Retractable Antennae?

**royandrews** · 06-30-2006, 06:56 AM

I am planning to have quite an array of antennae on top of my car. But I'm not too keen on having my them ripped from the top of my car when I park.

Anyone heard of retractable antennae for WiFi, CB, UHF, etc?

Thanks.

**Simon123** · 06-30-2006, 07:23 AM

I actually can't help, but around here the only cars with stacks of antennae are the unmarked cops, so if your car is american made that might be an unintended positive thing, (in regards to theft potential)

**royandrews** · 07-01-2006, 06:58 AM

Hehe, somehow I don't think an R31 Skyline will pass itself off as a cop car here in Aussie. If it were a Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon then maybe.

I've heard of some people using a normal FM antenna for a CB antenna but it didn't work that well.

Anyone else got an idea?

**Jahntassa** · 07-01-2006, 07:21 AM

Wifi I don't think would be tall enough to matter, UHF same thing, and CB if the whip isn't too stiff it should just flex when you do something. I would imagine a Skyline isn't tall enough to really worry about it though..

**BarryWoods** · 07-02-2006, 12:42 AM

I think he's more worried about theft than low obstacles.

**royandrews** · 07-02-2006, 02:10 AM

Yeah, low objects are not the problem.

But vandals are. I just don't want to get my antennas destroyed/stolen by passers-by.

Sorry for the confusion, I could of been more specific.

**Gearhead61** · 07-02-2006, 04:21 AM

I've never had a problem with my CB antenna. Throw some red loc-tite on there and people usually won't mess with it. My WiFi and GPS antennas will be on the inside of the truck though, probably against the back glass or on the dash.

**BarryWoods** · 07-02-2006, 07:11 PM

As long as you don't have that weird gold colored e-glass, the gps will work just fine on your dash. I wardrive all the time with my antenna inside the car, so I don't think you'll have any problem with that either. Unless you drive an armoured car.

**royandrews** · 07-03-2006, 08:55 AM

You wardrive with internal antenna?

I have this thing about knowing everything on the airwaves tho.

I want to have the capabilities of say... a CIA van without looking like one.

I'm talking a scanner or two (UHF,VHF,HF,etc) (for air traffic control, police, etc), a dedicated CB, 3x 2.4ghz 2 for Wifi (one for windows connectivity with Netstumber, the other to a dedicated Kismet drone converted from a WRT54G) 1 for bluetooth, a tv antenna, AM/FM radio, and any other scanning equipment I can find. Whoops, forgot GPS, and GSM/GPRS/CDMA.

.

Yeah.... I'm a nerd. Anyone got a problem with that? I'll hack your computer if you do/

[/insanity]

So, how much range loss from putting the antenna inside? That doesn't solve the prob of all the other antennas tho.

edit:

Originally Posted by BarryWoods

Unless you drive an armoured car.

Armour eh? Could come in useful in rivalries with the secret service over prime parking spots.

edit2:
Here's an artists (bad artist) impression:

hmm, maybe too ambitious? Now you see why I need retractable antennae?

**BarryWoods** · 07-03-2006, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by royandrews

You wardrive with internal antenna?

Lately I've been using a linksys wrt hacked to autostart kismet-drone. I have it mounted in one of the back side windows of my Element. It works better than any wireless card I've tried so far, and I don't have to worry about it autoconnecting to someone's network. If I'm not using that, I built a colinear omni out of lmr-400 that I use. Same way, just mount it by a window. I don't want to drill any holes in the car until the warrantie runs out, so everything stays inside.