DAB radio

[UX owner]

Hi is anyone having problems or disappointed with the UX DAB Fabio?

it’s my second Lexus and my radio has cut out as many as 7 times in a 2 mile journey to work.

Ive had in back at the Glasgow dealership but they claim there’s no fault. 
I’ve suggested it could be a loose wire when Glasgow branch fixed a Lexus dash cam, it could be the aerial but sent home and told to try taking wires out myself.

Not getting any satisfaction from my complaints 

[Tel]

DAB is very susceptible to interference from wet trees ,Asda transmissions etc

I tried different Ensembles yet have found the MLS Dab can deliver perfect signals 50% of the time within 2miles of home & perfect thereafter.

On my 2019 car Radio2 was perfect all the time & Virgin intermittent around my Home area

On my 2021 car Radio 2 is as above & Virgin UK is too patchy to bother about.

Had a UXe for the day .Was just the same I,e where I live the DAB System is imperfect.

Tel

[C Mclean]

For me, station ensemble changes multiple times between the house and the end of the street 200 yards away. Certain stations are lost just outside town and some are stable. I think the signals a flaky outside towns.

[The-Acre]

My DAB radio does the same, usually just before something really important or interesting is said!

[KevFer]

I would say it’s a general DAB issue and not Lexus issue. 

[dublet]

This is both the advantage and disadvantage of digital vs analogue broadcasting. In the analogue days you would just get worse and worse reception until it's unintelligible. Digital is very much "on" or "off", there is no graceful deterioration. So either you have a signal and get perfect quality sound or it's gone.

Check actual DAB coverage here: http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/coverage/

Arguably for being on the move, AM or FM are better due to their graceful worsening. DAB is better in areas where there is genuinely good coverage.

I work for a company that produces digital TV offerings, and DVB has he same issues.

[EvilRacer329]

Interesting; the only times I've listened to the radio in my entire life were when, for whatever reason, I couldn't play music or an audiobook from either a CD, MP3 player, and more recently my phone. I had assumed that digital radio "just worked" - that the entire country was fairly effectively blanketed. I suspect I'm confusing DAB with satellite radio, which seems to be popular in the US.

Does the UX support AM/FM? Do AM/FM still exist? I'm genuinely interested...

Nick

[Herbie]

38 minutes ago, EvilRacer329 said:

Do AM/FM still exist? I'm genuinely interested...

They do, for now.

The government wanted a total changeover to DAB long before now and, if I remember correctly, they were going to turn off FM when something like 51% of the population had changed.

I'm not sure what the figures stand at now but it's a typical government project that is questionable at best and very poorly implemented.

As it stands, DAB is a very, very poor substitute for FM. It could be equal and even better than FM if the bitrate was sufficiently high but as usual, our penny-pinching government want to squeeze us until we squeak and they've divided the spectrum up into such small channels (so that they have more to sell) that sufficiently high bitrates can't be achieved.

I hope FM will be around for quite some time, but who knows?

[dublet]

The population is effectively blanketed, just like mobile phones. But it's still easy to get no reception, certainly while driving.

You only need to look at the map to see vast areas of Wales and Scotland simply are not covered: http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/images/coverage-map.jpg

Even the green bits are merely 95% coverage.

[dublet]

9 minutes ago, Herbie said:

As it stands, DAB is a very, very poor substitute for FM. It could be equal and even better than FM if the bitrate was sufficiently high but as usual, our penny-pinching government want to squeeze us until we squeak and they've divided the spectrum up into such small channels (so that they have more to sell) that sufficiently high bitrates can't be achieved.

The bit rate is not government responsibility. They are at fault for a lot of society's failures but not this one. Please blame the multiplex operator - likely Arqiva - for wanting to extract maximum revenue from their bandwidth.

[paulrnx]

DAB is a bit hit and miss where I live which is on the Worcs/Gloucs/Warks border.

[UX250h]

My Mrs Vauxhall Corsa DAB radio cuts out once on the way to work (20 miles) My 2019 UX250h F-Sport drops out at least 15-20 times, often near houses/buildings. Lexus said there is nothing wrong with it, there clearly is

 

[wharfhouse]

On my IS 300h (2014 reg) I usually listen to BBC Radio 2 on DAB. However it has a fall back to VHF and so if it loses the DAB signal it switches to FM. There is no loss of reception and the only way I know it's switched from DAB to FM is the change in "tone" of the music or by looking at the radio display on the dash monitor. I've driven all over the UK and always had uninterrupted Radio 2 coverage that seamlessly switched between DAB and FM (other than some very odd deep valleys where even FM gave up). I'm not sure whether this FM link is switchable - mine has always done it. Maybe something to check assuming you are listening to a DAB station that is also available on FM. I did have a Mercedes hire car a while ago where on DAB it kept losing the signal and so it simply cut out in the same places my Lexus would have fallen back to FM but I never bothered to investigate whether the Merc had the same FM link functionality.

[deltapapa]

Locally for me, DAB reception is acceptable, but not in other parts of the country, particularly for commercial stations.

 My UX has front/rear dash cams, as did my previous car ( Corolla, which had much better reception).

 In  a previous thread  on here, ferrite rings were mentioned. I found one in the dash cam box left in the car by the Lexus dealer.

Easy to unclip the top rear door panel and attach to the dash cam wire.

Having said this, I have yet to travel further afield to ascertain whether there'll be any improvement.

[ALAW]

On 8/8/2021 at 12:20 PM, The-Acre said:

My DAB radio does the same, usually just before something really important or interesting is said!

Ha Ha yeah i had a golf and there was a big swoosh went i turned a corner as though the shopping bags were shifting from one side to other in the boot LOL.