dab reception

[bhprs]

hi all,

had my b8 for just over a month now . great car better in alot of ways than my old b7 . but i have a question my dab reception is very intermittent .i thought dab was well covered in the uk . any one else had issues

[21stCentury]

I had no problems for the first 9 months with mine, but in recent months Radio 5 Live seems very intermittent. I seem to be able to listen to other stations with no problem (except that they are not the station I want to listen to!).

[mrmarc]

I seem to lose reception when taxis are close by and when i drive past a certain transmitter tower near my area but a transmitter tower at top of my road which is twice as big as the other has no affect on it.

[Ardy]

Had mine into the garage for dab reception and was told coverage is not great app. Middle of cities and i loose reception frequently. Also i find if i retune somewhere whilst in and out of dab i get just a few stations on the list and you then have to retune again when in good signal to get them all back. Pretty sucky as far as im concerned, but cant fault the sound quality when in reception. I really thought it would uninterrupted service everywhere by now.

Should improve. But for now its certainly not perfect.

[Cameo]

I've got DAB on my A6 and it's very intermittent too. Audi suggesting coverage isn't great is a load of pony, I had DAB on my Freelander 2 (yes, I know ) and I never had any problems. I suspect it's down to installation/poor aerial design or possibly simple physics (the Audi being a shorter car). It's very annoying but I still prefer the Audi

[eno394]

Also had mine for approx 8 weeks and can never get a decent reception unless on the motorway. Local stations just keep dropping in and out. Defo poor vehicle reception as my home DAB is as clear as a whistle.

[Jason.S]

It may also be due to the fact that there are more and more users of DAB and inevitably, the signal will weaken, the more people use it.

Once analogue is dead and buried, the transmitters will be ramped up to the max.

[Geordie Amanda]

It may also be due to the fact that there are more and more users of DAB and inevitably, the signal will weaken, the more people use it.

Once analogue is dead and buried, the transmitters will be ramped up to the max.

I remember that this does happen from my A level physics, but surely the impact of the receivers in cars will have a negligible affect?? If you go to a big sports meet, there is often a small radio transmitter and they sell hundreds of receivers to the crowd. The transmitter is usually less than a watt too and there is only a negligible affect in the absorption of signal this way. I work in Broadcasting and have never know it to be a problem. I believe once all the Freeview switchover is achieved then the DAB signal will be at it's best (just in time for DAB+ to be launched )

Please correct me if I am wrong about signal strengths though

[Jason.S]

Indeed, as i was only assuming, as this is a known problem with freeview and can only be similar to DAB.

The transmitters simply dont have the power to transmit at full capacity until analogue is shut down which will free up bandwidth.

Therefore the very weak signal that is being broadcast, will only get weaker, the more people "load" it.

And yes, not long before DAB+ which existing DAB units will not be able to receive.

Kerching!!!

Having said that, DAB will never likely to get a full switch over as listening figures are falling:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...ures-show.html

[bruboy]

My reception drops off as I head down into my nearest town. It gets pretty annoying as it starts to flip between DAB and FM - losing the odd second here and there.

On the motorways its pretty good - radio 5 seems to have better coverage on DAB than MW if I'm travelling E/W eg Brum to Cambridge.