Powered DAB aerial - SV650.org

Ch00 · 19-09-15, 06:29 PM

OMO I have a car DAB radio on the bike and comes with its own aerial which works but any hint of tree cover and the signal drops outs. I am wondering if a powered aerial would help or should i get a better none powered type.

I can get DAB around most of the country in the car and had hoped the bike would be same.

Anyone got any recommendations?

embee · 19-09-15, 09:28 PM

A knowledgeable person will doubtless be along soon, but from my efforts to get a monopole (i.e. telescopic car item) radio aerial to work on a bike, I concluded that the big problem is the lack of a ground plane. A car body acts as a ground plane which effectively turns a monopole aerial into a dipole by reflecting the waves, a bike doesn't have this large area of conductor so I concluded you'll never get a car aerial to work very successfully on a bike. I'm not sure what the best solution is though, need an expert.

I did wonder about trying to incorporate a dipole aerial into a bike, it does need to be the right length though, I pondered running a dipole along the length of the bike under the bodywork, the lengths could be nearly right, around 1m for a simple half wave dipole for usual 88-108MHz FM radio. Never got round to trying it though.

I understand DAB frequencies are in the 175-240MHz range, more or less double the equivalent FM frequencies so typically half the wavelengths, so a DAB aerial could be basically about half the lengths (or use similar lengths for a better signal strength).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-FM-Antenna
http://www.radio-electronics.com/inf...requencies.php

Experts please.

Ch00 · 20-09-15, 09:04 AM

Interesting thoughts. There must be a way!

Ch00 · 20-09-15, 12:06 PM

My unit a Sonichi S1000-DAB is 2nd hand.

I have just removed some black tape from the aerial lead. Looks like its been mashed and then soldered back together. As you can see from the picture.

Would a new version of the same aerial make any improvement over once that has been fixed?

21-09-15, 01:05 PM

I would cut all that crap out and re-do the connections properly and weather-proof it. It cant hurt to try

19-09-15, 06:29 PM	#1
Ch00 Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 477	Powered DAB aerial OMO I have a car DAB radio on the bike and comes with its own aerial which works but any hint of tree cover and the signal drops outs. I am wondering if a powered aerial would help or should i get a better none powered type. I can get DAB around most of the country in the car and had hoped the bike would be same. Anyone got any recommendations? __________________ Last edited by Ch00; 20-09-15 at 09:01 AM.

19-09-15, 09:28 PM	#2
embee Member Mega Poster Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Warwickshire Posts: 2,804	Re: Powered DAB aerial A knowledgeable person will doubtless be along soon, but from my efforts to get a monopole (i.e. telescopic car item) radio aerial to work on a bike, I concluded that the big problem is the lack of a ground plane. A car body acts as a ground plane which effectively turns a monopole aerial into a dipole by reflecting the waves, a bike doesn't have this large area of conductor so I concluded you'll never get a car aerial to work very successfully on a bike. I'm not sure what the best solution is though, need an expert. I did wonder about trying to incorporate a dipole aerial into a bike, it does need to be the right length though, I pondered running a dipole along the length of the bike under the bodywork, the lengths could be nearly right, around 1m for a simple half wave dipole for usual 88-108MHz FM radio. Never got round to trying it though. I understand DAB frequencies are in the 175-240MHz range, more or less double the equivalent FM frequencies so typically half the wavelengths, so a DAB aerial could be basically about half the lengths (or use similar lengths for a better signal strength). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-FM-Antenna http://www.radio-electronics.com/inf...requencies.php Experts please. __________________ "Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity" Last edited by embee; 19-09-15 at 09:30 PM.

20-09-15, 09:04 AM	#3
Ch00 Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 477	Re: Powered DAB aerial Interesting thoughts. There must be a way! __________________

20-09-15, 12:06 PM	#4
Ch00 Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 477	Re: Powered DAB aerial My unit a Sonichi S1000-DAB is 2nd hand. I have just removed some black tape from the aerial lead. Looks like its been mashed and then soldered back together. As you can see from the picture. Would a new version of the same aerial make any improvement over once that has been fixed? __________________

21-09-15, 01:05 PM	#5
Corny Gizmo Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Powered DAB aerial I would cut all that crap out and re-do the connections properly and weather-proof it. It cant hurt to try

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