Do you recommend those aftermarket short antenna? Do they work well for NPR? Thanks guys.

 

I went w/ 4 inch Alta...works perfectly. Can not speak for NPR, however.

 

Do this test:

Park in your driveway, or somewhere that you get NPR and listen to it with the stock antenna.

Turn off the car.

Remove the antenna, start the car, and listen to NPR.

Notice any difference? I didn't.

I installed the Craven Speed stubby (not the extra short stubby) and I can't tell the difference between the stock antenna, no antenna, and the stubby -- even on a classical station with marginal reception.

 

I got an Alta 4", too. No difference in reception.

 

My Craven Speed 4" stubby works well, no difference in reception versus the stock antenna. Just be carefull if you order from the NAM store. I ordered one from it originally but it didn't fit my R56. The R56 antenna has a bigger diameter mounting screw than the R53 antennas. I ended up swapping out the super stubby on my wife's R53 with the one I got from NAM. I sent an email to the store to let them know of the error and never heard back.

 

i have the alta and love it...they even have free shipping so its $30

 

I just got the Alta 4" stubby, and it's working great. Have to believe there's going to be some loss of reception, especially with weak stations or in rural areas, but it's probably not worth fretting about. And if you can no longer get NPR all the better, will probably imcrease the value of your MINI

 

The Craven Speed is $19.99. With shipping I paid $28.99.

 

I brought a two inch short antenna and I don't even have the car yet!

 

I opted for the Alta four-incher. I didn't care for the super stubby.

I like how both Alta and Craven are Oregon companies. Thank you Mini owners for supporting our state.

Now, all we need is a weeklong Minis at Crater Lake national gathering.

 

I went with the Alta 4" shorty antenna and love it!
No reception problems.

 

Thank you all again!

 

I bought one off ebay. Works as well as the original one without extending the top. The top part can be pulled out to 14" long. It is only $7.99 + $5 shipping.

 

I have the Craven stubby, and I have noticed that the reception wasn't as good for weaker stations. It sounded fine with stronger stations, but there are definitely stations that I can pick up with the factory antenna that I can't get with the stubby.

 

On a drive in the mountains my Craven stubby had lower reception than stock (even then it was really bad), but since I have the iPod adapter, it doesn't really matter much to me in situations like that.

 

Same here - 99% of my music listening is with the iPod, but when I autocross, all of the announcements are simulcast over an unused FM frequency, and I like to follow along while I'm waiting in the staging area. I noticed that with the Craven stubby, I couldn't hear the simulcast at all unless I reached up and touched the antenna. With the stock antenna (which I happened to have with me), everything came through clear as a bell.

That got me curious, so I went home, put the stubby antenna on, and used the "scan" function on the radio to find all of the stations that the stubby antenna picked up well enough for the radio to detect. Then I did the same thing for the stock antenna, and was amazed at how many stations the stock antenna picked up that the stubby didn't.

 

some guy here on NAM was selling Honda S2K antennas for 13 bucks.I got one and swapped out the Moss stubby I had B4,works and looks great!

 

I did this test, purchased the regular stubby from Craven and NPR works fine for me. But I live in DC/Baltimore area and have a choice of at least three NPR stations. I have noticed a little minor reception degredation in the outskits of the city.

The other day, however, I traveled to Edison NJ, and had difficulty scanning for stations. I figured, NJ, right off the turnpike, shouldn't be a problem to get NPR, but I had difficulty finding one. Fortunately, I had stowed my regular antenna in my trunk (wedged it into the mini tool kit) and put it back on. Did another scan and found one.

Might want to check out this thread as well...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=101769

 

A quick *cheers* to a fellow npr-listening mini owner

 

Anybody know if the stubby is okay for the stock Serius adaptation? I've got the full-zoot audio pack.

 

I believe the sat radio antenna is incorporated into the sat nav shark fin. In any case, the stubby replaces the regular radio antenna ans should have no affect on sat radio.

 

With so many chiming in, I think this needs restating...be sure you order an R56 antenna. R50/53 versions won't work!!!

 

I recently changed mine, primarily for aesthetcs purposes.
I did not like the long funny thing that came with the car. I bought mine from outmotoring.com an have been very happy with it; works great but most of my experience has been with the Ipod.

Here it is...http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...y-antenna.html

 

Has anyone tried the "Micro Antenna?" I've purchased one but don't have my car yet It's just under 4" and comes with 4 different stems to fit different cars. www.smallantenna.com

Adam

 

I got mine from Uber... works great