DAB radio advice needed please (1 Viewer)

[Minxy]

Being absolutely fed up of not being able to receive Radio 2 properly when travelling around the UK, despite being able to receive other stations, we've been thinking of changing our standard radio to a DAB one but we know nothing about them!

So ....

Would a DAB radio have any better reception for Radio 2 than the standard one?
Would it still work abroad?
What would we need to do regarding an aerial?
Any recommendations for a particular radio/aerial to buy?

Not wanting to spend a fortune and don't need to have a 'hands free/bluetooth' facility, but do want something that works!

 

[Langtoftlad]

AFAIK - British DAB is different to Europe's DAB.

 

[Mrsambulancekidd]

Your aerial will need to be a DAB one or it wont work. If you have a decent head unit in your vehicle, why not think of a DAB adaptor. The aerial still needs to be DAB.
The signal is massively improved & the coverage is way better than FM. We live in a rural area about 45 miles from Glasgow & are surrounded by large hills yet we still pick up signals from Glasgow etc. One thing that takes some getting used to is drop out, on an old FM radio the signal just gets weaker & a bit crackly but DAB is digital, so it works perfectly or not at all.
Cant help with reception abroad as we've never tried that with DAB, whatever you decide, I guarantee you'll never want FM again.

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[RowleyBirkinQC]

We bought a DAB Kenwood from Halfords (on special) because the analog radio in the van was so crap. We also bought a regular Halfords DAB windscreen aerial. The radio came with Bluetooth/hands free which works really well, although that wasn't a requirement of ours. No regrets, it's much more reliable and worked in France for random stations there. But the thing with a digital signal is you either have it or you don't...

 

[Deleted member 29692]

You will need a DAB antenna as well as a DAB radio.

It will improve reception but still won't be 100%.

You won't receive UK stations outside the UK.

Mine is a Pioneer unit. Can't see me ever buying a different brand.

 

[ivorantony]

get a DAB+ radio that will pick up continental stations,

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[ivorantony]

with a proper quality DAB/ FM / AM aerial that has a good ground plane you will have very little dropout,
I listen to all the stations i like LBC/ magic /Heart /radio 2/3/4/5 practically anywhere in the U.K. I travel regularly from london to the west country and Scotland to my daughters and the few places in scotland that DAB hasn't been installed i switch to FM and get a reasonable signal,

 

[Deleted member 29692]

with a proper quality DAB/ FM / AM aerial that has a good ground plane you will have very little dropout,
I listen to all the stations i like LBC/ magic /Heart /radio 2/3/4/5 practically anywhere in the U.K. I travel regularly from london to the west country and Scotland to my daughters and the few places in scotland that DAB hasn't been installed i switch to FM and get a reasonable signal,

How do you get on with UK stations in Southern France, Spain or Italy?

 

[ivorantony]

not possible i beleave! i meant french stations,

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[Popeye]

Mel, drop Radio 2 and tune into this station when in France........

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[Lenny HB]

If you go the DAB route spend a bit on a good active aerial £50-£100 probably more than some spend on the radio. You will still get drop out in rual areas. As said no UK channels abroad apart from picking up UK stations within a mile or two of Calais. Up to last year France still hadn't rolled their DAB out, Germany is on the same band as UK so easy to pick up their channels.

 

[Minxy]

Mel, drop Radio 2 and tune into this station when in France........

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We like 'Fun' when in France, and also the 'Nostalgia' station too (not sure of the spelling!), but in the UK we like Radio 2 as it's useful to have the traffic updates - this was very handy when we came back up from Folkestone on Thursday due to the accidents on the M25/Dartford tunnel route and also the 4 mile 'queue' on the M11 with a delay of at least 30 minutes - we were able to re-route off the motorway and go down other roads instead to get around it and then go back on once pasted the affected sections (one reason why we always have a road map as well as sat nav). Without Radio 2 we wouldn't have known about some of this and could have ended up stuck, as it was we got caught up at Dartford due to the accidents anyway but didn't have a choice about that and it added an hour to our journey!

It is so annoying when you can get other stations but Radio 2 is so cr@p at times, or non-existent, in areas where it should have a great signal, it happens in the same places along the M11, A14 and A1(M) so it's got to be something to do with the transmission rather than our radio but if a DAB one (or an adaptor) would solve this its worth it ... nothing worse than trying to listen to Pop Master or Jeremy Vine when he's on about something interesting (and not laying bricks!) and the signal is too weak so the radio goes 'wandering' to find it again!!!!

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[MillieMoocher]

We spec' d Swmbo's car with factory fitted DAB radio and to be honest it's a bit of a disappointment.

We can certainly get more chanels and when you get reception it's very clear, but there's the rub.

We find getting DAB signal very sketchy, there are many "dry" patches in The North of England and Scotland where reception is lost completely. I think that "they" want to move all radio transmissions over to DAB only at dome point, but there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure full coverage first.

Do I think DAB are good - yes I do, but maybe my expectations of clear reception everywhere were too high so overall not the panacea I expected.

 

[Floydster]

When they changed the DAB tunings at the beginning of the year we lost Planet Rock down here.

 

[mitzimad]

we to had radio problems in our last van we had three diferent head units when we picked up the new van the radio was great coming home next time we went away it was back to how the old van was ,we were starting to think it must be us until colin (aka sid) pointed out that we had fitted a usb lighter socket and it was the electrical noise from this that had been our problem all along. Evidently it happens with the usb convertors as well if the lighter socket is close to the radio This could be your problem?

