The radio reception in my Ducato based motorhome is pathetic. Is this the norm or do I have an outside influence happening here? The aerial has been moved from its original position and is now mounted on the synthetic roof - perhaps there is a failure in grounding. Haven't checked too far yet. If the radio is crap, then I won't bother. If normally good, then worth the exercise.
Any comments?

Ian.

On my 2017 spec van, the dab radio is useless

The aerial is relocated from mirror to roof, but by far the worst reception dab if come across ever

I've fitted a kinetic dab/fm powered (amplified) on the roof which after the first one being faulty, the replacement is a 90% improvement

But my 8 ish year old screen mounted Pure Highway with a mag mounted aerial still pulls in a batter stronger signal with less drop outs and finds more stations than the genuine radio

Ps to add, the sat nav is rubbish too, map 2 years out of date and live services I was told it has, it doesn't

Waste of £££ upgrading,


In time I will remove and fit a Sony or kenwood single din dab head unit

I get good DAB reception on my Pure radio using a splitter/preamp behind the dash and the standard roof aerial and downlead ( 2009 van ). However, FM reception is nowhere near as good as my Skoda Yeti. I am suspicious that the Ducato produces high levels of electrical noise from the engine bay which compete with any weak signals. If this is the case then even the finest radio will not give good results. Maybe radio reception isn't as high a priority for van designers ? One of these days I will investigate further (Radio and EMC engineering used to be my day job) If it can't be suppressed at source, perhaps a rear mounted aerial where the noise is weaker is the answer ? A magnetic mount one would be useful just to do a quick try before drilling holes. A note to Oigle - if your roof is not conductive the aerial needs to have a ground plane underneath it with a good short connection at its centre to the screen of the downlead. A cross made out of kitchen foil stuck to the inside would work, the radius isn't critical but needs to be roughly the same as the length of the aerial.