DAB Radio Reception problems
 

I have an ongoing poor reception problem with my retro fitted DAB radio.
My reception is pants alongside the works one that I used to drive.

Johnmed asked me if I'd managed to improve this after a number of conversations about this and the similiar problems that he has.

I hadn't thought about it for a while, just suffered quietly and used the AMI.

This started me thinking along the lines that maybe the spring contact between the preamplifier and the window might be dirty. So this morning I took the preamp out and compared it with the original that luckily I'd forgotten to throw away (dumped it now).
Theory wrong again. I was expecting to see an extra spring on the preamp circuit board. No extra spring.
It looks like the DAB aerial is actually part of the circuit on the board. Look at the extreme right hand end of the two preamps below. The square zig=zag is what I believe to be the DAB aerial element.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1505239121

In this photo the lower board is the "fitted with DAB" one. Note that the DAB FAS connector is the one nearest the right hand end and that this is missing on the upper non DAB preamp. If you look closely at the upper board you will see that the square zig-zag is connected to the DAB connector pads.
I am now wondering if there are different levels of DAB receiver and that the later ones perhaps have better reeption. I believe that I have the latest software update on my receiver thanks to JulianHicks.
I have previously tried a generic DAB frequency preamp between the Audi preamp and the receiver input but this made no difference, though I was expecting an increase in noise as well as the hoped for improvement.

Interested to see others' thoughts re: this. My DAB has been great till the last week or so. Don't know why, I did remove (VanStyle) shades from the windows, all I can think that has changed.

(P.S. This thread needs a bigger photo)

Ray, as a simple indication of signal strength, what strength number is displayed in your MMI?

DAB radio reception
 

Hi there,

I retrofitted a factory DAB tuner, but used an external aerial (see dab on wheels web site). This is a mag mount which I attached behind the bee sting aerial with a number plate pad (magnets don't work on aluminum bodies) and ran the cable down the rear window gap and around the hinge to the dab tuner in the music rack in the boot. Gives excellent reception for £26, if you can live with a none OEM aerial.

Regards

Richardracer

I also have a non-oem aerial, mine is passive so not even amplified, without reception problems.

Here is my HW and SW

Address 0F: Digital Radio Labels: None
Part No SW: 4E0 910 563 C HW: 4E0 035 563
Component: DAB-Tuner H41 0830
Revision: 00000001 Serial number: KE1276W7100089
Coding: 0000001
Shop #: WSC 02152 785 00200
VCID: 2447F597E7C9F362EA-8070

No fault code found.

Hi Matt, how does one find that, is it in the hidden menu? I’m sure I’ve seen it previously, I had a look for it briefly the other day while driving and gave up.

Hi mate. It's on the info bar at the base, number '7' in my picture attached.

It may need to be selected via the green menu. Let me check and I'll post back.

Yes, just looked, it's in the green menu > Tuner > Tuner Settings > Show DAB Quality Level, where you can tick / untick it

Cheers I’ll look for the green menu. Think my MMI screen info at the bottom is different to yours, my BT phone shows up there where your no.7 is.

Within the green menu > tuner section there is 'DAB Tuner Quality' which displays these fields,
EID
SID
Sync
Freq
FIC
MSC
EECC
SCID
Mute
Label
Qual

I guess we could post our results so we can establish baseline for Ray. I'll post mine once I'm back in the car.