Poor Dab Reception?

[wh05apk]

Although I have commented about this in the"audio/sat nav frustration" post, I feel this is a different issue, I have recently purchased a used is300h premier, which is an incredible car/ piece of technology, but the one thing which is really causing me to have doubts is the dab reception, it is appalling, I live in North essex, and find I get" no signal" most of the time, yesterday we drove to exeter down the a303, still poor, and even the fm recepion was cutting out.

Is this"normal"? I previously used a pure dab unit with external aerial, and rarely had an issue, as a comparison I have temporarily fitted this with a stick on internal aerial and this has better reception.

This has been back to the dealers twice, but they are in a strong signal area so no problem is found, they have updated the software twice with no change (surely this is hardware-the aerial, not software related)

This might sound petty, but I work 60-70 hours a week, so the only chance I get to relax is late at night when returning from appointments, being unable to listen to a decent radio station when I want is just a wind up, if I cannot get this resolved, then I will be thinking about changing the car.

[DJP]

I think that is a difficult one unless you can test two cars in the same area to try and prove it's the vehicle. All I can add is that I regularly drive from Croydon to Bournemouth, so M25/M3/M27/A31, and never have any problem with DAB.

[wh05apk]

Thanks for your quick reply, I am comparing comparing to my previous diy set up, I assumed a top spec car from a premium manufacturer known for their tech could do a better job than me!

Whist the car had been in, they lent me a ct200h which seemed perfect, but then this week an is250 which seemed the same if not worse on the a12, but then better on the a120.

[bluenose1940]

Hi Tony,

I too drive the Premier version and up to now have not had much of a problem with my DAB, apart from the very infrequent 'signal fade'

I will try to monitor it a bit more for you and get back to you with my findings.

The reason/s for my posting a reply is twofold really, the one already mentioned above, and secondly, I live in Exmouth, about 10 miles from Exeter!!

[wh05apk]

Thanks Geoff, we are staying in topsham, for a couple of days, and will probably visit Exmouth later today.

[bluenose1940]

What a shame about the weather today!

Never mind, I'm sure that you will enjoy your stay. It was beautiful on the seafront yesterday, lovely sunshine, loads of folk on the beach, very busy. It will lokk a little different today i'm afraid.

The antique warehouse on the quay in Topsham is worth a visit.

[wh05apk]

Just here for a few days, it us my daughters graduation from Exeter on Monday, hopefully the weather will keep things a bit quieter!

[bluenose1940]

Congratulations to your daughter, hope you all have a super day. When you are proudly watching her on Monday you will be saying to yourself, "Where on earth has that time gone, it was only yesterday i was holding her in my arms"

I went to my youngest grandchilds presentation evening on Thursday and i was thinking exactly that.

[Roscobbc]

Hi Tony - I'm SW Essex where you'ld least expect to have dab issues - but dab issues I di have and in a big way when I got the car last October. There is series of earler postings on this. The issue with mine was intermittent audio - irregular cuts in outputs for 4-5 secornds initially noticed on dab (as that is what I listen to 90% of the time). However this was on ALL audio outputs, so AM/FM/DAB and especially irritating the Blue tooth hands free phone link. After three trips in to dealers and two days away (with CT200 loaner with perfect audio) it was traced down to a dodgy connection on the audio system. It has been fine since. It still can often take a couple of minutes to 'recover' signal when exiting M25 tunnels in Essex however!

[Rabbers]

DAB reception wherever I have driven the 300h (I, CH, A, F, D, B, NL, DK) has been excellent and I cannot

imagine that it would not be just as good in the U.K. I have experienced momentary weakening of the signal

because of interference, and, very occasionally, the system automatically substitutes a station with another with

a stronger signal, but this only happens on long-distance drives - and sometimes with disconcerting suddenness

- when signals nationally or regionally overlap.

I was a little worried about DAB reception when I bought the 300h because, at that precise time, I was having

issues at home with a Ruark (then known as Vita) R4i audio system, reputedly a premium item, which depends

on a strong DAB signal to automatically regulate various timing and tuning functions and had previously been

working beautifully. To cut a long story short, after a number of unhelpful suggestions from the importer and the

U.K. parent company over a period of several months, the issues resolved themselves as quickly as they had

appeared when a huge crane on a building-site about 3km from my home was dismantled and removed. The

strange thing was that while the crane had been interfering with my signal, as confirmed by another radio in the

house, reception in the 300h sitting outside the house was unaffected. Admittedly I am no technician, but I take

this to mean that the aerial in the 300h must be a good one.

[wh05apk]

Thanks guys your comments make me feel better that I should get a good reception, if only the dealers can look at the connections rather than keep poncing about with useless software updates.

[ColinBarber]

my dab reception isn't great, FM is certainly better.

[Martin F]

I used to a do a route from Brentwood back to Braintree via the A12 every day in my F-sport and no issues with receiving Planet Rock or Absolute 80's. Maybe you can try that on your return journey during that section of the A12 to compare.

[wh05apk]

An update, daytime the reception is tolerable, but again tonight basically from bishop's Stortford to colchester it was un-listenable, yet day time it is okay.

Ho hum, back to the dealers, who no doubt will tell me they can only check it day time.

[ganzoom]

I used to a do a route from Brentwood back to Braintree via the A12 every day in my F-sport and no issues with receiving Planet Rock or Absolute 80's. Maybe you can try that on your return journey during that section of the A12 to compare.

Both these stations broadcast in 80kibits/s and in mono, that's the kind of sound quality even the first MP3 players from 1997 bettered. Your get much better sound quality using your phone to access streaming internet radio, Spotify and apple Music is what I'm using 100% of the time now. apple music in particular is fab, for £10/month you essentially get unlimited access to the entire iTunes collection. apple has managed to kill download sales with apple Music, why pay to download and store a limited amount of music when you can have to an almost unlimited collection, streamed straight to your phone for a very small nominal fee.

DAB had potential but the advent of Internet streaming has killed it dead.....Stereo FM has much better sound quality than most DAB stations if you have to use radio.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_One

[ColinBarber]

I'm unfortunate to have Vodafone as a cell provider. Given their 3G/4G network performance trying to stream would be worse than my patchy DAB reception. :D

[wh05apk]

I think I may have finally resolved the issue, I normally charge my phone whilst driving, using a usb adaptor in the 12v socket, rather than the usb sockets as they only charge at 450mah as that is unable to maintain the charge if using the wifI hot spot.

It seems the adaptor I was using was generating interference, which with anything less than a perfect signal was causing the"no signal" problem. I know led's can cause interference with dab, so it may be the LED or possibly faulty in some way, I have used another adaptor and it seems ok, the real test will come later when I try on what was previously a completely dead route.