Yes, but a car antenna has 2 wires, a conductor and a shield / ground. It uses the resistance of the coax to know how long the antenna is. Replace the 75 ohm coax on your car antenna with some RG 6 (52 ohm) . You will have to add more antenna to get the same reception or resistance. I also have a B.S. in Electronics, a B.S. in Computer science, an A.A.S in applied Science and an A.A.S in Industrial Technologies. I wasn't saying you were blowing smoke ... I just don't see where the receiver gets any resistance to know how long the antenna is. I suppose it could be like a profibus, but with no termination on the end, it would still be an open circuit with no resistance. All an IC corcuit can do is guess and assume, and there's no logic circuit. I'm not in any way trying to start an arguement ... I'm just trying to understand how this thing works. I've been building and operating radios in the amateur bands since I was 14. All the antennas and receive circuitry I've dealt with relied on resistance.