New 2010 'Match' D.A.B Reception / aerial

[VolksGolf]

Just a quick question about the quality of the DAB reception on the 2011 MY Golf (especially the Match which has this as standard). Have people found the reception to cut out or be poor as the new Golf, I think, appears to have the aerial in its windows and not a roof external aerial.

Where exactly is the aerial as the first DAB Golf Match picture I've seen is the one on the other Match thread about alloys - The red 10 plate Golf Match doesn't have anything on the roof but must have DAB and the aerial somewhere in the window but which window

[johnloaderuk]

If it's the same as the Passat, the aerial is in the rear window, along with the heating elements.

[Berisford]

The red 10 plate Golf Match doesn't have anything on the roof but must have DAB and the aerial somewhere in the window but which window

Unless it has the no-cost Rear Camera option, the DAB radio is then deleted.

[thomastysn]

The reviews i have read say that DAB radio is now part of the match upgrade. Does not say anything about needing the camera option for it to work. Or am i mistaken?

[Vincent Vega]

You can't have the camera *and* DAB. It's either one or the other. On the Match, they will delete DAB from the spec and add the camera, if you want.

[Chris-h]

I've got DAB and it gets great reception - I haven't been far from home in Surrey with it yet so can't tell you if it drops out in other parts of the country. Its not as easy to set up stations as you will be used to on FM but still worthwhile .

[CJ_SX]

Can't say that I have had any problems with DAB reception from the in-built rear windscreen aerial either; for me it manages to hang on even in some areas that are supposed to have no coverage. But I am living in the south east of England that has lots of DAB......

DAB is different to FM. With FM car radios, if they suffer poor signal they go Mono, and then even go hissy before cutting out. With DAB they usually just cut out!

Which stations are you trying to listen to? BBC National Stations and stations on the Digital One multiplex (e.g. Absolute Radio, Talksport - see http://www.digitalone.co.uk) have almost nationwide coverage, and generally have a lot better reception than other stations that are only broadcast on the local multiplexes.

In the Cheshire area you should be aware that you may have some reception problems with the North West Regional and Liverpool Local multiplexes which you will not suffer with the two national multiplexes.

The local Cheshire multiplex has not launched yet, but should improve things when it does. On the RCD-310 you can see which multiplex you are receiving at the top of the screen to the right.

There are some things that you can do to help reduce your DAB reception problems:

If you are listening to stations on DAB that can also be heard on FM (e.g. Radio 1, Radio City) you can go into the radio settings and adjust the ‘DAB-FM’ setting. Turning this on means that the radio will retune to the FM service automatically if you lose DAB coverage. However, it can be a bit irritating sometimes due to the sound delay between FM & DAB broadcasts, meaning that you can miss bits when going from DAB to FM, or hear bits twice going from FM to DAB. I turn it off for this reason, and just retune to FM manually if I have to.

The other thing you can do is, for stations that only exist on DAB Local Multiplexes in your area (e.g. Jazz FM), turn on the ‘DAB-SF’ setting. This means that the radio will find the service when you move from one local coverage area to another, much like an FM RDS radio behaves. If you have this set off then the radio does not automatically find the station in other parts of the country. I see no reason why you should ever have this switched to Off, but I think it is as standard.

Hope this helps!

[VolksGolf]

Thanks for all the information.

Have ordered my car now for early September delivery (with a sunroof). Hope the DAB works as I would love to continue listening to LBC

I had an early MK V once with the window aerial. The normal aerial was poor for FM that is why i think ModelYear 2006 onwards had roof aerial's.

[dwsugden]

DAB works great. Listened to 5 Live (World Cup commentary) on the way home from the British Grand Prix (160 mile journey) on DAB. Never had a reception issue yet (had the car for 3 weeks now).
Darren