General DAB Roof mount aerial
- Thread starter manian1
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General DAB Roof mount aerial
I fitted one of these:https://www.driveden.com/car-audio-...gital-dab-am-fm-roof-mount-whip-aerial-p84170 to the Panda.
Panda has a rear mounted aerial, so had to run three cables from under roof lining to the front of the car. FM cable, DAB cable, and a feed back for the aerial amplifier. This involved dismantling half the car (or it seemed that way). Took me half a day.
Roof lining needed to drop, which involved releasing from around rear doors and rear quarter windows.
Then wished to feed the wires along inside the trim. The rear quarter lower trim requires rear seat removal. Quite a handful, the seat backs are a 50/50 split, but come out as one piece, with an uncontrollable hinge in the middle. Like fighting an octopus, whilst trying not to damage paint. Refitting was even more challenging.
If your aerial is front mounted, it may be possible to access it from the interior lamp hole, and with luck feed the wires to the front pillars without dropping the roof lining.
Needs some careful planning to avoid tears.
Most aerials I found have a straight fitting for the DAB cable. And the cable was not flexible for its first 15mm, so quite a bit of space is needed behind the head unit. I used one of these (not from this supplier) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMB-male...845803?hash=item3d468ff9eb:g:t7YAAOSwrBVanrjn
Came from China, took about 10 days.
The reception quality from the roof aerial is brilliant. Previously with just the stick-on windscreen DAB aerial signal was lost more than found. So for me, well worth the effort.
Panda has a rear mounted aerial, so had to run three cables from under roof lining to the front of the car. FM cable, DAB cable, and a feed back for the aerial amplifier. This involved dismantling half the car (or it seemed that way). Took me half a day.
Roof lining needed to drop, which involved releasing from around rear doors and rear quarter windows.
Then wished to feed the wires along inside the trim. The rear quarter lower trim requires rear seat removal. Quite a handful, the seat backs are a 50/50 split, but come out as one piece, with an uncontrollable hinge in the middle. Like fighting an octopus, whilst trying not to damage paint. Refitting was even more challenging.
If your aerial is front mounted, it may be possible to access it from the interior lamp hole, and with luck feed the wires to the front pillars without dropping the roof lining.
Needs some careful planning to avoid tears.
Most aerials I found have a straight fitting for the DAB cable. And the cable was not flexible for its first 15mm, so quite a bit of space is needed behind the head unit. I used one of these (not from this supplier) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMB-male...845803?hash=item3d468ff9eb:g:t7YAAOSwrBVanrjn
Came from China, took about 10 days.
The reception quality from the roof aerial is brilliant. Previously with just the stick-on windscreen DAB aerial signal was lost more than found. So for me, well worth the effort.
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