Roof Antenna

Thanks, Nutstoyou, that answered my question, but I also don't see how you do all that with only 4Gb.

 

Man oh man I sure miss my mind.....Clarification needed. For Pandora and Tune-In radio I and my wife get by easily on 4 Gig data plan....If/when we plan a long road trip like the one coming up in August...I up my data limit to 10 Gig just for that month. That covers movie time while traveling in the car, and all places we stay at have free wifi, which covers the non traveling time. Please accept my apologies for causing confusion....

 

Thanks, that makes more sense, but still worth checking into after my trial runs out.

 

Forgive me for being a mechanical idiot. Does the antenna unscrew by hand, or do I need a screwdriver? What screws off -- the antenna itself or the base also?

 

Turn counter clockwise by hand. Just the antenna.

 

My 2015 Prius' 2 FM reception is much poorer than in my 2013 Nissan Frontier.
Any suggestions how it can be improved. We live in Southwestern Utah

 

You will get some suggestions to your post. Some people replace the original antenna with a shark fin antenna. You can buy one at the Prius Chat Shop for $115.00. Probably best to wait until you receive some replies from people who have used it.

 

Interesting. There's the random possibility that the amplifier in the antenna base might not be working well, or at all. Or, for that matter, the FM receiver in the radio might be having an issue. Stuff happens. Testing for either of these conditions falls into the "interesting" category.

Back in the day when I worked as a radar tech, checking the sensitivity of a radio or radar was a fairly straightforward task, but then I had the test equipment (signal generators and such) for doing it. I suspect that there's a method for checking the radio in a Prius, antenna and all, but I don't know what it might be.

KBeck

 

For those who have never been in SW Utah, it's kind of out in the middle of, well, you know. Very nice place, BTW.
The shark fin will give you -less- reception. You might consider fabricating a "whip" to replace the part you can unscrew. Start with about 3' long. I suspect it would work much better. When you shorten an antenna by making it a coil (which is what has been done with the stock antenna) you loose a lot of signal. Not a problem in LA etc. but when you get "out there" the radio can get kind of quiet. Best option would be satellite, but of course you have to pay pay pay.

 

You can get a subscription to Satellite radio for about $89.00 a year. You might want to give it a try for a year.