TVR Radio Reception Issues Solved (with added benefits)

[shep1001]

ptholt said:

Dont get me wrong im quite happy with my head unit as well in terms of features and operation, just wish i could get more use from the dab bit, particularly when trying to listen to the footie whilst out for a drive hehehe.

Have you earthed the aerial? some have an earth contact point for pressing against the body on the wire, can't do this on the TIV so you need to get creative.....

[ChimpOnGas]

shep1001 said:

ptholt said:

Dont get me wrong im quite happy with my head unit as well in terms of features and operation, just wish i could get more use from the dab bit, particularly when trying to listen to the footie whilst out for a drive hehehe.

Have you earthed the aerial? some have an earth contact point for pressing against the body on the wire, can't do this on the TIV so you need to get creative.....

My aerial is definitely well earthed, I tested then used the existing & reliable earth cable in the ISO connector block.

If shep1001 is into listening to the footie then try mounting the aerial behind the rear view mirror & tuning into BBC 5 Live sports, worked exceptionally well for me today, as did all the other BBC stations.

Read my last post, as long as you're happy with BBC channels & you mount the Halfords "T" aerial behind the rear view mirror the DAB system works perfectly

With all the other features & functions I'd say the Pure Highway H260DBi is an excellent choice

I also took three roof up calls on my trip today and the hands free definitely works, over 70mph and my callers started to say they couldn't hear me very well but below that speed it seemed to work fine.

I doubt it'll be much use with the roof down, but at least the feature works at lower speeds with the roof up, it even reads out incoming text messages over the speakers.

While all this is great in theory the truth is I've never felt mobiles & driving a TVR are a compatible combination, so I doubt I'll use the phone features much.

After a few minor early disappointments I find myself really liking the Pure Highway H260DBi, I especially like the way it charges my IPod which I use as a removable AFR & EGT gauge... so no more trailing IPod wires needed

But best of all is streaming all my smart phone music & Spotify tunes over BlueTooth through the speakers, brilliant!!!

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Wednesday 23 April 21:29

[ptholt]

on your "what you see inside the car pic" there is something on the screen with a black wire running into the dash vent/gap thing, thats where my T-bar is currently located as its facing up all the time there regardless of rood on or off.

be interesting to compare our signal strengths at same place to see if the mirror aerial gives an improvement as would consider back of the mirror as well as a fitting location, but seems a lot of messing if no improvement.

I also find dab on motorways works very well as is, its only A and B road blasting where moments of silence outweigh radio.

[ChimpOnGas]

ptholt said:

on your "what you see inside the car pic" there is something on the screen with a black wire running into the dash vent/gap thing,

That's my TomTom cradle.

ptholt said:

be interesting to compare our signal strengths at same place to see if the mirror aerial gives an improvement as would consider back of the mirror as well as a fitting location, but seems a lot of messing if no improvement.

Just try it, took me 10 minutes but I must admit my dash top is fitted with velcro so I can remove it in 10 seconds flat.

I was told the higher you put a DAB aerial the better and it must see sky, I also wanted to fit it where it wouldn't be seen easily so the logical place was the back of the rear view mirror, and in my case it seems to work well.

ptholt said:

I also find dab on motorways works very well as is, its only A and B road blasting where moments of silence outweigh radio.

I'll keep testing, but assuming I stick to the BBC channels its a case of "so far so good".


I had a hands free chat with Goat Boy today and he said the sound quality was good, in fact my TVR system seems more reliable than his BlueTooth ear piece which seems to throw a fit every time we speak

[ptholt]

Be interested to hear where you mounted your phone mic?

mine went in front of the dash clocks on the right hand side on the little sticky out shelf thing in front dash to the right of the wheel.

[ChimpOnGas]

ptholt said:

Be interested to hear where you mounted your phone mic?

mine went in front of the dash clocks on the right hand side on the little sticky out shelf thing in front dash to the right of the wheel.

I mounted the mic on the sun visor.

I looked at two logical locations:

1) The top of the steering wheel cowl

2) The sun visor

To determine which was best I measured the distance from the two locations to my mouth, option 1 came in at 40 inches with the sun visor a mere 14 inches away.






You can make it even closer without affecting visibility by just pulling the sun visor down slightly so it's horizontal.

[Argent]

I fitted a Sony CDX-DAB500U (£200 reduced to £100 at Halfords) not long ago using the same T bar aerial and the reception is very good indeed but no bluetooth.

A.

[V8 Fettler]

RichB said:

V8 Fettler said:

You can listen to a radio in a TVR?

Yep, you can in mine.

These curvy cars are indeed civilised, next you'll be telling me that you don't have to wear ear plugs.

[ChimpOnGas]

V8 Fettler said:

These curvy cars are indeed civilised, next you'll be telling me that you don't have to wear ear plugs.

The Chimaera makes an excellent job of doing two things.

1) An old school classic British sports car with Cobra performance & sound effects

2) An extremely accomplished fast GT you can actually use on a daily basis

In my opinion that's what makes it such a great car, subtly adding to it's usability may set me up for ridicule amongst the all or nothing performance TVR crowd but I see it as enhancing the car not spoiling it.

It was the same with my LPG conversion, a lot of people didn't get it at all and said it was the wrong thing to do to a TVR.

But I've proved you can retain the practicality of the big boot, hide everything so no one would ever know its duel fuel, then do all that and actually make more power on gas than petrol.

When I'm paying £40 for a 280 mile fill rather than £75 on petrol to do the same distance I'm not thinking about the people that said I was spoiling my TVR.

Ferrari fast, Ford Fiesta economical... and now I can take a business call on my way to seeing my clients which simply means I'll be using & enjoying my Chimaera even more.

Works for me

[ch427]

Just like to drag this thread back up and ask does the radio tune ok to normal fm stations through the aerial you installed?

[chris watton]

I fitted a winscreen aerial for my Tam, for the DAB unit, and it works fine, when I enter the DAB reception areas.....

[rickprice]

ptholt said:

Be interested to hear where you mounted your phone mic?

mine went in front of the dash clocks on the right hand side on the little sticky out shelf thing in front dash to the right of the wheel.

Mine is mounted on the A pillar, wire run under the edging trim (bit the door contacts with) and then tucked in where there is a stitched join in the leather/vinyl. Very discreet.

Rich

[T1 PCS]

I put one of these in my Chimaera:

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/rec/ipod/...

with the aerial mounted neatly on the windscreen top left above where the tax disc went. I installed it last year and have been very pleased with it. After 15 years of cr*p radio this works almost perfectly around sussex. Flips seemlessly to FM when DAB is unavailable and then drops back. Works great as a handsfree, and works fine with iphone (although I tend to start the music from the iphone then control it from the headset). Takes a bit of fiddling to get the display readable but otherwise chuffed. Also it is all in one unit so no extra boxes....

Cheers

Paul