I’m sure I read somewhere the aerial was easily removed and can be replaced. Mine just spins round (with some light resistance) but no sign of it unscrewing? Should it come off?!
Grab the bottom, right at the bottom, below the hinge point. Then you should be able to unscrew it.
So the bit below the hinge point is just about visible / accessible using a pair of thin, long nose pliers, but that just spins round with the rest of the ariel. Can’t see how you’d get lower than that without disassembling?
Hopefully someone else will help. I have a CQ20. I am sorry I could not help.
No worries, thankyou for trying!
I opened a support ticket in the end - A&H have just confirmed removal is not supported and could void the warranty.
Haha, classic. Send it back to us, wait 3 months, meanwhile you don’t have it for shows, then we’ll say it’s not covered in warranty and give you a price that’s almost as much as buying a new one to fix it. The warranty is only one year, IF they determine it’s covered. And I’m not really ragging on A&H too much for this, it’s pretty standard practice.
I bet it’s got a screw ring on the bottom of it that’s loose, so it spins. Spinning will break the wires, so don’t do that. Probably have to open it up and see if you can get to the place where it’s attached.
I would open it up and see if I could fix it. Or you could use an external router and wait out the year warranty and then do it. But then again I have repaired many things over the years. YMMV, I take no responsibility for whatever happens. 
I have some good news for those with broken antennas. I had the same issue and was about to bring my mixer in to the store I bought it from when I came across a video that showed a screen shot of CQ18-T with it’s side panel off. Turns out once you remove the side panel where the antenna is it’s easy to access and replace the antenna. Check out the photo I took below. Once the side panel it was a breeze to unscrew it.
I can confirm removing the 5 screws from the antenna-side panel is the way to go:
*30 seconds to pull 5 screws.
*1 minute to realize I need thin needle nose pliers to get to the threaded fitting.
*1 minute to carefully turn the fitting counter clockwise.
*30 seconds to button it back up.
Done and dusted in about 5 minutes.
(The extra 2 minutes were spent looking for a suitable pair of pliers) 
Hi - thank you for this! did any normal computer type wifi antenna work or did you get a replacement part somewhere?
Thanks!
Doubtful it would void the warranty unless it’s determined that a malfunction was directly caused by either you replacing the antenna or by the aftermarket antenna itself. At least in the US where there are Right To Repair laws. But if you replace the antenna and a month or two later the main rotary knob stops working, I don’t think the warranty on the knob would be void.
Those laws were passed in the US because consumers were getting screwed, like for example, someone puts an aftermarket stereo in their car, a year later the transmission breaks, then the dealership says it’s not covered by warranty because they replaced a stock part (the radio) with an aftermarket part and that voids the entire warranty. There are other consumer protection laws regarding warranty and repairability that have been passed more recently too.
Best to get the replacement from A&H. Any similarly rated antenna will work…but the size of the opening it has to fit into - and the cradle that “locks it down” when not in use doesn’t fit everything.
Michael Burner
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Someone from A&H posted the make and model of the antenna on another thread in case someone wants to buy it directly from the seller. I don’t remember exactly what thread this was on but it was some time within the last couple of months if that helps.
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Aha! There it is! I knew I had seen it somewhere.
Thanks!
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So can you confirm if the antenna is meant to swivel 360 deg after you tighten it down on the brass connector?
No need to swivel it.
No need on an 18, but on a CQ20 it has to be swiveled 90 degrees around its vertical axis for the antenna to point up…..Discovered after my post….Just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t break it…..all good…