In car dab adaptor

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johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Hi, Hope your all well.
Shock horror, but its a thread about cars or more specifically "in car dab adaptors"
At the moment my car has a standard AM/FM radio and to be honest it's getting a little tedious listening to the same old radio stations. It would be nice to have a few more station choices ,and was toying with the idea of a DAB adaptor. I would just change the existing radio for a dab unit,but as the whole dash is walnut ,a modern looking radio would look completely out of place in it. So I've been looking at the Pure highway 400 adaptor. It's relatively discrete and looks rather nice and uncomplicated to fit.
The only thing that's holding me back is, how good would the reception be here in Wales. I don't really want to buy something that looks good but doesn't work out here in the middle of nowhere.
Has anybody here got a dab in there car that could share there views with me on them.
It would be much appreciated,
All the best,
Johnny :-)
 

Adam4868

Guru
Ive got a pure highway and it fits in glovebox,but i have to admit i
Its ok/good when stationary.But on the move it can be intermitent.Bearing in mind i only have one of those windscreen aerials.
 
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johnnyb47

johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Check coverage here:
http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/coverage/

The in car kits typically come with an aerial to stick to your windscreen. This may work for you, but some reviews suggest that an upgraded DAB aerial gives better reception especially in areas with a weaker signal.
I've been reading up about the stick on windscreen aerials and they get mixed reviews. Apparently they don't work to well with heated windscreens. Something to do with the wire element in them that blocks out the Dab signal.
 

Bromptonaut

Rohan Man
Location
Bugbrooke UK
If the 'adaptor' receives the DAB signal and re transmits it on FM then, irrespective of it's efficacy as a DAB receiver (aerial etc), I'd worry about how well the re-transmit/receive works.

Tried something similar to connect MP3 to AM/FM cassette player in my previous car. It was useless even right under the VHF aerial.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
I got the Sonichi for Halfords. It works most excellently.
This. Coupled with their own external, roof mounted ariel - which has a stronger magnet than my Pure Highway had.
 

Jason

Senior Member
Location
Carnaby Street
I've been reading up about the stick on windscreen aerials and they get mixed reviews. Apparently they don't work to well with heated windscreens. Something to do with the wire element in them that blocks out the Dab signal.

DAB is great in strong signal areas,but the blips of silence can become annoying. My car has it as standard, but gave me lots of issues when a dash cam was introduced into the equation. The solution was to wrap a ferrite core to each end of the cable which improved things . You may have to route the aerial away from the rear windscreen and use ferrite cores, it will be trial and error.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
If the 'adaptor' receives the DAB signal and re transmits it on FM then, irrespective of it's efficacy as a DAB receiver (aerial etc), I'd worry about how well the re-transmit/receive works.

Tried something similar to connect MP3 to AM/FM cassette player in my previous car. It was useless even right under the VHF aerial.
They vary immensely. I've got one that doesn't work with my car radio (but is mainly used around the house to rebroadcast satellite radio stations) and two that do.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Cheers Drago .
I've seen them for sale but didn't know much about them and focused on the pure highway.

Aye, I'm very happy. It's a small unit, about the size of a pack of 20 cigs, so it's concealed in the 2nd "glovebox" atop the dashboard in the Ford Fusion of Elderliness. Rather than use a DAB antenna, I use an adapter/booster and run it off the car's regular antenna. I live in a fringe area and it works very will, with only occasional minor drop outs when driving down dips etc.
 
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johnnyb47

johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Well the temptation got to much last Thursday and I ended up buying the Pure highway 400.
The price of it dropped in Halfords on Wednesday from £129 to £109, and then it dropped again on Thursday to £99!
I couldn't resist it anymore and ended up parting with my money.
I always feel rather guilty spending money frivolously on on non essential things ,but nobody really buys me anything for Christmas so I thought I would treat myself to a nice Christmas present.
Today in the cold snowy weather I went out and fitted it into the car and I'm really pleased with it. Very easy to install and set up and it looks very neat and tidy with no wires cluttering up the dash. As as I switched it on, it found 40 odd station's. I could barely receive 5 on the old fm radio so I'm well pleased with the extra choice. As for reception it's been faultless and the sound that's being transmitted through my existing stereo sounds really good.
I would certainly recommend one of these if your planning on converting your old cars fm radio to DAB :-)
 
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