How's yer DAB?

Because reception can be well dodgy.

As it was here.

So, having treated myself to a wee Panasonic HiFi with DAB and having found t'reception was well not good, I wanted to find a better aerial.

The system came with a nasty twin wire thingy which split into two and you were meant to set up as a dipole. Even so, I could only get a few channels, and the BBC stations weren't amongst them. Planet Rock was a 3/10 signal strength.

Anyhoo, I did a surf and found this idea.

Tried it, and it works. Brilliantly.

Bought a coax extension cable with F-type connectors on t'Bay for a couple of squid, and threaded it up through ma shelves up to t'top on me unit.

And then I modified it according to the instructions I found on-line...

And it works - perfectly. Full 10/10 reception on all channels including my beloved BBC 6 Music. And Radio 4, of course...

Wanna know how to do this?

Ok, get a coax cable with whatever connector you require (mine was the standard F-type.)

Make the cable long enough to get it where you want - and allow around 700mm extra for the 'aerial' bit. I think mine was a 3m jobbie.

Ok...

Step 1: Remove 300mm of the (usually black) outer plastic sleeving from the end.
Step 2: Carefully also remove the exposed 300mm of 'shielding', be it stranded wire, metal foil, or a combination of the two (like wot mine was).

You should be left with 300mm of the centre wire ALONG with its covering - usually white. Don't remove the inner covering...

Step 3: Add a bit of tape around the end of the outer sleeving here for tidiness...
Step 4: Measure 230mm further along the black outer sleeving from this point, and mark this with a pen or bit of tape.

You should now be looking at 300mm of the white inner cable followed by 230mm of the whole cable.

Step 5: Make TWO full turns in the cable from this 'tape-marked' point, and pull them tighter until they have a diameter of 50mm. Hold them together with wraps of tape.

Step 6: Plug it in and turn it on.

That's it.

And b* me with a bargepole, it works.

Oy yes, tune into BBC Radio 6 Music - especially in the evenings - and just enjoy.

(It ain't all good music, but even the carp songs are well made...)

Not a good photo - but it should give you the gist.

 

Pfffft...


If you cannot draw it out of thin air, it ain't worth listening to.

 

I don't think I've said this for quite a long time, but I love that Astra cove.

I tells ya, I do I dooooooooo...

(Lawd, my head is gonna hurt in the morning )

 

Pfffft.

I have to admit, I usually prefer the sound quality from FM - even voices on R4 sound more rich and mellow.

But DAB is great for all the additional services you can get.

Although I only listen to two...

 

YES, IT BLUDY IS!!!!

 

SO AM I!!!