DAB radio reception and aerials

Hope someone can help, the radio in our Marquis Auto-Sleeper has pretty poor reception, especially on the move. We are looking to upgrade to DAB, but are getting conflicting comments about if DAB works well with which aerials. Any guidance on the best aerial for a peugeot boxer based motorhome would be appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

I fitted a blaupunkt dab radio in my last van when dab first came out it had a stick on aerial that mounted on glass it was the same as the old car mobile phone aerials. When i got reception it was great but at the time the coverage was not very good and it was very complicated to tune in you had to scan transponders or something to find stations was hard to do when on the move.Maybe they have got better now.

Mike

I have a PURE Highway with an external aerial. There are some 'pockets' where the reception drops but generally it is really good. This is an external unit that can be tuned to you current radio via a spare station or plugged in if your unit has a socket. This is the way I use it.

bdpage wrote:Hope someone can help, the radio in our Marquis Auto-Sleeper has pretty poor reception, especially on the move. We are looking to upgrade to DAB, but are getting conflicting comments about if DAB works well with which aerials. Any guidance on the best aerial for a peugeot boxer based motorhome would be appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

Hi bdpage

How about an introduction?

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/t541-new-members-read-before-saying-hello

PB

Hi

minky58 wrote:I have a PURE Highway with an external aerial. There are some 'pockets' where the reception drops but generally it is really good.

I’d be interested to know under what circumstances it dropped out. I have had a similar unit for a few years. I found it really good near towns and along (most) motorways but pretty useless in rural areas. When it drops out I switch to FM and so far have always got a signal.
At the time (haven’t checked lately) the built in car radio units were either FM or Digital but not both. I came to the conclusion that it was well worth buying as an extra but not as a replacement for FM. If I fitted a built in radio it would need to have both DAB and FM wavebands.

The other thing I noticed was that it would drop out when I was overtaking, or being overtaken by a large vehicle (like a lorry) in a way that FM didn’t.

What do other forum members think of DAB?

Brod

brodco wrote:
What do other forum members think of DAB?

I'm steering clear of DAB until they decide whether to go to DAB+ or not.

I'm not sure if it's still true, but last time I looked you had to read the small print carefully, as many "DAB+ compatible" units required a firmware update which the maker charged for - sometimes at £30-40 a go. If they do decide to upgrade the infrastructure then any existing DAB receivers that can't be upgraded will just have to be junked.

IIRC there's supposed to be a decision some time soon, but if you look at speed of uptake (especially for in-car units) it's likely to be at least a decade before they reach a threshold where they could start planning the shutdown of the current FM channels.

Fitted a DAB Panacronic unit to our Symbol. Touch disappointed;

The aerial is stuck to the windscreen. Perhaps it can be improved. Can anybody recommend a system? The signal drops out in poor signal areas and it reverts to VHF automatically, then it collects a signal again for a couple of minutes, then it drops out agin. Problem is the time lag between DAB and VHF, meaning there isn't a seamless switch over. I've tried to just use VHF on the move, but when it finds a DAB signal it switches over. I'm sure I must be able to lock it to VHF, just haven't worked out how yet.

Great on site and the rest of the radio is brilliant. Planet Rock etc etc....

Doesn't get DAB in France...

I posted a reply in the other thread. I can't speak personally as I've never owned DAB, but the experts seem to have good things to say about Calearo active antennas (the type you stick on glass).

One thing that seems to trip people up is where the vehicle already has an active antenna but they fail to reconnect the "phantom power" to remotely supply the aerial amp, though I doubt that applies in your case, as that makes the reception ~really~ bad.