Replacement aerial

[Casper46]

We have a Carthago A class just over 3m high. We are trying to get the height of the new garage as low as possible, but the radio aerial is very inflexible it adds another 1ft to the door height.On an earlier post I asked about taking it off (unscrewing it). It wouldn’t be practical to do that every time we drive into the garage as it means opening the big Hekie and standing on steps.
It has been suggested that we put a glass mount aerial on the windscreen but we may lose some quality on FM. Another thought is a glass mount and a new DAB radio. I know nothing about glass mount aerials. Any ideas please.

 

[Campervan_man]

12V powered windscreen aerial.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=352092542163

or the DAB version

 

[Sandancers]

Could you fit a shark fin aerial in place of the existing tall aerial ?

 

[Casper46]

The sharks fin is a good idea, I’ll look on Google to check if the cabling is the same.
Thanks

 

[ManTheVan]

The glass mount aerials are a doddle to fit. It just takes some routing of the cable from the back of the radio, through the dash and inside the cover of the A-pillar (the edge of the windscreen). Really doesn’t take long at all and works very well indeed.

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[Mike800966]

The amplified glass aerial is the minimum for DAB and is very easy to fit provided that you can get a really good earth ( even paint free) earth connection on the A Pillar and can get the cable back to the radio.
We found it quite good on a trip from gloucestershire to suffolk but the aerial is still screened by the vehicle body depending on direction etc.
The Sharks fin ones are a real compromise in so much as the aerial part is tiny and they rely on amplification and a modern sensitive receiver thats why they are placed up on the roof. You can get FM/DAB ones and FM/DAB/GPS ones Most DAB radios will automatically drop back to FM if the DAB signal deteriorates if they are set to do so. I have found www.dabonwheels.co.uk to be a very helpful site.

Its also made harder by geography and where you might want to use it and the fact that the DAB radios are more like computers than old fashioned wireless's!
No doubt people will come along and say theirs works superbly,

So my advice would be to chat with people who do the installation as to just how confident they are that the revised aerial system will work as needed? money back guarantee??

Mike G8JXS

 

[Lenny HB]

Don't forget that aerial does the TV as well, I don't think the alternatives suggested will be any good for TV reception.

 

[Casper46]

Don't forget that aerial does the TV as well, I don't think the alternatives suggested will be any good for TV reception.

I assume that as we have an Oyster, that doesn't apply. I didn't know that we could get tv through the roof aerial.Thanks

 

[jockaneezer]

We thought about one of those screen mounted aerials as our wing mounted one isn't that good, but I doubt if it would function when we have the external silver screens in place ?

 

[Casper46]

We thought about one of those screen mounted aerials as our wing mounted one isn't that good, but I doubt if it would function when we have the external silver screens in place ?

Thats another thing to think about. Thanks

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[autorouter]

Would a powered retractable aerial work for DAB? It could fit in the corner of a cupboard so as not to take up too much space inside.

 

[MopedMan]

I installed a Blaupunkt windscreen aerial and it was very good in strong reception areas but regularly lost reception when driving. Radio was always trying to find a signal. Generally worked well when stationary.