I have an 87 Nissan van with an antenna wire that has a 0.85 mfd
capacitor soldered between the center wire and the center pin of the
antenna connector, on the end that plugs into the radio.

This vehicle actually has two antenna wires that connect side by side
at the radio. One antenna is printed onto the centerline of the
windshield, and the other is a conventional whip antenna mounted at the
drivers side of the roof. The roof antenna lead is the one with the
capacitor.

Anyone know what the purpose of an inline capacitor would be on a car
radio?

Another car antenna question, why do they use such a small diameter
wire inside the coax? The wire inside this coax is about .010 inches
in diameter. Is it this small to save on copper, or is there some
technical advantage to a small diameter wire.

--
Bill Freeman

On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:16:30 -0400, Bill Freeman
wrote:

Anyone know what the purpose of an inline capacitor would be on a car
radio?

Hi Bill,

Probably for DC isolation (yes, what DC? is reasonable to ask, but it
is probably cheap insurance against an accidental short from antenna
to ground taking out the front end bias, or from static build up (but
a good choke to ground would solve that too)).

Another car antenna question, why do they use such a small diameter
wire inside the coax?

To reduce parallel capacitance to ground (line Z is rather immaterial
but its equivalent capacitance is not).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Bill Freeman wrote:
Anyone know what the purpose of an inline capacitor would be on a car
radio?

DC isolation and/or impedance matching.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com