Car Antennas Don’t Work On Poor Grounding Connections
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The reason for the presence of more static than music while turning on the radio is due to poor grounding connections. The purpose of grounding is to transfer the voltage present in the antenna to the earth effectively and safely. So the connection is to be made in a proper way. This will ensure that the excess voltage present is collected and stored in the earth instead of traveling back to the radio as disturbances. It is difficult for making such connections in the case of modern cars where the frame connections are different from the old ones. But still it can be done. But how to get a good ground on a car antenna?
There are few tools required for accomplishment of this task. The usage of such tools will reduce the man power required and makes it easy. It includes ring terminals, wire brush, electric pliers, dielectric grease and socket set.
The first step is to open the car’s trunk or the hood. Choose any of these two which is closer by the antenna. The antenna ground wire is located first. It can be easily identified as it is the only wire coming out of the antenna’s base. There is another large cable going to the radio. There always exist a misconception between these two words. And the best way to differentiate them is by their size variation.
The ground wire is extended until it reaches the car’s frame by elongating it longitudinally. Now one should look for the bolt that is nearer to the wire. While selecting the bolt one should always remember that the bolt should the one that attaches one frame to another. The bolt can be either a hinge attachment or it can also be a cross piece.
It should not be one of those bolts which attach the frame and the car’s body. One should connect the antenna to the ground as directly as possible to the frame. This makes sure that no residual voltage present in the antenna passes through the radio. The above step ensures the safety of the radio. A socket wrench can be used to remove a bolt easily.
The bolt is cleaned thoroughly first. A wire brush is used to remove any kind of dust or debris in it. The bolt is coated and the ground wire of antenna’s bare copper end is also coated with a layer containing a considerable quantity of dielectric grease. This will ensure that there is no safety problem in the connections being made with the antenna and the wire.
The above lubrication step also ensures that there is no debris or rust formation in the ground connection that we are about to perform. This is because of lubricating effect of the grease. The ground wire of antenna’s bare copper end is wrapped with the bolt and it is reinstalled into the frame firmly.
Thus one should know how to get a good ground on a car antenna, if he wants a good music while a road drives.