My son who works for a Honda dealership in parts says that people are ordering the shorter FIT antenna for their cars... mainly BMW.

 

Well someone stole my Spoon antenna when it was on the car less than 24 hours!!!!!

 

Anyone else notice that their radio gets horrible reception? IS the short antenna to blame? Anything we can do to fix it? My old saab's antenna motor was caput (would only raise the thing halfway) and I still got better reception....

 

my radio gets fine reception, so far. i've had the car since late april and it's been fine. maybe something is up with your antenna connection or something...

 

Make sure the antenna wire is actually connected to your radio! I've seen it happen before on new cars... sometimes it might just not have been pushed in all the way. I'm not sure if there is an easy way to check without pulling the head unit out, though

 

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-interior-modifications/6058-antenna-upgrade.html

 

Marketer: Make the FM antenna cool and short like my cell phone antenna.
Engineer: The FM wavelengths are 10 or 20 times as long as your cell phone wavelengths, so the antennas need to be 10 or 20 times as long to work as well.
Marketer: I don't care about geek stuff like "wavelengths"; can't you just make it short?
Engineer: We can coil-load it, but it won't work as well.
Marketer: I don't care about geek stuff like "coils"; can't you just make it short?
Engineer: Yes, but it won't work as well.
Marketer: I don't care about geek stuff like "working"; can't you just make it short?
Engineer: Yes.
Marketer: Do it. [Aside] I had to tell him four times; he must be really stupid.

 

kps - LMAO ...I bet that's exactly how it happened!

 

Somebody sure is old skool
Sorry - standing wave length is standing wave length - coiled or straight

 

I don't know nuffin bout no standing wave lenth, do know that when I replaced my tenner wif a longer one my redier werked better.

 

Erm...Was there supposed to be a "factory" small antenna?Because... my radio reception...It WORSE than sucks.It's not a problem - I've got a few mp3 cd's I keep in the car...But I've just got a little rubber stopper in the antenna hole...Should there have been an antenna?

 

Wow... rubber stopper? Never heard of this.

I know that with my Spoon Antenna (AKA CELL PHONE ANTENNA I PAID TOO MUCH FOR) I get worse reception for sure.

I don't listen to the radio other then A.M. news radio in the morning for my doses of current events on the way to work. Other wise I am bumping the discs.

 

i haven't had any problems with reception so far

ROFL

 

anyone try rear windsheild mounted antennas? its pretty stealthy, and ive had excellent reception in my car thus car.. wonder if anyones tried it on a fit.

 

So... you had an antenna you had to remove to put the spoon on, right?

/me goes to take pics of the little rubber stopper thing...

 

Yes... car came stock with an antenna. In fact I called my buddy at the dealership today and he said he's never heard of this rubber plug and all of them should come stock equipped with an antenna. USDM Honda Fit

 

When the car arrives at the dealership, I don't believe the antenna is installed. Check to see if it's stuck in with your jack, where the big ol' tow eye should be found. I'd also check to see if it's in your glovebox, blending in with the dark colored interior.

 

Here's the pics...

I don't think it's in the glovebox...
And unfortunately it's getting too dark to go look for it in the back
Oh well...

 

I would mos def speak to your dealer man. That aint right. Go get your antenna.

 

The reason for this is that JDM FM radio broadcasts at a lower frequency range than in the US, 76.0MHz - 90.0MHz. Your Spoon antenna is a JDM one, right? If so, it's optimized for the lower range, hence the crappy reception. This effect is true for all JDM antennas used here, and also the reason for the need for a converter if you install a JDM-only head unit in your car.