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[chrisgreen]

i get to drive very expensive Mercedes all fitted with dab radios,and to be honest they are disappointing always dropping out and seeking another transmitter,normally i just put the radios on fm and have no problems,i have a dab radio in the motorhome and that does the same,but its great when parked up listening to planet rock

 

[Popeye]

colin (aka sid)

Hasn't he got the Most Logical mind when sorting out radio problems or any other problems come to that. He leaps in with his CPA or diagnostic questions and at the end of it says, "right the first thing we need to check is 'x' and if that isn't the source of the problem then it must be 'Y'.

Then it works and you can't quite work out whether you want to kiss him or slap yourself for missing the obvious, by the way Mel we listen to nothing else most of the time, in Britain and the entire North coast of France.

 

[mikebeaches]

Our Rapido pvc came with a Pioneer DAB radio fitted and a vertical external aerial fitted above the windscreen.

The DAB reception is excellent in the UK.

Slightly off topic, but what really impressed us was how we could listen to BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5, on long and medium wave respectively, right down to the middle of France - Tours / Orleans etc (which was the furthest south we went this time). All over Brittany it was clear as a bell. We've never managed such good reception before and I suspect it's mostly to do with the quality of the aerial, in addition to an OK radio. Didn't actually try Radio 2 as I recall, but since it's on FM, suspect it would not have been any good.

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[Jaws]

Some FM transmitters have suffered an output power reduction but that has now been stopped as the intended FM switch off has been postponed indefinitely in the UK. Those transmitters that were reduced will not ( sadly ) be ramped up to full power again but will remain as is.

There is now NO proposed switch off date.

.

 

[Jaws]

Back in the day ( WAYYY back ! ) I had a vested interest in what transmitters were doing..
Back then I got updates by post ( yes, it really was that long ago )..Nowadays all the info is available on the interweb, and I do occasionally have cause to see what is going on

 

[mikebeaches]

Some FM transmitters have suffered an output power reduction but that has now been stopped as the intended FM switch off has been postponed indefinitely in the UK. Those transmitters that were reduced will not ( sadly ) be ramped up to full power again but will remain as is.

There is now NO proposed switch off date.

.

Very informative! I also didn't know the FM switch-off had been suspended.

Presumably, there is a technical reason that those transmitters now operating on reduced power will not/cannot be returned to full power output. Is it something to do with interference to other new technologies, or wavebands that have been allocated elsewhere?

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[Geo]

Not really, its because if they ramp up the transmitters again we will realise what a load of tosh DAB radio is.
and that we really didnt need it
advice I gave out years ago still applies today

A top of the range radio deserves a good Arial

A cheap radio needs one

I suspect those championing DAB have very good Arial's
I only have a £15 stick on the glass model, maybe I should take my own advice
G

 

[glenn2926]

My car has a DAB it's rubbish. It works very well so long as I don't move the car. As soon as I drive anywhere it looses reception. So I just use it on the fm setting.

 

[tonyidle]

DAB and FM are on very different frequencies. So even a decent combined DAB/FM aerial is a compromise. It is hard to make a definitive comparison of either type of radio when the aerial supplied with either base vehicle or conversion is fitted with aesthetics rather than performance in mind. Both DAB and FM work equally well with a good roof-mounted aerial. Neither work well with aerials fitted in mirrors, alongside aluminium bodies, or stuck to the windscreen. A cheap radio will work well with a good aerial. The reverse is not true. The biggest advantage of DAB over FM, IMO, is that there's no fade/noise/searching. It simply continues to work as the vehicle travels from one transmission area to the next.

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[terryb]

Being absolutely fed up of not being able to receive Radio 2 properly when travelling around the UK, despite being able to receive other stations, we've been thinking of changing our standard radio to a DAB one but we know nothing about them!

So ....

Would a DAB radio have any better reception for Radio 2 than the standard one?
Would it still work abroad?
What would we need to do regarding an aerial?
Any recommendations for a particular radio/aerial to buy?

Not wanting to spend a fortune and don't need to have a 'hands free/bluetooth' facility, but do want something that works!

before going down the dab route, i had same problem , just bought and fitted a amplifier booster for £4.95 off flea bay and it is 90%better

 

[Jaws]

Very informative! I also didn't know the FM switch-off had been suspended.

Presumably, there is a technical reason that those transmitters now operating on reduced power will not/cannot be returned to full power output. Is it something to do with interference to other new technologies, or wavebands that have been allocated elsewhere?

No reason has ever been given.
It is certainly not band width of frequency allocation as the licences have not changed a jot for donkeys years ! And the third harmonic has not a lot of any importance on it either so interference is highly unlikely...
Probably down to them still wanting to eventually turn off FM .. but as I said on permanent hold at the moment.. I can see a time in the future when it will happen but it will have to be at least 10 years after the last fm receiver is fitted to a car as standard ( yes, the legislation is to some extent controlled by the automotive lobby )

 

[RandallC]

Curious

I have a golf with a dab radio and have travelled far and wide with excellent reception. DAB is by far superior in quality, much the same as comparing MW ( Caroline& Luxembourg) to FM. Those that remember those days will no doubt have a quiet moment of reflection!!!!!!

Interested In Any DAB motorhome user reviews as the blaupoint fitted in our kontiki is less than adequate thoe suspect the aerial is the biggest issue.

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