LoFi

Got my Woodstock unit all fitted and all has been working well. But yesterday I drove to TSL, some 160 miles, and noticed lots of drop outs on the broadcast. Listening to Virgin there would be half second gaps of nothing. It is fine in and around my home area. So I tried radio one in my home area and it's the same, but with longer gaps.

Now I think it is the aerial position. I have the on glass aerial and I put it on the rear screen, near side. I was told to avoid the heater elements so I put it above this on the grey glass (MY01). Now I think about it this doesn't seem such a good idea, it isn't glass after all!

Can other Wodstock owners let me know where they have put their on-glass aerials and give any advice how to remove mine and refix it (if necessary)

Piers LoFi

mannyo1

Unfortunatly I dont have the glass mount aerial, I got the combined Bee-sting type aerial and get no dropouts until I am right on the edge of reception. These combined aerials are like golddust though, I had to wait 2 months for all the bits to arrive. I had previously heard about the glass mounted aerials only being any good in strong signal areas. There is also another advantage, that is I only have one aerial for dab/fm/am on the car.

Now onto the glass aerial, I would try to find a glass section where both the stickon inner/outer parts can see each other, but not to close to your existing fm/am aerial. Perhaps the grey material is interupting signal transfer somehow.

LoFi

hey, thanks for that. I think i could have mounted it better, anyone have ideas how i could get it off the window and reposition it? Talking to my local audio sho today and the owner has same problem with his well mounted aerial.

Anyone experience with on-glass?

Piers LoFi

Chelspeed

I've just had a woodstock fitted to an STi7 with a glass mount aerial. The aerial is fitted to the top of the rear window, above the heater elements, below the black surround but over the top of the totally useless FM aerial elements in the rear window. Reception is pretty poor on DAB and the dealer who fitted it is coming round one evening this week to play around with other locations. He has a demonstrator woodstock in their van with the same glass mount aerial in the top corner of the front screen, works a treat.

If I can't get the glass mount to work then I think I'll be tempted to go with a bee-sting aerial, despite the pain I'll feel drilling a hole..... This should improve the abysmal FM reception on the STi too, the reason I changed to DAB in the first place. Was this aerial a blaupunkt part? If so do you know the part number?

mannyo1

Yes, its a blaupunkt part. I am locating the part numbers as I write this

mannyo1

Hmm cant find the part numbers at the moment, but if you want to keep your existing am/fm aerial, you can add a dab only bee-sting aerial for £39.99 from here bluespot.co.uk, click here http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/dab_roof.asp.

mannyo1

Me again,

Parts list for combined aerial as follows, I think this is all you need

7 691 270 124 - GTI-Flex DAB2
7 691 290 189 - AW1 DAB Diplexor (DAB/FM/AM Signal Separator)
8 694 810 275 - 5 Metre SAP1 - SAP1 Cable (from aerial to diplex)
8 694 810 271 - 1 Metre SAP1 - SAP1 Cable (from diplex to DAB)
8 694 811 082 - 1.5 Metre Antenna Cable (from diplex to AM/FM)

Also needed are a couple of convertors

Part Number unknown - KAV1 to connect aerial to 5 metre cable above
Part Number unknown - SMB to SAP1 convertor to connect 1 meter cable to DAB connector on rear of headunit.

The diplexor and the KAV1 connector are like golddust however and are very hard to come by.

LoFi

Chelspeed, r u getting the same sort of poor reception I'm suffering, ie not distortion but pure drop outs where there is absolutely no signal for a split second. From your description of how the dealer has fitted yours it sounds like I will need to move mine down a fraction so it's centre is in the small gap between the heater element and the grey strip at the top of the window.

Don't remember my aerial having any part numbers but it does look exactly like the on-glass one on the bluespot site, right down to the blue spatula (sp?) for the silicon and word "panorama" on the cable. The adaptor between the head unit and the aerial cable was made by Bosch. Got mine from my-blaupunkt.com (FM2000). I know others have brought from there, what are your experiences? Interesting to know it a roof mount makes any difference. Being an MY01 WRX I kinda stuck with the OEM FM aerial on the drivers A-post.

God I go on . . . .

Any ideas how to unstick and restick the aerial?

Piers LoFi


[Edited by LoFi - 8/18/2002 7:05:15 PM]

Chelspeed

Manny - thanks for that, I'll pass it on to my installer

LoFi - It's worse, I get the same type of drop out on Digital 1 ensemble, the one with Virgin on it. But I can't see any other ensembles most of the time. On my normal 35 mile route to work I can see the BBC ensemble for approx 1/2 mile at the top of one hill. I listen to Radio 4 in the mornings and went DAB because the FM aerial was so hopeless on the STi, now DAB is worse so not over impressed yet. Still optimistic though.

LoFi

it is so odd, on my 7 mile journey to work I get Virgin and Capital fine, no problems, switch to the BBC ensemble and get continuous drop out ie silence. Now I thought this stuff was transmitted from the same transmitter so if you got drop outs it would be on all stations, obviously not. Like you not impressed that the BBC stuff, an organisation that actively pushes DAB, is hopeless. But with others being ok it is difficult to decide on the best course of action.

Piers LoFi

[Edited by LoFi - 8/19/2002 8:27:42 PM]

mannyo

Strange, with the combined bee-sting aerial, I can drive from 25 Miles north of London in herts down to the M25 and all the way round to Junction 18 (A404) with no drop outs on either the BBC or Digital One (apart from Hatfield Tunnel). How is the reception on the other Ensembles that are available in the London area, CE London - The one with Capital and Kiss on, or Switch London - the on with Heart and Jazz FM. I have no problems with these either.

LoFi

It's all very odd. I have no problem with Capital either. It seems I only have problems with the BBC ensamble. Listened to radio 5 and 4 and also 2 in the car park at work for around 20 mins today and even stationary I get drop outs. The only explaination would be dodgy BBC transmission on their particular frequency (i assume all transmission on one ensamble are on the same frequency?)

Piers LoFi

mannyo

Yes, each ensemble has one frequency that is sub divided into many stations. The only thing I can think of is perhaps the signal to the South of London is not as strong as it should be, I wonder if the BBC are running on reduced power or something.

PS. Have you noticed how much quieter Radio 2 is compared to all the other stations.

LoFi

Not tried the radio 2 volume test but i did fing this :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/radio_transmitters/digital_radio.shtml

. . . .which doesn't explain my problem ! ! !

Piers LoFi

[Edited by LoFi - 8/21/2002 10:11:03 AM]

Chelspeed

It explains mine, I live in that big white gap where the M50 joins the M5.... Bummer.

LoFi

chelspeed, does this mean you get nothing or just no BBC broadcasts?

Edited because I re-read your earlier post. Seems to suggest not all ensambles come from the same transmitters.

Piers LoFi

[Edited by LoFi - 8/21/2002 4:55:26 PM]

fubar

I agree ... XFM seems fine, but Radio5 drops out intermittently.

I have glass aerial mounted on rear above heater elements, below window surrond.

LoFi

fubar - i've given up thinking I have the aerial in the wrong place (which it is cos i put it above the heater elements but on the surround) as I can get great reception on everything I've tried except any of the BBC channels. Your experience with Radio 5 and other responses above suggests most problems are isolated to BBC broadcasts

Piers LoFi