DAB Radios

Hi people

Im looking in to DAB radios for my defender and was wondering who has one fitted and what is the best aerial to fit.

Cheers landy-lee

I have a sony MEX-N6001BD unit
dab aerial sits on the quarter window or glued there.it is an amazing bit of kit.

Don't bother with window aerials , they are inferior to roof mounted stinger dab /fm boosted aerials

Just buy your self a personal dab radio for less than £20 and plug it in your aux socket.

My Defender has killed two aerials in the last two weeks. The radio still works on FM/AM etc, but not with DAB. Does anyone have any suggestions why this might happen? It was working fine for about a year until this month.

Mcclegend said:

Just buy your self a personal dab radio for less than £20 and plug it in your aux socket.

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Still have a tape player in mine. Such wonders of aux sockets you speak.

Jamscone said:

Still have a tape player in mine. Such wonders of aux sockets you speak.

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Lol, old school, I had a tape to phone adapter so I could plug in my disc man.

Just checked on eBay 50p.

Good idea. I had forgotten all about those.

I shall order one.

The DAB radio in my Mondeo loses signal in the hills up here. I keep it on FM.

Bought a windscreen ariel from Halfords for mine - brilliant little thing. Works a treat

I have a Sony DAB wireless with a window aerial fitted and its rubbish to be honest. In an area of good reception you can find plenty of channels but it loses reception so often I use the CD. I am going to go back and fit a good old fashioned wireless instead.

steveyorks said:

I have a Sony DAB wireless with a window aerial fitted and its rubbish to be honest. In an area of good reception you can find plenty of channels but it loses reception so often I use the CD. I am going to go back and fit a good old fashioned wireless instead.

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They've spent a lot of money and effort trying to promote it, but I don't think it's taken off due to the issues with reception. Pretty fundamental for a radio! If you live in a flat, open area you'd be ok. Travelling any distance in a car is not so good in my experience.

Al2O3 said:

They've spent a lot of money and effort trying to promote it, but I don't think it's taken off due to the issues with reception. Pretty fundamental for a radio! If you live in a flat, open area you'd be ok. Travelling any distance in a car is not so good in my experience.

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Have to say, that isn't my experience. My car gets pretty good DAB reception in most areas that I operate in. Used to be a bit patchy in Cornwall.

I have one fitted..(Kenwood Head unit), I started with a windscreen stick on aerial ( I had no FM aerial) which was ok ish but when I changed the windscreen for a heated one I fitted a AM/FM aerial in the wing and bought an aerial splitter, Kinetic 7001 from Dab on wheels.. Its working very well with no signal loss in my area. It's easy to plumb in too.. just a 12v supply and connect to the aerial and plug the dab socket into your head unit...

I struggle to get a good radio 2 signal around here some days on fm, dab is completely useless. I was in hilly Wales a couple of weeks ago and got a great reception (on the radio). I reckon they are turning the fm signal power down in order to get more people to buy dab. Electronics are a world away from what they were in the 1970's but the bbc radio signal seems harder to get clearly.

Col

Been camping in Europe for my holidays and came back yesterday on the 11.36am Euro-Tunnel. Live right up North, so I thought I'd do a DAB test. Put radio one on DAB as I drove off the train and listened to it all the way home. Yes! Radio 1 Bit trendy for me, or at least they think they are, but thought it the best station to use for a scientific test Was absolutely perfect all the way until I got in to the hills of Northumberland and then lost it a couple of times, just for a moment or two each time. Hills seem to be an issue. I've done the run from the Tunnel up home quite a few times and have never noticed how relatively flat a run it is. Never been conscious of the terrain before for any reason. Anyway, my perception is obviously coloured by the hills around here.

Colthebrummie said:

I struggle to get a good radio 2 signal around here some days on fm, dab is completely useless. I was in hilly Wales a couple of weeks ago and got a great reception (on the radio). I reckon they are turning the fm signal power down in order to get more people to buy dab. Electronics are a world away from what they were in the 1970's but the bbc radio signal seems harder to get clearly.

Col

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All depends on whether there are good DAB masts in your area. A few years back there was almost no Dab in Cornwall, now I can get it on the car radio everywhere except in valley bottoms.

Turboman said:

All depends on whether there are good DAB masts in your area. A few years back there was almost no Dab in Cornwall, now I can get it on the car radio everywhere except in valley bottoms.

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Likewise here, it goes off in the valley bottoms.

Well that's me buggered its all hills around here!

I’d like to change the Alpine unit in my 2015 90 Defender to a similar DAB unit with built in BT phone kit and upgrade the aerial rather than fit a windscreen aerial, is that feasible?

We had a Kenwood unit with windscreen aerial fitted by Heritage on our T5 California and it was a crap setup.

I’d go further and get the aerial changed to an electric one that goes up and down with the ignition.