Looking Back: The Antenna Install

I have made reference in a couple of recent posts about the antenna I installed on the Sky. This was back in January of last year, so it's been a while. It's a bit of a story, and here it is!!!

As I mentioned, the original style antenna is a tall solid mast, and it's on the rear fender, right where it's in the way when you are putting the top down or up. All that remained of the original was the plastic base, and around an inch of the original mast. I purchased a little rubber antenna of the style that had been popular during the mini truck craze of the 80's. I had figured I would just remove the original, and plug the replacement in wherever the original cable plugged in. Of course, the radio is a ways from the stereo head, so as a plan B I was thinking I could just splice the cable as needed.

Not previously mentioned, Zonker actually has two antennas, the standard over the air antenna mentioned, and a satellite radio (and probably OnStar as well) “Shark Fin” antenna on the middle back of the rear deck, and of course, both have cables that pass from the trunk area to the interior.

I removed the rear body panel and the center console cover, figuring they would pass through and probably run down the console. That's what you see here, there's a lot going on. The box in the middle of the picture is, I'm pretty sure, the satellite radio receiver. Towards the bottom of the picture, you can see the subwoofer of the Monsoon audio system (which I also previously mentioned that I had repaired by gluing the cone back to the surround) and towards the top is the Monsoon amp. I tried to trace the over the air antenna cable, but was only able to positively ID the satellite cable.

I took a step back, and reconsidered the approach I was going to take. The old antenna base was going to have to be removed to put the new one on. While I was antenna shopping, I saw that almost all of the antenna masts are internally threaded. I went ahead and worked the stub off, and unscrewed the large flat nut on the top of the base, which revealed the threaded rod base. The replacement antenna has a near opposite approach, with a threaded bolt extending down, which is captured and kept from turning with a couple of flats in the metal portion of the antenna base. OK, what can I do with this??? How about using a nut in place of the bolt, and screwing it down to the original threaded stud??? Yes, that could work, but it may end up needing to be shortened, or some sort of adapter made up. I found a flange nut with the correct thread, which of course was too wide for the slot in the metal base. I used a cut off wheel to slice two sides off, and shortened one end, to make a nut where everything lines up.

Next up, how to get everything to line up... The metal base to the antenna is too small to work with the original plastic base. The plastic base for the new antenna has a similar shape, a tapering cone, with the correct size recess for the metal base, and a little extra flange and height on the bottom. Since I already had the cut off wheel set up, I trimmed the flange and a little height off the base, and things were getting close to the right height to sandwich it with the original base, but of course the shape wasn't matching up. I ran a bolt through the newly trimmed down base, and chucked a couple of nuts in my drill, and attached it to the drill. I had the younger run the drill, while I used some coarse sandpaper to shape it down into more of a spherical shape. After the shape was good, I used fine sandpaper and a sanding pad to smooth it out, and it actually polished up beautifully!!!

It ended up looking something like a snowman, with a base cone of the original base (which actually follows the fender contour nicely), the new base turned spherical, and the metal base, which already has a round shape, being two halves that you can use to adjust the angle!!!

At the same time I had ordered the antenna, I also picked up a couple of phone holders. When I had started working from home, I picked up a wireless charger stand for my phone, since I was using my phone a lot for work (I've got a whole folder of work apps I need to uninstall), and the wireless charging was working great!!! I figured I'd look into a similar holder for the cars, and found a couple of these for not a lot. I still hadn't come up with a good holder for Kutcher, and since it tends to get a lot more use, I'd put one in it first. I'm usually not impressed by suction cup style bases, but these work great!!! It's a clear silicone cup with a release lever, and I was able to stick it to the middle of the console, and have the phone holder just back from the gear shift. Just recently, something went wrong with the indexing of the arm, and now it wants to rotate down, guess I'll be taking it back to the drawing board soon. Also, for some reason, it doesn't seem to charge nearly as well as the home unit did. Anyway, here's the one I put in the Sky, it sets it right between the instruments and the heater controls, and it's stuck to the smooth part of the dashboard right over the middle HVAC vents. Lights up a cool blue!!!

So, there you are!!! 80's antenna installed!!! Not going to snap off putting the top up or down, and it seriously improves reception!!! Cool 80's aesthetic vibe, as well!!!

And a happy 512 day to all!!!

Sid's Tube

Cat toys are always hit and miss. You may see something you think your cat will love, and they all but ignore it. You can have some trash you're throwing away, and they'll pull it out and have the time of their lives!!! But sometimes, you'll get something they'll love!!!

Some time ago, my wife ordered a collapsible fabric tube, about cat-sized diameter by around 2 feet long. He loves his tube!!! Every time someone would come into the room, he'd race over to it and stick his front into it!!!

So when she located this one, it was a no-brainier. It's the same idea, spring loaded rings around cat-sized, but it's about 8 feet long with a S-bend to it. It also has a couple of windows cut out of the sides.

Predictably, he loves this one, too!!! Once again, whenever anyone comes into the room, he heads for his tube, and sticks his front end in.

I'll put my foot into the other end, and move it around a little. He'll do the cat butt wiggle, then launch himself into the tube like a spring loaded Tigger!!! Sometimes he'll collapse the tube to around half it's length!!!

He'll also reach out the side windows and bat and claw at you. It's great to see our boy having fun!!! I don't think I'd mentioned, but before he broke his leg, it seemed like he was growing out of his kittenhood, but after he got out of the cage, I feel like he had the mindset that he's going to play like a kitten every day!!!