Poor FM/DAB radio reception in an 11-plate Ducato

[pvsdb]

It has a good Sony radio / cd player fitted but v poor aerial. THINK i read somewhere that this is a feature of Ducatos and the answer may be to resite the aerial, maybe to the over-cab roof. Is that right? How much roughly to have it done? Thanks.

 

[Bustup15]

Aerial is relatively low cost. Install depends on model but is a DIY job for anyone with patience and basic DIY skills. In my opinion.

 

[Mikeco]

I connected my 2012 Boxer radio to the Status tv aerial and it works quite well, I have bought a FM/Dab aerial which I am going to fit onto the roof, the problem is getting the cable to the radio. Waiting for a 5 m extension cable to arrive which will make it easier.

 

[cmcardle75]

It has a good Sony radio / cd player fitted but v poor aerial. THINK i read somewhere that this is a feature of Ducatos and the answer may be to resite the aerial, maybe to the over-cab roof. Is that right? How much roughly to have it done? Thanks.

I can recommend the Eightwood (link below). Fitted a couple of them and they both give excellent reception, at least as good as the OEM systems I've experienced from VW/SEAT. The only issues are that the instructions are poor in terms of explaining the fitting arrangements (it is supplied with a choice of square or circulator hole with slightly different fittings, but no mention of which bits are required for which hole) and you need a roll of insulation tape to form the individual cables into a single loom. There are versions with different DAB connectors.

Amazon product ASIN B072J3JYQW

 

[Landy Andy]

I’ve given up with aerials and reception. I now just stream all the radio via my phone and find it to be far better.

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[I2C]

I fitted a simple stick-on DAB aerial to the windscreen, fairly simple to fit and gets good reception.

Can’t remember which one now but it came from Amazon, something like this one:
Amazon product ASIN B07HQSFV6S

 

[Landy Andy]

I fitted a simple stick-on DAB aerial to the windscreen, fairly simple to fit and gets good reception.

Can’t remember which one now but it came from Amazon, something like this one:
Amazon product ASIN B07HQSFV6S

When you fitted that. Did you earth it to the vehicle? Do you power it via the head unit?
I fitted what looks very similar to this, and get hardly and channels at all, and can’t understand why.

 

[cmcardle75]

When you fitted that. Did you earth it to the vehicle? Do you power it via the head unit?
I fitted what looks very similar to this, and get hardly and channels at all, and can’t understand why.

He was lucky. Most people have very little luck with stick-on windscreen mount DAB antennae.

 

[Cavs]

When you fitted that. Did you earth it to the vehicle? Do you power it via the head unit?
I fitted what looks very similar to this, and get hardly and channels at all, and can’t understand why.

See this earlier post of mine. This continues to work well with an Alpine head unit, receiving all channels and holding DAB reception at least as well as my car, which has DAB fitted as original equipment.

(Edited to correct link!)

 

[Richard n Ann]

Had the stick on windscreen aerial in the car, works OK in strong signal areas but mostly a lot of breaking up/squeeks etc. I grounded it to the windscreen pillar as much as possible by sanding the paint off.
Given up with it now, I could have fitted a proper whip aerial I suppose but couldn't be arsed with all the faff. I just stream now from my phone to a Bluetooth gadget which relays it via FM to the car radio.

Sounds complicated but it's not, you just have preset 1 tuned to your Bluetooth transmitter gadget Works perfect and we can just about get any station in the world.

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[I2C]

I grounded ours somewhere on the windscreen frame, been on a while so can’t remember where exactly. As for power, from what I can remember, if it’s powered it must be via the radio (Apline) as it only comes with the aerial connector.

I might be lucky with reception, or it might be the channels we listen too are always the strong ones. One thing I did find is if you let the radio choose the stations automatically it’ll only get the loud ones, had to switch it to pick up local stations as well which is an option the Alpine radio we have.

To be fair though, we usually listen to music via the phones media library more than the radio, that’s only there for local news/weather when we get somewhere now-a-days.

 

[ambulancekidd]

I connected my 2012 Boxer radio to the Status tv aerial and it works quite well, I have bought a FM/Dab aerial which I am going to fit onto the roof, the problem is getting the cable to the radio. Waiting for a 5 m extension cable to arrive which will make it easier.

Thats what I did, I bought a new Status 570 aerial with the DAB diplexer & the signal is flawless on DAB, it works just as well on the older status directional aerials too.
Diplexers can be bought quite cheaply on line, or go for the actual Status booster.
All thats needed is an extension cable (not joined) & the issue of leading the cable. I think thats preferable to drilling holes in the roof & fitting more holes in the roof for questionable aerials with limited performance.

 

[Landy Andy]

Part of the reason I gave up with DAB is that it only will work, if I did, in the UK. Streaming will work everywhere I go.