New antenna install - old car - worth getting a DAB for future proofing?

[ShivaYash]

Hello

I've had a great deal of trouble with my roof mounted antenna since about last year. I think its time for a replacement now, and instead of simply swapping the mast, I think a new cable is in order. I've been told that a good quality antenna will come with a matched cable - and in order to get the best from it, it ought to be fitted, given its resistance - is this nonsense?

Anyway, whatever the case may be, as I am paying for a new cable to go in, that led to me look at amplified antennae - and that led me to consider going down the DAB route. I'm really happy with my bargain basement Alpine bluetooth digital media receiver, but in the event I still have the car in years to come, and the FM signal is switched off, I'll be needing a DAB solution.

So, the question is, what do others think of DAB in their cars? It is worth the trouble? And should I spent a few more pounds a get an amplified DAB antenna, so save me the bother in a few years time?

I fully intend on keeping the car for as long as possible, at least another 8-10 years.

With best,

 

[hotrodder]

The cable matching thing... sounds like whoever said that was talking about 'impedance matching' which isn't nonsense but AIUI applies to the receiver as well as the aerial and the coax between them. I know the Becker 7950 in mine is 50 ohms for aerial impedance 'cos it's listed in the manual, don't have a clue what the cable (as old as the car) or Hirschmann aerial is though. Granted Becker tuners are about as good as it gets but reception is fantastic...

Personally i think DAB, at least the way it currently is in the UK, is utter crap and i'm not alone in thinking it's a low quality, out of date, power hungry shambles... http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586 I can't see FM being switched off anytime soon personally, i don't think the muppets in charge have even made their mind up regarding DAB or DAB+ yet FFS and if they go with DAB+ that'll make a bunch of older DAB receivers as obsolute as FM

There's a stretch of road i use regularly near which is a bit of dead spot for radio reception... i've driven it in various different cars with different radios and the only thing that's unphased and remains crystal clear is the Becker in my w124. Everything else gets crackly or in the case of a mates car with DAB drops out completely

 

[television]

Cables are important, in the years gone by we had coax of the larger variety and it came in 50Ω and 75Ω. These days the cables are all the very thin 50Ω type. These do need an amplifier as band 111 signals do go go down the cable happily. Ideally the amp should be fitted as near the antenna as possible, the reason being is that near the antenna it just amplifies the signal, if the amp is fitted at the receiver end, it amplifies the noise in the coax cable.

Regarding the reception of DAB, where I am it is still horrible, I have some stretches of roads 3-4 mile long with nothing. The situation has improved slightly where I am as more station have been added to the multiplexes round here. Band 111 signals also travel better in the Winter and cloudy days if the waves get trapped below.

Re the quality, not really good and its missing quite a lot.

The best place to mount the antenna is on the rear of the roof, antennas come in full wave, ½wave, ¼wave and so on. This is the length of the rod,
the shorter the rod the weaker the signal proportionally, as the voltage on any antenna is only developed on the end tip.

There are no plans yet to kill the FM, if only we had the SAT radio that they have across the USA , good frequency response better than FM, you can hear this on the radio sections of your TV.

 

[ShivaYash]

Thanks to all for the replies. I'm going to stick to just the FM antenna for now. The cheapest DAB offering I could find was £100 and in my opinion, not worth the bother, just yet.