Quote Originally Posted by David T View Post
Th factory started with the windscreen antennae because the insurance companies were pushing for them because car washes would damage the extending-retracting antennas. DMC quickly found out (like all other car manufacturers did) that unless you were in a big city near the transmitters you could not get a good signal. The problem is the signal is "polarized". That means it is transmitted in the vertical plane and the windscreen antennae is in a horizontal plane. That makes it VERY inefficient. By switching to first the manual vertical and eventually the powered vertical antennae, the radio was able to get a much stronger signal. A strong signal is necessary for the radio because they are very cheap and don't have a high signal-to-noise ratio. Modern radios are much better and can work with weaker signals.
Well, when I first purchased my car and had the windshield replaced by DMCFL, I lost the original, built in a antenna for an autozone-grade retractable antenna. The reception of course was awful. I had an accident a few years later when I replaced my roof box with Ed's stainless replacement. So I cut out the windshield and drove over to DMCH. After a talk with Stephen Wynne, I found out they had finally reproduced the windshield with antenna. Fast forward a year, and the reception is arguably better than the ugly retractable antenna that I tore back out.

The following is taken from here.
Quote Originally Posted by DMC Houston
The exact point in which the factory stopped fitting the cars with windshields that had embedded antennas is somewhere around VIN 2700, but we know there are lots of cars still out there with their original "antenna" windshields... We artfully improved the layout of the embedded wire and used a modern material for said wire to improve radio reception, too!
Anyways, I have no intention of highjacking this thread any further. I'm just trying to correct the information for new owners of early vin cars.