Thread: Glass mount antenna on a heated windscreen?

Yes, if present between the plates (especially toward the centre of the plates), the embedded heater elements will degrade the performance of the coupling of the glass mount antenna. The tiny wires form an additional, spurious electrical element of the coupling.

Thus some of the rf energy from the feed will not be emitted but rather dissipated by the heater.

Your antenna will not operate as efficiently as it could. And glass mount antennas are not the preferred choice for efficiency from the outset.

A professional installer would not normally mount such an antenna across any heated windscreen element.

You might want to go back and get them to move it to a rear side window.

In any case, the installer will have the technical equipment to assess the adequacy of its current performance. If it works, I'd leave it where it is.

Such antennas favour the cosmetic factor over the functional in any case.

Through glass antenna - The RadioReference.com Forums

I rang the installing people today. It was a different bloke, but he reassured me that the antenna is tested and tuned during installation and that the performance must have been satisfactory or it would have not been accepted.

Time will tell. I am grateful to Michelinxms244 for advice. Does anyone have an experience with this issue?

I have had some time to assess my radio and I have been underwhelmed. I do not have any test equipment, but have found I get better reception with a handheld UHF radio (Uniden UH076SX-NB ) that is lying on the front passenger seat than I get with the installed car system. The Uniden receives signals that the Icom misses regardless of Squelch settings etc. I estimate the range for receiving signals to be about 2km line of site. Beyond that range the signal is very broken and poor.

I sent an email to the installer company this morning (Sunday) and I received a phone call within 10 minutes from the owner of the business who said he is not a tech expert, but will arrange to have my concerns addressed.

I will report back when I have had the opportunity to drop my car in for a check-up.

So..... I took my car in and the radio tech agreed that it was not ideal to have wires between the coils of the antenna. At first he started looking at a more suitable location for the antenna and then said that he would like test the function of the antenna and radio again before making any changes. According to their tests everything was up to specification. I will just have to wait til I get to go on a trip with the lads (soon) and compare function with them.

With radios the difference between a good radio and an adequate one is usually the antenna and unortunatly thru glass ones are not the best but if you can get 2 ks then that will do for most convoy work let us know what happens on a trip