using the rear defogger as an antenna

[Kershaw]

the PO of my car, in his infinite wisdom, decided to shave the antenna. removed it and bonded the hole, then sanded it down. not very well, but its sanded and painted. im not going to drill it out and reinstall the stock antenna.

my rx8 uses the rear defogger as its antenna. :)

as far as antennas go, its a pretty good. wide array of metal wires running back and forth. the rx8 has great reception. so i figure it shouldnt be that hard to replicate, right? heh. the antenna is in a pretty close location. run a wire and solder.

i just figure since its not a factory set up im probably missing a step here. if i turn on the defogger, will it overheat the antenna wire, back to the strereo and cause damage. im trying to avoid electrical fires.

i took one day of electrical engineering and said the class was not for me.

if someone with a good electrical knowlege could chime in, i'd appreciate it.

[Jean]

You are missing a step alright :)

Late model bmw cars also use rear glass as antenna, instead of trying to explain it here it's best to look at the ETM (schematics) of how it's done in the e32/e34/e36 cars and you'll see it's more complicated than just running an antenna wire to your defroster grid (and basically grounding it or sending 12 volt through it depending on where you connect it lol).