Decent radio reception in a Griffith?
Discussion
I am interested to know if anyone here can obtain LW on their radios? I have a the standard Pioneer head unit and an amplified aerial unit in the boot. FM is reasonable but not perfect but LW simply transmits a noise in tune with the engine revs and as my Griff is loud enough I don't really need the radio to make the engine louder. It's going into Racing Green next week for a service and I was wondering whether to ask them to get a car radio chap to take a look for me? Or... am I wasting my time?
p.s. As I know someone will say it - yes I love the sound of the V8 engine but it's nice to have a radio that works too
p.s. As I know someone will say it - yes I love the sound of the V8 engine but it's nice to have a radio that works too
I don't think I have ever tried to get LW in the TVR.
The best person to ask would be Carl Baker. He must have listened to more TVR stereos than anyone. He probably knows exactly what to do to get yours right.
Whats puzzling me is why you want LW? Is there anything on there that isn't also on FM or DAB?
Has anyone put DAB in a Griff? Did it present any issues?
The best person to ask would be Carl Baker. He must have listened to more TVR stereos than anyone. He probably knows exactly what to do to get yours right.
Whats puzzling me is why you want LW? Is there anything on there that isn't also on FM or DAB?
Has anyone put DAB in a Griff? Did it present any issues?
Uncle Fester said:
I don't think I have ever tried to get LW in the TVR.
The best person to ask would be Carl Baker. He must have listened to more TVR stereos than anyone. He probably knows exactly what to do to get yours right.
Whats puzzling me is why you want LW? Is there anything on there that isn't also on FM or DAB?
Has anyone put DAB in a Griff? Did it present any issues?
Have heard that DAB is a disaster in TVRs. It's bad enough on the move anyway and worse in a Tiv. Thread on it here somewhere.The best person to ask would be Carl Baker. He must have listened to more TVR stereos than anyone. He probably knows exactly what to do to get yours right.
Whats puzzling me is why you want LW? Is there anything on there that isn't also on FM or DAB?
Has anyone put DAB in a Griff? Did it present any issues?
The problem with radio in a TVR or in fact any GRP car is there is no ground plane for the aerial to work against. Radio is just like any other electrical system it needs a + and - . The aerial works by picking up very very small radio signals but has to have something to reference against. Ideally this is a big copper earth stake stuck in the ground but that is not easy in a car that moves about. On a metal car the aerial can reference itself against the body shell. Even with a large metal lump under the aerial LW and MW are somewhat challenged because ideally the antenna element and the ground plane should be at least a quarter wavelength, for LW this would be more than 100ft which would be a challenge at low bridges. If you really want LW then you could try getting a nice long length of thin wire and try winding it round and round inside the boot lid or the wheel arches then take the end to the antenna socket.
Enhanced reception on one band by improving the antenna does not always produce an improvement on another, however in practice it probably will. Ideally the antenna impedance where it connects to the radio will match the radio input. (Think of the impedance as a pipe diameter and the size of pipe on the radio input has to match the pipe the signal is coming down a bit like your inlet manifold really). As the impendence will change considerably for a fixed antenna length with the frequency an ideal match on one band will not be good on another. However generally speaking a longer antenna will tend to deliver more signal on all bands to the radio. Amplifiers are available that take what signal you have and amplify it before presenting it to the radio, these can be either optimised for a particular band or wide band. Wide band ones tend to amplify everything, including the noise and the real issue you are trying to solve is signal to noise ratio. Amplifying a weak signal along with the noise will make both louder but not always improve the reception particularly on AM, FM is a little better at filtering out noise so antenna amplifiers tend to work better on FM (VHF). Seem to think that there was an amp fitted as standard in the Griff.
Yes, I do have David's aerial amp but by the sounds of it I may have dislodged something or not connected something because the reception in my Griff is now poor but used to be good... I expect Racing Green will have a pet Iceman they can get to look at it, I fitted it a few years ago and threaded all the leads through the cill and up under the dash etc. but I've run out of energy to fix stuff like that. 
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