I found an easy upgrade for the radio antenna. I swapped the antenna with a friend who is trading in his Toyota Matrix. The Toyota Corolla/Matrix antenna is about 16 inches long and definitely picks up better. It's an easy swap, just screw the old one out and screw the new one in. I only tried it on FM. I saw some of them on ebay for $6.50.

 

But on the sport models, the spoiler will hit it....

 

The stock antenna is way to weak... Could you tell us if
the Toyota antenna is flexible enough to not scratch the
spoiler ???

Thanks,
Philippe

 

Not on mine! The only way I see that the Toyota antenna would ever touch the spoiler was if you were driving at highway speed with the hatch fully open, something I'm not going to try. In fact since the Toyota antenna is more slender than the Honda one, there is more clearance between the antenna and spoiler.

 

Thanks for the tip. I've been looking for a good replacement antenna. I thought about putting a signal booster inline from the radio, but there are mixed reviews on those types of products.....mostly bad reviews heh.

I tried a 350Z antenna which is maybe twice as long as the stock stubby antenna, but that had no effect at all.

I may try this though. Could you take a pic possibly? Does it look ridiculous with a huge antenna on the roof?

 

Here's a pic of one on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OEM-R...73848344QQrdZ1 , it's not huge, I measured it, it's exactly 16 inches long. Just be on the lookout for a late model Matrix or Corolla, they're everywhere

 

aw, the matrix antenna looks fugly...

 

get the SPOON antenna--- plus the carbon wing= lot's o' sex

 

why would u want a bigger antenna?? radio?? cmon man the smaller the better hahaha

 

why? lol, because the reception is pretty horrible unless you are right on top of the station's tower.

Was thinking of antenna like this that has 3 positions:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Y-Bla...QQcmdZViewItem

That way can put it in the lowest setting when you wanna go for looks rather than radio performance. =)

 

The product says that the reception wouldn't be as good as the OEM antenna I want to swap the antenna too, but to get better reception. I'm leaning toward a signal booster.

 

Yeah, I kinda missed that in the description. I was thinking about a booster as well. Crutchfield sells one which got very mixed reviews. If you decide to get one, let us know how it works.

 

I'm leaning on waiting till I find something that will make a significant diff. I'll keep you posted once i find something worth buying

 

I just confirmed that the 2006 Matrix XR antenna mast does not hit on my 2007 Fit Sport with the hatch fully open. And the same goes for the Matrix owners, the Fit antenna fits with no issue. I like the way it looks, and think it looks better than the stock antenna.

The reception is better than the stock antenna as well, my guess is due to the length, but I'm not sure. Stations that come in weak with the stock antenna are more clear with the Matrix antenna.

The fit of the antenna from the Matrix is a little thinner (on the Fit), but looks fine. The Fit antenna is fatter on the Matrix, and does not look as good as the OEM antenna.

 

Can you show some pics of this installed? I'd love to get better reception on the fit!!! Is it really as simple as unscrewing one and screwing in the other (honda and toyota use the same thread size)?

 

No picture, yes the thread is the same, screw one out and screw the other in.

 

who listens to the radio???

 

LOTS of us listen to the radio, especially AM!

I was pleased with the overall AM and FM reception on my Fit, but when I heard about the possibilty of using the antenna from the Toyota Matrix and getting improved performance, I had to try it.

I purchased one of the new "OEM equivalent" Matrix antennas from AntennaX on Ebay for $9.95. I also found a seller of an actual antenna removed from a Matrix on Ebay and bought this for only $2. Both are the same length but slightly different shape. The Antenna X has a flat black finish while the actual Toyota antenna is more of a high gloss black finish. They both easily attach to the Fit.

I then did a 3 way comparison of the stock Fit antenna vs. these Matrix antennas on both FM and AM.

The only FM station I sometimes listen to is on 88.5 MHz and reception in the garage at home is just barely listenable, with the signal fading in and out, so a good candidate for comparing antennas. All three antennas gave the same result - I could not tell any difference between them.

I do most of my listening on AM. I found a station at 1240 KHz that had a lot of background noise but listenable audio with the stock Fit antenna. When I switched to the Matrix antennas, both of them gave a much better signal to noise ratio, with lots of extra audio on the program content. Just a subjective measurement, but I would estimate 3 to 6 dB improvement. Could not tell any difference between the two Matrix antennas.

My net from all this is that if you listen to FM and just local AM stations, then the stock Fit antenna should do just fine. And, it is smaller. If you like to listen to distant AM stations as I do, then the Matrix antenna does provide some performance benefit. And, at $10, the Antenna X Matrix antennas seem to be a very good value. I have no connection with Antenna X.

 

Wow, thanks for the comparison. I was hoping someone would do something similar. The only problem is. Is it possible that no antenna would make a difference in your garage due to interference? I wonder if it would still help FM stations for pure distance problems with weak signals.

 

Thanks for the comments Rhyno.

Inside the garage there was no actual interference, just reduced signal level. I did the test there to get a very marginal signal level to compare the antennas with.

Based on the better AM performance, I am now using one of the Matrix antennas for normal use.