Radio reception

[amarch]

Following on from my thread on poor TV reception - (which I must say received a good deal of useful info, so thanks Funsters for replying) - I now continue to my next bugbear of poor radio reception. I have had 5 campers/motorhomes over the years and everyone has had absolutely awful radio reception when on the road. Its general Ok at campsites, but definitely not all, when the signal can be relatively stable. Brilliant in and around London but rubbish outside the M25. Normally Radio 2 is about the only station you might pick up on a scan, I suspect because it has a strong transmission. In Europe it tends to be a little better but still, on the roads it is rubbish. I read somewhere that because campers don't have much metal in them they make very poor bases for aerials. I have tried signal boosters and new aerials and even new radios but nothing seems to improve the lousy reception. I normally just resort to bluetooth off my phone playlist but I do sometimes want to listen to the news or other music. Has anyone come across a magic formula or highly sensitive radio that will keep a stable signal on the road? Here's hoping!!

 

[Figaro]

Much better the stream radio from your phone and Bluetooth (or aux lead) to your cab radio

 

[TheBig1]

What you need is to stick a sheet of aluminium foil under the base of the aerial as a ground plane. Problem is, the ducato and the equivalents have an aerial built into the door mirror and it's rubbish

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Much better the stream radio from your phone and Bluetooth (or aux lead) to your cab radio

Absolutely.
I have exactly the same problem with a fairly good sony cab radio and cd player.
Lousy on Radio, good on cd.
Plug in from phone via aux lead on radio, and brill reception.
Radio on the drive is fairly OK, but once travelling its useless.
Phone method though gets round this.
Had thought about mounting a wing based aerial after drilling a hole in the wing, as we used to do many moons ago with cars, but just could not find a way through the bulkhead to the aerial socket on the back of the radio, so binned the idea altogether s
and reverted to the phone connectivity.

 

[amarch]

Absolutely.
I have exactly the same problem with a fairly good sony cab radio and cd player.
Lousy on Radio, good on cd.
Plug in from phone via aux lead on radio, and brill reception.
Radio on the drive is fairly OK, but once travelling its useless.
Phone method though gets round this.
Had thought about mounting a wing based aerial after drilling a hole in the wing, as we used to do many moons ago with cars, but just could not find a way through the bulkhead to the aerial socket on the back of the radio, so binned the idea altogether s
and reverted to the phone connectivity.

I tried that on a previous Elddis and it had not much better reception. My current van has an outside aerial on the outside of the overcab bunk area and it still doesnt work well. I wondered if a DAB radio would be better as maybe the radio transmissions are stronger. Surely the mobilehome makers have an answer to this problem?

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[Captain Yoghurtpot]

I tried that on a previous Elddis and it had not much better reception. My current van has an outside aerial on the outside of the overcab bunk area and it still doesnt work well. I wondered if a DAB radio would be better as maybe the radio transmissions are stronger. Surely the mobilehome makers have an answer to this problem?

I suppose a dab radio might work better, but my experience of using them in our works mercedes 3.5t tailift vans is not brilliant reception either.
Can be very patchy and looses signal on a lot of alternative stations.
Mainstream stations, BBC radios 1 to 5 and local BBC and independent stations however do seem to fare well, but stuff like Kiss, Magic, Jazz FM etc are occasionally poor.

 

[Marie-Claire]

Same problem on a a class with a windscreen mounted aerial it's fine if you like classic fm but at times wont find any stations at all or only a few stations above 100 on the fm scale , any a class owners suffered the same and how did you resolve it

 

[Pausim]

DAB is ok for voice radio when parked up but not capable of reproducing music properly. Some stations like Planet Rock are only using 80kbps. I believe the best DAB rate is BBC Radio 3 with an MP2 bitrate of 192kbps. A decent MP3 source should be 320kbps and a CD is 1,411kbps. Online streaming is likely to give much better bitrates, some stations even have lossless streams which will give you the full quality of the source recording.

I have given up worrying about DAB on the move and use my phone for cached or streamed music. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto head units make this very easy and integrate the music with navigation, phone calls and other information.

 

[SteveJ]

I had to fit a decent amplified aerial in order to get a decent DAB/FM signal. I brought one from Dab on Wheels who unfortunately seem to have gone out of business as they were exceedingly helpful. This is an equivalent one:
https://www.incarconnections.co.uk/...-bee-sting-roof-mounted-antenna-ct27uv71.html

I can get a good DAB and FM signal anywhere that a good signal is transmitted but you are always at the mercy of the DAB quality and transmission coverage. I have found that with the aerial I have fitted I get equal, if not slightly better, reception then the DAB radio in my car.
Had to make a hole in the roof and run an earth lead from the mount to a decent earth point as I have a fibreglass roof. I tried an internal glass mount aerial but it was a bit hit and miss. I know some people have had good results with the internal glass mount aerials but as we have a large over cab I suspect it was blocking the signal.
I have seen a few Ducatos with a wing mount aerial so that is another possibility.