Does antenna have to use original switch?

If it's indeed a newer radio, there is a cable (I think it's blue on mine) that the wiring-harness has on it, that's suppose to go and tell the antenna to go up, this should be hooked up. However, the button will override it.

Unless the antenna is shot.

"Typhoon Lee" haute in die Tasten:

The usual Hirschmann Power Antenna has one single control cable. As soon as this cable gets +12 Volts, the antenna goes up. As soon as the current is taken away, the antenna goes down again. Usual contemporary car radios have a contact for the antenna, which gets +12 Volts as soon as the radio is switched on. If you switch off the radio, the contact goes dead and the antenna goes down. In my car I have put a manual switch in the line from the radio to the antenna. If I switch off this switch, the antenna goes down, even if the radio is on (good for listening CDs in the car wash). If I switch off the radio, the antenna goes down in any case.

Frank

I replaced the original radio in my 81 240D with a CD version. It has an antenna wire which goes "dead" if I insert a CD. Maybe yours has the same setup. In any event locating the original wire which activates the antenna can be a real hassle. I removed the left cover panel in the trunk, located the antenna wiring, noted what color wires were there and matched them with those originally located in the area behind the radio. Testing these revealed the correct wire. I then simply used a "wire tap", hooked up the new radio's antenna wire (usually blue) and viola! Good luck.

"The earnest one" haute in die Tasten:

This setup ist unusual for Germany, because almost all car radios sold in germany are equipped with traffic announcement detection. So I even leave my radio on (and the volume on mute) when I am on the Autobahn and do not want to listen to music. As soon as the radio detects, that the radio station is broadcasting a traffic announcement, it will pump up the volume and tell it to me. If I happen to listen to a cassette or a CD, the radio will scan the traffic announcement signal in the background. As soon as a traffic announcement is broadcasted, the radio pauses the cassette or CD playback and plays the announcement instead. If I put my radio to a low volume or to mute, it will play louder, when a traffic announcement is on broadcast (of course you can disable this function, if you do not want to listen to traffic announcements at all). So usually my antenna is out, as long as my radio is switched on. I installed the manual switch in my convertible, because the antenna generates wind noise, when you cruise around in the countryside. This can get annoying, when you just want to listen to a CD.

Frank

In the U.S.we get a sign on the side of the highway that says "tune am 530 when lights flash" and when there is a traffic bulletin, the yellow lights on the sign flash.

That way the system is "backwards compatible" with older cars.

Bernard

"Bernard Farquart" haute in die Tasten:

In Germany (you can say in the whole of Europe) they are pretty forward- thinking, when it comes to the information for motorists on traffic problems. The traffic announcement system has been introduced some 20 years ago, so by now almost every car is equipped with a suitable radio. Roughly 15 years ago they introduced the next step: RDS (Radio Data System). Every FM broadcast station transmits a signal which contains the name of the station and a list of alternative frequencies. So your radio shows you the name of the station and tries to find the best frequency. This enables you to stay tuned to one FM station, even if you travel for hundreds of miles. As radio broadcast isn't entirely private in germany, there are also public stations which usually broadcast more than one channels. For this feature you have EON (enhanced other networks). EON detects, when Bavaria Radio 3 sends a traffic announcment and tunes your radio to Bavaria 3, even if you currently listen to Bavaria 5. The most advanced traffic information system, introduced around 1996, is TMC (traffic message channel). There the traffic announcements for the complete area of germany are broadcasted as digital data in the background of all participating stations. If you have a suitable receiver, you can choose the area you want to be informed about, be it the area around a big city or a certain Autobahn. As the info is broadcasted as a digital data set, your radio shows the traffic announcement as a text on the display and makes an artificial speech output. When they introduced TMC, Blaupunkt introduced some receivers, which were capable of playing TMC traffic announcement in different languages, so you should be able to listen to italian road traffic infos in german language, if yo happen to be a German travelling through Italy. Although available since 8 years by now, TMC still is quite a rare feature. OTOH many advanced Navi systems use TMC information to optimize their routing. I saw this in an S-class in 1999 when I travelled from Hannover to Munich. Suddenly a 15 mile sector of the Autobahn appeared to be crowded and the Navi system guided me to a workaround route. Pretty cool.

