DAB aerial

[Bill]

Some years ago I bought a Pure DAB radio for SWMBO to use in the kitchen. It has been pretty poor, and has needed the telescopic aerial extended and waved about to get a non-burbled signal. Over the years that aerial has got shorter and shorter as people have collided with it on the way past the only place on the worktop where it can be made to work.

Can anyone recommend any plans or instructions for a simple aerial that I could make or even buy cheaply? Things with 2'6" arms are out of the question. She and I are fed up with the telescopic version, and I could probably remove it and fit a suitable connector if necessary.

Our house and the sons, both 60's, both came with a long vertical wire through the kitchen window up to the roof to plug into the battery MW/LW radio by the draining board. Those were the days.

[newshound]

I tackled this problem by putting a proprietary dipole (total length about 18 inches?) on the wall above the window on the wall outside, and running a cable in to the existing aeriel screw connector. Standard fitting (I forget what they call them, but similar to satellite I think).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Dab is in the 180-240Mhz region, so a 1/4 wave whip is about 10" or so.

basically some 75 ohm coax up to the roof with the inner extended 10" above the cable end should work. And fudge in a coax socket to the existing aerial and earth.

[tony sayer]

Well the powers that be would have us believe that DAB reception is perfect with crystal clear sound.. but in the real world;(..

The above is the basis of a decent aerial system that will work a bit better if that vertical section is mounted on but insulated from a ground plane thats a random lump of flat sheet metal at least a foot or so inches in all directions from the centre pick up rod.

Make the vertical bit 13 inches and thats in the DAB band....

Do bear in mind that DAB transmissions are Vertical polarised only....

A Google for "marconi quarter wave" and "ground plane" will give you an idea!...

[Graham.]

I keep telling that to someone I know, an early adopter of DAB with a DAB tuner added to his hi-fi separates system and a "professionally" installed horizontally polarised 4 element DAB aerial!

[Bill]

Thanks, everyone.

I'm thinking I could try making a 13" vertical aerial on a smallish ground plane made to clip through the fixed handle on the top of the set. This would provide an all-in-one set and aerial combination.

If that didn't work I'd have to invest in some aerial coax and put it higher up.

The latter would mean a moderately long coax run, as the worktop is away from the outside wall.

It will take me a few days or weeks, but I'll report back.