me to the connectors that are on the antenna. They are made by Amphenol and detailed information on them can be found
here
The blue one is GPS and purple is AM/FM radio. I bought them online from digi-key and where about $4.00ea.
Digi-key
P/N FA1-NCRJ-C01-0 / GPS
P/N FA1-NDRJ-C01-0/ am/fm
The connectors do require a special crimper inorder to crimp a ferrule around the outer shield of the coax. Although if you have above average soldering skills it is possible to solder the outer shield to the connector. After assembling the cable I would recommend checking that the center conductor and the shield are not shorted together. This can be checked with any ohmmeter and you are looking for infinite resistance. If it is shorted then the 3vdc being supplied by the gps module will be going straight to ground and will it will fry.....
I think that covers just about everything. I have tested the gps operation with mapmonkey and I have locked on to 7 satillites with the antenna strung out my back porch about 7ft away from my house . I can only guess that this would only improve the farther I get from the house. I have not installed this in my car yet as my install is still months away but cannot find any reason why it won't work.
Just a note about the Radio portion of the antenna. I have yet to do any testing in regards to reception quality with a aftermaket head unit. I have read some posts on other forums about poor radio reception when they remove the factory VW radio and replace it with a aftermaket one. This is something I can live with becuase I can't remember when the last time I listened to FM radio. Excellent FM radio reception is something you absolutely must have then you might want to wait unitll I get my new head unit and can verify the reception quality....
Good luck