Roof Aerial Delete

[Forrest]

My latest acquisition had the remains of a (car phone?) aerial on the roof. Whilst not a particularly big deal it did nothing for the aesthetics. Tonight’s job, which would have been better not finished in the pouring rain, was to remove it and fit one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384252620131

It was surprisingly hard to track down a suitable blanking plate. Whilst not great quality, and probably overpriced, this one benefited from coming with a suitable rubber sealing washer, large backing washer and a small diameter bolt which meant it would do the job properly and fit through whatever sized hole I found underneath the aerial - in the event 12mm.

The job was a PITA. It is not possible to reach both sides simultaneously single-handedly - the tailgate gets in the way. Also, without major dismantling, access to the underside was through the small hole the wires for the luggage compartment light emerge from once the rear plastic trim piece is removed. The installation took a surprisingly long time and was achieved by first clamping the backing washer in position with a small magnet, dropping the bolt through from above and then holding the blanking plate down with a heavy object whilst trying to manipulate the wing nut with fingertips through the access hole.

Pleased with the result though and it will certainly do unless and until I decide it’s worth investing in a body shop doing an invisible welded repair.

Tempted to spray it to match the bodywork, but I’m certainly not going to take it off again to do so.

[Laird Scooby]

I have a similar carphone aerial on mine, i'm going to repurpose it as a DAB aerial, just about the right length for it!

[Forrest]

On another of my classics I used one of these for DAB.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MRIFCDD

It's a compromise because it uses the original (external) FM aerial which is by no means optimised to DAB frequencies. However, when the signal is good enough it works well with my Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 DAB taking its power via the DAB aerial port - enabled via a menu setting on the Blaupunkt.

It might not work with the amplified rear window aerial in the 900 series, but I haven't looked into that really.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Forrest

On another of my classics I used one of these for DAB.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MRIFCDD

It's a compromise because it uses the original (external) FM aerial which is by no means optimised to DAB frequencies. However, when the signal is good enough it works well with my Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 DAB taking its power via the DAB aerial port - enabled via a menu setting on the Blaupunkt.

It might not work with the amplified rear window aerial in the 900 series, but I haven't looked into that really.

That's effectively an LNB using (as you say) the original FM aerial. The FM aerial isn't quite a multiple of the ideal length of a DAB aerial whereas the mobile phone aerial is very close to what DAB needs (much higher frequency therefore shorter wavelength and aerial) so depending how it's configured (purely as a splitter or whether it's amplified) it could reduce FM performance and only give marginal performance on DAB in anything but a good reception area.

The rear window aerial uses what is effectively another LNB to provide power for the heater elements for demisting and an amplifier tuned to FM and (to a certain point) AM frequencies. That means using it with the window aerial is probably going to be compromised before you start.

Worth a look for those who live in a good DAB reception area though.