Combined window heater and antenna

Claim 1

A windshield for automotive vehicles having a combined heater grid for heating said windshield at least within an area over which it is disposed and antenna for reception of frequency modulated radio signals of a frequency of the order of 100 megacycles, said windshield comprising a transparent substantially rectangular sheet, a plurality of electrically conductive resistive heating conductors supported on a surface of the sheet substantially parallel to one dimension thereof and spanning said area thereon smaller than but constituting a major fraction of the surface of said sheet, and three bus bands likewise supported on said sheet and extending at least in part substantially parallel to the other dimension of said sheet, two of said bus bands being in spaced apart collinear relation and together with the other bus band connecting said conductors into a two-terminal circuit comprising said bus bands and conductors, each of said collinear bus bands including a portion extending beyond said area partly substantially collinearly with said bus band from which it extends and parallel to said other dimension and partly substantially parallel to said one dimension, said portions having a length substantially of the same order of magnitude as either of said dimensions, whereby said circuit may be tuned for the reception of frequency modulated signals of frequencies of the order of 100 megacycles, all parts of said combined heater grid and antenna being spaced from the edge of said sheet sufficiently to be outside the zone of influence of a vehicle body surrounding said sheet.