# What are those huge six foot antennas on top of cars?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 21, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543 "2012-02-21T18:22:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543/21 "2012-02-22T20:43:07Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> These puns are raising my blood pressure. I’m gonna go meditate.
> 
> “Ohmmmmmm”

It hertz so good.

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543/22 "2012-02-22T20:44:48Z")

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That’s Hertz, Q breath.

:rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543/23 "2012-02-25T07:07:02Z")

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What about [fox hunting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_hunting)? I’ve seen some antenna farms (arrays) that looked like that was their purpose.

I used to have a mini farm on my car’s roof, but no 6 footers - CB, police band, radio

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**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-those-huge-six-foot-antennas-on-top-of-cars/613543/24 "2012-02-25T13:19:31Z")

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> [@dzero](#):
>
> What about fox hunting? I’ve seen some antenna farms (arrays) that looked like that was their purpose.

a rotatable antenna is most often used for that.

you could have a nonrotatable directional array but difficult and limited on a car.

a ham might have use in 20 frequency bands. a car could have a lot of antennas. with the short wavelengths a person might have a directional array of antennas as well.

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