Glow-In-The-Dark Antenna Helps You Spot Your Car At Night

It’s late, and you’re lost in a sea of cars trying to remember where you parked. If only your vehicle had a glow-in-the-dark antenna to make it easier to find, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Faced with just such a problem himself, Instructables user [botzendesign] has put together a handy tutorial to do just that.

[botzendesign] first removed the antenna and lightly abraded it to help the three coats adhesion promoter do its job. A white base coat of vehicle primer was applied — lightly, so it doesn’t crack over time — and once it had set, three coats of Plasti Dip followed. Before that had a chance to dry, he started applying the glow-in-the-dark powder, another coat of Plasti Dip, repeating four more times to ensure the entire antenna had an even coat of the photo-luminescent powder and then letting it dry for 24 hours.

[botzendesign] says his antenna will glow for two to three hours — but he adds that it really depends on what powder you use. While this doesn’t help you out during the day, it adds a touch of flair to your vehicle and might save you some frustration at night.

If you’re more partial to glow-in-the-dark art, check out this electrically burned wood that is filled with phosphorescent resin.

[Thanks for the submission, Eric Strebel!]

22 thoughts on “Glow-In-The-Dark Antenna Helps You Spot Your Car At Night

  1. I’ve always been amused at our ability to lose our car in a parking lot. I’ve certainly done it plenty of times. But losing a big expensive machine is strange. Convert your car back into an envelope filled with cash for the sticker price and I bet you could tell me down to the millimeter on Earth where you left it.

  2. I’ve had the (untested) idea to put a big antenna ball fitted with a bright LED, connected to the battery, and triggered by car remote on my antenna. Haven’t gotten around to finding the right remote yet, though.

      1. I’ve seen the location whips, they’re strictly for visual location and mount in place of an antenna, they don’t radiate a signal.

        One thing I’m conscious of is how the coating affects the antenna’s performance. Not a worry for a receive-only antenna like that shown above, but in my case I’m pumping up to 100W of RF into it and the tuner will be trying to match that antenna to a 50 ohm impedance. A 27MHz 6′ whip can perform surprisingly well on 20m and 40m in the right conditions, the antenna pictured in that post allowing me to make good contact into New Zealand.

        Easy enough for us to do from a home station, but a real challenge on the contrived set-up I used that evening.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.