dab radio onboard

[Old Al]

Hi everyone, i'm new here so be gentle. I am thinking of fitting a DAB radio to my boat but am unsure about the reception on the more remote sections of the canal, does anyone have experience or advice on this subject.

Thanks

 

Old Al

[Yamanx]

I have a Pure DAB Evoke 3, its perfect, never had a situation where it hasn't worked because of reception

 

Fat fingers

 

ETA: Welcome btw

Edited March 28, 2013 by Yamanx

[IanM]

No reason why it shouldn't work. The one in my car gets reception in most areas I've tried it in so shouldn't be different with a boat.

 

Besides, most (if not all) DAB radios have FM on them too.

[Grace and Favour]

Welcome Al,

 

Our DAB works well, but you may well find that it'll require to be near a window, (and not near cheap LED lights)

[Athy]

Welcome.

We once took a DAB radio to our boat, blooming waste of time, could get no reception at all inside the boat.

Even our two ordinary radios will work only when immediately next to the front or back doors.

[Grace and Favour]

Welcome.

We once took a DAB radio to our boat, blooming waste of time, could get no reception at all inside the boat.

Even our two ordinary radios will work only when immediately next to the front or back doors.

 

What you need is a really good record collection, and a good quality deck mounted in a gimbal......

 

 

 

<dashes off to find coat>

[KJT]

Hi Al

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I have a Pure Evoke DAB radio with a telescopic aerial and it seems to work very well most places providing the aerial is fully extended. However, I also have a smaller Roberts DAB one and I can rarely get it to work, even with a fully extended aerial. I have no idea why that might be, as they are both good quality radios.

 

Another little quirk on my boat is if the radio is near (within about 4 feet or so) to any of the boats LED lights the reception disappears completely when the light is switched on. If I switch the light off the radio comes back on again. I assume that is more of a problem with my LED lights maybe giving out RF interference than a fault with the radio.

An ordinary radio doesn't seem to have that problem.

 

Ken

[Ally]

You could always roof mount a decent DAB ariel. We have bought from Here

to use on some of our new builds. Look through the ariel section of the site and there is a table which gives compatibility with various DAB radios. We've found the Kinetic ariels very good.

[Athy]

What you need is a really good record collection, and a good quality deck mounted in a gimbal......

 

 

 

<dashes off to find coat>

I do have a quite good collection - but as it runs to about 3,000 singles/ EPs and 1,000 LPs I think that if it got on the boat, we would have to get off, quite apart from questions of balance. I do own a few CDs, and have been known to play them on the boat (mainly Trojan label reggae naturally!)but that's a different thing from being able to listen to news and current affairs broadcasts on the radio.

Ally's suggestion of an external aerial is perhaps worth pursuing; I suppose the wire from it would need to come in through a porthole if the doors were closed. Has anyone tried using one?

[KJT]

You could always roof mount a decent DAB ariel. We have bought from Here

to use on some of our new builds. Look through the ariel section of the site and there is a table which gives compatibility with various DAB radios. We've found the Kinetic ariels very good.

 

 

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure, neither of my radios have an external aerial socket.

[Ally]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure, neither of my radios have an external aerial socket.

Treat yourself to a car stereo? Then you will be able to fit an external ariel, and put all your music onto an MP3, which you can then play via the stereo!

[Barry]

Treat yourself to a car stereo? Then you will be able to fit an external ariel, and put all your music onto an MP3, which you can then play via the stereo!

 

Which is what I've just done. DAB radio, FM radio, memory card slot, MP3 input, and cd player.

 

Has an external aerial which works well

[reg]

Have 2 dab radios a mains powered one and a cheap tesco battery powered one, both are very dependent on location.

have noticed that i can run an FM radio on 4 rechargable batteries for about 5-6 days but the dab will only run for about 6-7 hours, not realy aproblem as i rotate 2 sets of batteries.

 

As regards the LED lights Mine work ok with suppressed bulbs but I have one cheapo bulb which turns the radio signal off, good fun if you ask someone to alter the volume on the dab and the turn the light on behind their back, simple pleasures

[Detling]

I have a DAB mini Hi-Fi system and I found that without an external aerial the LED light or the TV caused interference, reception was a bit iffy also in some areas. Put a roof mount (magnetic) aerial through a hole by the TV socket and wired to Hi-Fi (just cut Hi-Fi wire lead and connected to centre core of coax all problems gone. Great reception so far, and no interference.

[bizzard]

Extend the telescopic aerial with a length of flex twiddled and twisted around the aerials peak and drape it around or out through a window. Buy a DAB wireless they seem better than a radio. Mine a Roberts Gemini 15 has a 4.1/2 volt power in socket on it which I use with a mini drop down transformer from the 12V boats supply to 4.1/2 volt to DAB wireless so never bother with its batteries.

[14skipper]

Have had two DAB radios not cheap.signal was good on one crap on the other.Both ate batteries in no time.Gone back to a £14 transistor radio,signal great and batteries last forever.

14skipper

[churchward]

Hi everyone, i'm new here so be gentle. I am thinking of fitting a DAB radio to my boat but am unsure about the reception on the more remote sections of the canal, does anyone have experience or advice on this subject.

Thanks

 

Old Al

We have a DAB car radio on board and it works fine with an external small whip aerial on a magnetic mount on the roof. We have never had issues with reception. We have also used a Pure Evoke portable radio with an internal aerial and it also worked fine.

[aread2]

We use a car JVC DAB MP3 CD head unit with external car aerial. Works fine.

[Androo]

Beware! DAB Radios eat batteries for fun so having one hard wired in imo is not a good thing unless you are always on the move

 

Why can't people spell AERIAL & GAUGE

[jelunga]

Beware! DAB Radios eat batteries for fun so having one hard wired in imo is not a good thing unless you are always on the move

 

Why can't people spell AERIAL & GAUGE

I thought they were talking about Ariel motorcycles.

[Grace and Favour]

Beware! DAB Radios eat batteries for fun so having one hard wired in imo is not a good thing unless you are always on the move

 

Why can't people spell AERIAL & GAUGE

 

'Cos the standard of spelling ain't what it used to be . . . . . .

 

 

(and I use rechargeable AA batteries in our DAB radio - and a £5 pack of four has, so far, lasted us two and an half years)

[magnetman]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure, neither of my radios have an external aerial socket.

 

 

i've got two dab radios and with both of them the built in telescopic aerial unscrews leaving a socket for any other aireal including external if required.

 

they are both household type radios running off 9v dropped from the 12v supply.

 

normally ok with built in aerials but some of the led lights kill the signal

[KJT]

i've got two dab radios and with both of them the built in telescopic aerial unscrews leaving a socket for any other aireal including external if required.

 

they are both household type radios running off 9v dropped from the 12v supply.

 

normally ok with built in aerials but some of the led lights kill the signal

 

Ah, didn't think about unscrewing the aerial. That might work, will check it out. Thanks

[Old Al]

I thought they were talking about Ariel motorcycles.

 

many thanks for all your very helpfull replies it gives me much of your experience to draw on.

Thanks

 

Old Al

[Radiomariner]

Hi Al

hi

 

Another little quirk on my boat is if the radio is near (within about 4 feet or so) to any of the boats LED lights the reception disappears completely when the light is switched on. If I switch the light off the radio comes back on again. I assume that is more of a problem with my LED lights maybe giving out RF interference than a fault with the radio.

An ordinary radio doesn't seem to have that problem.

 

Ken

 

 

Just been reading the most recent "Which" mag. This phenomenon had a mention. Was discovered this did not happen with the more expensive LED's. Being investigated.by Which.