In general scientists believe that you can prevent most traffic jams, if you can influence 10-15% of all drivers not to drive into the crowded road, but to take an alternative route instead. For that reason in Europe they spend quite a lot of tax money to improve the information on traffic jams.

And there is another, quite important difference to the US: AM broadcast does not play any significant role for broadcasting radio programs into cars. People use almost exclusively FM for that. Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) is on its way, but it may last decades until it really conquers the market.

Frank

That sounds like a lovely system.I can not see it being implimented here, since all the radio stations are private, and would not see a monetary benefit from the investment.

We only have rabid talk radio, with some news stations on AM here in the U.S.

Bernard

Even Britain has this. Implementation was late because the engineers at the dear old Beeb (BBC to you) thought they would be very clever and develop a system that would also work on the medium wave band of AM in the days when FM radios in cars was not so widespread.

Of course they didn't and we have the FM-based system everyone else in Europe has.

I have the Audio 10 Merc radio and I don't think that it has EON, let alone TMC. I travel too little to be very concerned...

DAS

PS. I just realised I must have EON because when I listen to Radio 4, a national BBC station, I find traffic broadcasts breaking in from BBC stations local to the area in which I find myself.

DAS

"Dori A Schmetterling" haute in die Tasten:

I think it has EON, which is quite a common feature. I have never been i n the UK with y own car, maybe your broadcast stations do not use this feature.

Frank

See my PS posted 16.14 (my time), where I added that I thought that I might have EON after all. Even when I am driving and hear relevant traffic news I have found that it is not entirely accurate and I tend to ignore it. Might be different if drivng more. Actually, when I drove around Schleswig-Holstein for two years in the early eighties I did not find the traffic bulletins useful. maybe they are better now.

DAS

Mostly, but not stricky true...

I always enjoyed the Country music AM stations here in Seattle...

Also there is a kids AM station.

Marty

"Dori A Schmetterling" haute in die Tasten:

They are working on the accuracy thing. In former times a certain traffic announcement would only be reported to the broadcast stations, when a policeman has confirmed it. In return, also a report of a solved traffic jam required confirmation by the road police. In the late 90's several cellular phone providers started to install traffic density detectors to almost every bridge over the Autobahn in Germany (one can also thik that they are speed traps). The goal was to automatically detect traffic jams and dramatically reduce the time lag between an occurring jam and the traffic announcement broadcast. Unfortunately the people were not ready to pay for that service. I do not know, if they have integrated this detection network into the national traffic announcement system by now. It would be a good idea.

Frank

thats true, i do like 1090. stuff you cant hear anywhere else, and NASCAR races. Heh heh

I found a blue wire soldered to a blue wire from the radio. Then I looked at the antenna motor more closely, found it disconnected, hooked it up and discovered why it was disconnected. The motor is on all the time. I opened the cover to find the cam switch to control the motor is shot. I've been looking on ebay from an antenna/motor assembly with the same disconnect connector but haven't seen one yet.

thanks all for you help.

Where are you located? There is a company in San Diego that handles after-market antennas which fit almost perfectly. I replaced the one in my

240D and everything worked perfect. Had to do just a little work making sure the right wires were connected then...viola! Also bought new headlight surrounds for a fraction of what they wanted at my local MB dealer. The same with brake rotors, etc.

I'm in Fort Worth, Texas. I was able to pull the antenna up some with power off so its working for now. I'm hoping to find an antenna with the same power connector pinout so I can just swap it out since I seem to have so little spare time. Can you say the website of the company in San Diego?

Not sure if they have a website but I'll check through my records and see if they do. If not I'll get you the phone no., etc.

Here's that website

Pretty long address but it does work. Bought a universal antenna from them that works fine in my '81 240D for $53. Headlight doors were only $59. Good luck.