My car's radio antenna doesn't fully retract when the radio is off and it's really cold out. I know it needs to have the mast lubricated, but the only "oil" I can find now is Sta-bil, the gasoline stabilizer. Do you think that would work?
More important and with deeper electonic meaning, is it possible that actual oil say, or any other lubricant, getting between two of the telescoping sections of the car antenna could impede the electrical current which is the radio signal? Even if oil conducts electricity (does it?) the conductivity is less than the metal in the antenna, so wouldn't there be a partial reflection at the junction between metal and oil and again between oil and metal, and twice again between the next larger concentric piece of tubing that is the antenna? About 10 junctions in all, I think, for my 6-section antenna.
Or do the pieces of antenna even have to touch each other for them to act as one antenna? I know there are signal reflectors that don't have to touch the antenna, say for an indoor radio, plus my hand sometimes affects reception, but reflection is different from reception.
Do they have to touch and would too much oil interfere in their touching?