Did LR revise the aerial arrangement for UK FL2s or is it a spec level difference, as my car and all that I've seen on the road have no external aerial, but those in the brochures and many road tests (most of which were LHD) have a roof 'bump' or aerodynamic fin just forward of the tailgate. Prefer it without, but just wondered if anybody knew the reason for the difference, even if it's trivial. Was GS TD4 Auto, Privacy, Santorini with Tundra & Alpaca, Cold Climate Pack. Traded for Discovery Sport HSE Auto.

The bump on the roof is for the Satnav system, or cars fitted with one. Aeriel I believe is on the rear window or possibly one of the side windows. Hope this helps

Thanks Mork , I don't doubt what you say, but your answer amazes me. Why do they need an external aerial on an integrated sat nav that's got limitations, when the audio can manage with a window aerial like on mine, and my Garmin 760 performs perfectly in the same sat nav cubby without any form of external aerial to the device, other than Traffic, never mind to the extremeties of the car.  Was GS TD4 Auto, Privacy, Santorini with Tundra & Alpaca, Cold Climate Pack. Traded for Discovery Sport HSE Auto.

Mork is spot on. The sat nav antenna has to have a clear view of the sky in order to work. If it was inside the car, then the metalwork of the body would shield the signal and the sat nav wouldn't work properly. If you look around, many modern cars now sport a small fin on the roof for this very reason.

It is a different size to the radio aerials because it works in a different frequency band and is optimised for that band.

And just to clarify, the radio aerial is on one of the rearmost side windows, not the rear window itself. You may have thought it was a demist element that wasn't working, but it is in fact the aerial. On the opposite side window is a TV aerial (and i'm not joking).

I have an after market satnav, and I use it with an external aerial that sticks to the external roof magnetically. Whilst the satnav will work without the external aerial plugged in, it works far better when it is plugged in. Cars with heated front screens particularly benefit from an external satnav antenna because the elements in the screen act to block the satnav signal.

Also most modern cars (not sure about FL2) have a very thin metallic layer in the windscreen to reflect heat and again this layer can affect the satnav signal (the satnav would not work at all in our Peugeot 307 until we plugged an external antenna in for this very reason). To counter this, modern windscreens have a small area near the rear view mirror where the metal film is absent so that you can put your satnav antenna there and still get a signal. (Although on the roof is still better)

And why is it best on the roof? Well that's where the satellites are - up above. To all intents and purposes, a BBC radio signal is coming from the side, not from above so that's why the radio aerial will work where it is, on the side of the car.

I'm not convinced that the 'bump' is solely for vehicles fitted with SatNav. My XS has a bump but is not fitted with SatNav, it does however have DAB and telephone integration. Perhaps these two items use it too?

It can also be for the PTI as an external antenna, but I'm not sure about the DAB as the antenna in the side screen is a "smart" one and it may be OK for the DAB as well How can carbon have a footprint, it has no feet?
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Thanks also to arcturus , yes I know where satellites are and some are low horizon, and in theory you are correct in that you would expect an external aerial to give better performance.

However, my GPS without an external aerial, performs perfectly, even when running off it's own battery, sat deep within the cubby (see gallery). I was amazed that it did work so well as it displays the full 5 bar satellite aquisition strength, and it also works perfectly in the house, showing between 4-5 bars. I live and travel in a hilly area, so perhaps technology is getting better, or I am very lucky.  Was GS TD4 Auto, Privacy, Santorini with Tundra & Alpaca, Cold Climate Pack. Traded for Discovery Sport HSE Auto.

My garmin works fine in the fl2 but not in my house. At work
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It must be the combination of Garmin and Santorini CG, it probably wouldn't work in a Stornoway FL2  Was GS TD4 Auto, Privacy, Santorini with Tundra & Alpaca, Cold Climate Pack. Traded for Discovery Sport HSE Auto.

My TomTom worked poorly in the cubby until I pushed it right to the back it works better there as it is then underneath the hole in the metal under the fake speaker grille, better reception I suppose

The Hump is 100% a sat nav aerial, but the FL2 has no need for a phone aerial, because the hand sets aerial is used, after all the Land Rover PTI is just a big bluetooth headset. However satnav and phone aerial are normally combined, so I can see the reason for argument. Some manufactures will fit sat nav aerials without sat nav since it saves having two roof panels in production.

An external aerial imporves the GDOP (I think thats what its called) and therefore the accuracy, i.e my Becker on the dash under the heated screen has a GDOP of 1.8, and the inbuilt Sat Nav was reading 1.1, I think it need to be under 3 for Sat Nav to work, but i built up areas it needs all the help it can get.

I think the FM/AM aerial is on the near side rear window, I have a connector at the very top in the centre, just before the headlining. It is not part of the alarm since it does not make a curcuit, the pattern is like a upside down pitch fork.

The off side rear windows on my car has a different pattern and mine is not connected so I am assuming this is the DAB aerial. I have what look like a pop stud at the top of the window, however I assume this has been changed since the introduction of the DAB option.

Chris.

On GPS accuracy, The latest thing in farming is self steering tractors to ensure accurate driving when using wide machines in the field. (to expensive for my scale of farming ). To get GPS accuracy of less than 10cm (I think) farmers install a triangulation mast in the corner of the field for the tractors GPS to cross check against the satellites. At work
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xxtrail wrote:

Thanks also to arcturus
However, my GPS without an external aerial, performs perfectly, even when running off it's own battery, sat deep within the cubby (see gallery). I was amazed that it did work so well as it displays the full 5 bar satellite aquisition strength, and it also works perfectly in the house, showing between 4-5 bars. I live and travel in a hilly area, so perhaps technology is getting better, or I am very lucky.

Quote:

It must be the combination of Garmin and Santorini CG, it probably wouldn't work in a Stornoway FL2

Sorry to PS on your bonfire but my NUVI250W works just fine in a STORNOWAY GREY FL2, no external antenna needed  ______________________
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Sat-navs in North-Yorkshire work with no antennae at all because we are so close to heaven  At work
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