DAB Radio Adapter (1 Viewer)

[DalmoreSteve]

I've just installed a £24.95 DAB Radio Adapter on our van and I'm massively impressed.
We recently bought a new car fitted with a DAB radio and came to realise that normal FM radios are akin to steam power in this day and age; the number of radio stations and variety is a revelation. We're Rock fans and struggle to find much on FM channels to suit us, no problem with a DAB radio, and for nearly everyone, whatever your taste in music, I think you'll find a DAB station to suit.
The unit I bought works by being a DAB tuner (with its own ariel), that decodes the DAB signals and then re-transmits them as an FM signal that you tune your existing radio into...effectively the DAB tuner becomes an FM station (but only in your car).
I bought our unit on eBay, as I mentioned for £24.95. I did a search using "DAB car radio adapter", plenty were on the list, but not knowing much about them I went for the cheapest. I expected a unit from China in about 2 months time, wrapped in bubble wrap and with undecipherable instructions...No. It arrived by Royal Mail three days later, in a well designed, high quality box. All accessories were included, the windscreen mounted ariel, 12V adapter, USB cable, dashboard/screen mount for the unit and instructions in good English (and Norwegian). The make is "POP Your Car 3.0", but this doesn't help on eBay; I'm fairly confident that it's a Norwegian company that is responsible for our unit.
I had it fitted in our van within an hour.
I cannot yet comment on the quality of reception, i.e. when we are on the move; we have had lots of problems with our existing FM reception, trying different ariels and pre-amps, but little seems to work...so confident this DAB unit will either be as bad or much better, it cannot be worse.

 

[berni109]

Is this the one from Ebay.
"In-Car DAB Digital FM Radio Adapter Bluetooth, Handsfree Calling Kit USB Port"
If it is I am interested in how it works on the move. Let us all know.
Thinking of adding dab myself.

 

[Off da Grid]

I was led to believe that the windscreen mounted DAB aerials were a little patchy, roof mounted being the best, especially if you’ve got an over the cab storage or bunk area.
I thought about it for our van or getting a new radio but I’ve got so much data on my phone contract I use that plugged into the radio for BBC sounds or one of the other radio apps I’ve got.
Works fine until the signal drops out, even abroad.
It is funny when the travel news comes on when abroad as sometimes you forget your not at home.

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[DalmoreSteve]

Hi berni109, yes that's the one I bought.
I took the van for a short spin yesterday to try out the reception...using the windscreen mounted ariel, it was fine, better than my FM Ariel reception. We live on the West Coast of Scotland, so signal is patchy anyway, and plenty of hills where it disappears...in my local vicinity I know the spots where this happens, it lasted longer/further than I expected, but still disappeared in valleys, etc. I'm still impressed.

 

[berni109]

thanks for the update.
might give it a try.

 

[DalmoreSteve]

Just for info, let me describe the ariel installation; it was the trickiest part.
The windscreen end is a small black plastic box about an inch square by quarter inch thick. From one side there is a clear plastic film sticking out which has two silvered tracks (fine wires) running in parallel, one about 3 inches, the other about 6 inches. The longer has a "dog leg" bend in it. The box and plastic film have a protective film you remove to expose the adhesive for the window. From the other side of the black box is a plastic tab which has a thicker earth cable attached, this is about 4 inches long and terminates in a silvered magnet about the size of a 5p piece. The ariel cable is quite long, at least 3 metres; I had to coil it up in my installation.
To install, identify a suitable location on the windscreen, probably top left corner (passenger side), then clean the glass well (for adhesion). First you need to "wheedle" a gap between the cab roof felt/headliner and the windscreen metal surround....in this you slot the magnetic earth cable, up to magnetically stick to the metal surround. This sounds tricky, but I didn't have much problem using a small screwdriver to do this. Once I had this in position, you peel off the adhesive protection, and carefully bond to the windscreen. Avoid the ariel overlaying the black surround area that is typical "printed" on today's windscreens.
Done.

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[scotzsue]

Have a DAB radio in my doblo, aeriel is as described above, it works really well till i am next to a taxi then all I get is white noise. Set stations are fine during the day, but fuzzy at night, makes no sense.