mx5cartalk.com

have an after market alpine cd/tuner that was in my na6 when I bought it, the radio reception is pretty crap---- I basically only listen to JJJ, had a long aerial non retractable, bought a short much nicer looking aerial which was supposed to have some built in amplifer, reception is now worse, surprise, surprise
are internal aerials ant good, or does anyone know of a retractable unit that would fit in an na

I thought the NA had a standard retractable aerial- that should be easy to determine- owners manual- or see other cars. Autobarn etc should sell an aerial an probably have a cross reference?

non retractable aerial on car when I purchased it, will try autobarn/ supercheap

an NB unit may fit.

They are electrically retractible.,

If you want a retractable aerial you need one from an NA8. I think the NB ones have a longer mechanism and might not fit. I think you'll find most after market ones will be to long too. However the original fixed mast aerial that came with the NA6 should give you as good or better reception as a retractable one because it doesn't have any moveable parts and the mast is quite long. Have you tried cleaning the screw connector where the mast screws into the base and the earth point where the base connects to the car? Also make sure the cable is securely attached to the aerial base and the plug is a tight fit into the head unit.

Failing that maybe your head unit has a weak radio. I bought a cheapy Ebay Chinese head unit and the radio reception was pretty average. I have an NB with a retractable aerial. I pulled the aerial to bits and cleaned all the connections in the mast, cleaned up the earth to the chassis, ran a thicker cable from the aerial to the head unit and installed an aerial amplifier. After all that the reception is almost as good as the stock head unit with no aerial mods.

ok thanks