With so many of the remaining tasks fighting me at the moment, it is nice to have one project go exactly as I planned it.  Although I don't have a radio plan in place for the 1600, I did have the issue of what to do with the 4 holes in the passenger side "A" pillar that supported the original radio antenna.  I figured I'd just find a old school antenna and install it in the existing holes and be done with it.  Turns out, there doesn't appear to be a universal mounting standard for 1970 radio antennas and nothing I came up with was going to fit my existing holes.

Bring on the Internet!

So after deciding that the defacto standard for radio antennas was most likely a Hirschmann, I started doing searches on Hirschmann antenna installation documents and came up with the drilling template for a Hirschmann Auta 360 that matched the 4 holes I had in my "A" pillar, 3 holes for the base with the mounting holes 20mm apart and a single hole for the bracket to support the mast.  So where to find a Hirschmann Auta 360 at a "reasonable" price?  Why Germany, of course!

After looking at a few at crazy prices, I found one for sale at a small classic radio shop called Königs Klassik-Radios in Haan, Germany.  They had a website, so I ordered it for 142.02 Euro + 20 Euro for shipping.  They sent me some follow up e-mails in German (Thank you for Google Translate) and shipped it with tracking via Deutsche Post.  20 days later it showed up in my mail box.

It literally took me 10 minutes to install it.  I pushed the cord down the "A" pillar straight down to the large hole in the bulkhead at the floor.  Then I connected the end to a piece of copper wire and pulled it up to the small hole for the overhead light switch on the passenger side.  I screwed on the mounting base, screwed on the mast bracket and installed the mast.  I love it when things work the way they were designed.

Mark92131