Alpine signal reception

[Tonyringtone]

Only had the car 6 weeks, secondhand dealer supplied, absolutely mint condition....but most radio stations on FM struggling, reception quality is poor, it's a bit like driving in a conventional car with the telescopic aerial not erected.

Is this common on MY2010 built cars and is there a fix available?

Thanks

[The Wookie]

Shouldn't be that bad. Perhaps the booster has failed (assuming it has one!)

[BibsTLF]

A fair number of people have fitted a DAB which helps considerably. I used the Pure Highway 300Di but the Alpine Ezi-DAB may look a little more OEM tucked away in the glovebox?

[Tonyringtone]

Thanks for the advice, I'll check out the installation and connections

[Spunagain]

Hi

I just had an Autoleads powered dipole antenna fitted to my Evora:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-RMA819-Replacement-Aerial-Internal/dp/B001AIPF06/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1351424466&sr=1-2

I chose this as the dipole does not rely on a good ground like the exiting whip (or monopole) antenna does and the amplifier should help a little.

I wanted to put it into the A pillar where the original wire antenna lived but with the amplifier it would not fit behind the trim and is now fitted horizontally in the middle of the roof.

The radio works now better on my East-West journey on the M4, but it is slightly worse on the North south journey on the A419. Overall it is better than before.
Edit. It actually works much better, tried again on the wy home, the north south journey reception is better, I just needed to tune to a closer transmitter which did not help before.


This tells me that while the antenna does work much better than the old one, but I still think it needs to be positioned vertically for the best performance. Here's why:

The directional sensitivity of vertical dipole and monopole antennas looks like a doughnut sitting flat on a plate.

So for a car, these types of antenna are best fitted as close to vertically as possible because you get good signal strength in all directions (North, south, east and west).
(So for a vertically mounted antenna the only "deaf" directions are straight up and straight down which is fine as there are no FM radio broadcasters in the ground or in the sky!)

If you want to try and fit powered dipole in the A pillar then there are a couple of other powered dipoles on Amazon which may fit.

This one looks skinnier
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celsus-AN7920-Mounted-Amplified-Antenna/dp/B005J6JG6Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1351424466&sr=1-1
Another skinnier looking Amazon dipole antenna which may fit:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Internal-Windscreen-Amlified-Antenna-Quality/dp/B005OQNITA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_auto_3

Basically the rules of fitting are in order:

Keep the antenna as vertical as possible. Up to 45degrees off is probably ok.
Keep the antenna as far away from metal (chassis and roll cage) and other wiring looms as possible.
Keep the antenna as high as possible.

It may be better to try and fit the Dipole in the boot or in a wing if it won't go in the A pillar!

The amplified monopole (whip) antennas linked below may have a better chance to fit in the A pillar ( with just the thin bit of the antenna in the pillar) and give some improvement (from the amplifier) too:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-RMA868-Replacement-Aerial-Amplified/dp/B004TW83U4/ref=sr_1_10?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1351510372&sr=1-10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celsus-AN8050-Active-Mount-Antenna/dp/B005GU9MZ8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_auto_2

Also while fitting and trying out different positions, the best way to compare performance is to count the number of stations that the radio will lock on to. The more stations it finds the better the performance!

But in summary the auto leads antenna in the roof has worked well for me.

Hope this helps!

Edited by Spunagain on Monday 29th October 20:14