What range is good for compustar 2WSS-A?

After installing my compustar 2W-SSA, I'm only getting in the neighborhood of a quarter to a half of a mile of range, and that's with the antenna mounted in the suggested spot on the windshield, which looks really bad anyway. Would it be possible to just extend the antenna with some wiring to snake around the car, or is it not the sort of antenna than can just be extended like a radio?

Like I said, I mounted it right in the top left corner of the windshield on the inside. It seemed to get a solid half mile of range in fairly open space. Around buildings it was probably about a quarter of a mile. Still way off from the supposed 1.25 mile range. I realize that's really pushing it, but I'm not even getting half of that.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. There's no tinted strip at the top or anything.

Well, I've been expirimenting, and it seems that simply wrapping a thin piece of wire around the end of the antenna can extend its range. It is only a simple FM radio signal, so it doesn't surprise me too much that doing that extends the range. I ran a length of insulated, solid core wire about 2 feet long up the side of a rollbar I have in my car. I left the actual antenna itself tucked under the center console of the car, out of sight. The range like this seems to be as good or better than mounting the antenna in the windshield. I think if my car didn't have a power antenna, running the antenna into the radio antenna itself would give the absolute best range.

I've never had my remote on my keychain, but are you saying just the nylon string on the remote affects the range?

no, i meant that some people (including me) remove the nylon strap first thing and put their key chain on the  remote which screws it up.  If that aint it then it may be a bad unit or other factors such as your roll bar .  If the rollbar antenna is working then I guess just experiment with it. :)I'll drink to that!

Well, the rollbar is probably too thick to be used as an antenna, but if I run a wire up the side of it (so it's higher in the car) insulated from it the range is still nothing impressive. I went into a Wal-Mart and lost the signal a few aisles from the front of the store.