Poor radio reception

[RayBaz]

Hi team IQ. Can anyone help with a suggestion on how to improve the aerial reception on my 2009 IQ2. It has the standard short aerial currently and I suspect that it is the culprit as next gen Aygo used a longer version. I can only tune in Radio 2 and Classic stations as the self seek whizzes past anything local. I am in the Home Counties so expected it to easily find Heart radio. It came from deep in the West Country and was tuned into Pirate Radio 😂

[Bper]

Hi Ray,

Take a look at this video it may help.

https://youtu.be/o2IuP6apQNw?si=tV9_SLw0iHumHh_2

 

[RayBaz]

Wow Bob, that looks mighty fine…. and expensive. Any ideas of costs . Ray

[Bper]

Hi Ray,

Have a look at this recent post a few ideas are mentioned for different units. Hope this helps.

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/217336-dab-upgrade/#comment-1746269

 

[glimp]

There's a parallel thread to this one! This morning I posted that the Pure Highway 400, which is the same as the DAB unit in the video above, costs £57.

Also, thinking of aerials, since finding this forum a few weeks ago I've ploughed through all 1,300ish thread titles and I've read the bits that interested me. One thing I can remember is someone calculating that the optimum length for an FM aerial at 100Hz is around 75cm, so he reckoned all car aerials are a compromise. I may be wrong, but this leads me to think that maybe a longer aerial could be better? I remember back in the 1970's people used to fit car aerials that would struggle to go under a bridge!

 

[DerekHa]

1 hour ago, glimp said:

There's a parallel thread to this one! This morning I posted that the Pure Highway 400, which is the same as the DAB unit in the video above, costs £57.

Also, thinking of aerials, since finding this forum a few weeks ago I've ploughed through all 1,300ish thread titles and I've read the bits that interested me. One thing I can remember is someone calculating that the optimum length for an FM aerial at 100Hz is around 75cm, so he reckoned all car aerials are a compromise. I may be wrong, but this leads me to think that maybe a longer aerial could be better? I remember back in the 1970's people used to fit car aerials that would struggle to go under a bridge!

 

Never did any calulating but I know from past experience and stuff I read through long ago that for best reception of any radio signals/waves the more metal you have in the sky, plus the greater the hieght the bigger the impact!

If you can't have those your left with employing amplifiers to boost what signal you can get to the point that its useful. Amplifiers are usually a second best unless your in a strong signal area.

Not sure if they still exist now in this digital age but back in the 60's and 70's Radio Hams (Amatuers) were somewhat popular and would have huge aerials in their back gardens and could pull in signals from other Hams from all over the world. A small aerial wouldn't cut it at all! Very much the same when CB Radio became the thing in the 1980's they had long whiplash aerials stuck to the roof of their cars.

DAB is much better than FM but because it's digital the signal is prone to being there one second and nothing the next unless you have a good aerial, very much like trying to watch SKY Satellite TV from a dish when its rains heavy or thick cloud rolls in. FM can be received over quite a distance in real terms but it's analogue and the further you are from the tramsmitter the weaker the signal. Seem to recall being able to pick up the old BRMB Radio from Aston in Birmingham well down the M5 as far as Cheltenham before it faded out totally.

[Barkley]

What about MW?  I would have thought most car whips would be dual band to accommodate most installations.
 

Size also isn’t everything as ‘loading’ on certain types where a coil at the base provides the length that isn’t related to how big it is!  As for CB’s, the K40 had its wound coil in the base, and there was no need for a 1m long behemoth 🫠

[RayBaz]

On 11/2/2023 at 5:21 PM, glimp said:

There's a parallel thread to this one! This morning I posted that the Pure Highway 400, which is the same as the DAB unit in the video above, costs £57.

Also, thinking of aerials, since finding this forum a few weeks ago I've ploughed through all 1,300ish thread titles and I've read the bits that interested me. One thing I can remember is someone calculating that the optimum length for an FM aerial at 100Hz is around 75cm, so he reckoned all car aerials are a compromise. I may be wrong, but this leads me to think that maybe a longer aerial could be better? I remember back in the 1970's people used to fit car aerials that would struggle to go under a bridge!

 

Blimey, Pure Highway 400 looks interesting and attractively priced. May try a longer aerial first (£10.00 or so) to see how I get on. Failing that the Pure set up looks very promising. Wonder if anyone has fitted to the aux outlet in their IQ 💁

[glimp]

8 minutes ago, RayBaz said:

Blimey, Pure Highway 400 looks interesting and attractively priced. May try a longer aerial first (£10.00 or so) to see how I get on. Failing that the Pure set up looks very promising. Wonder if anyone has fitted to the aux outlet in their IQ 💁

If you end up going the DAB route, I've had the Pure in my other car for about 6 years (I think it cost about £90 back then) and apart from having to replace the Battery in the display unit once, it's been faultless. I don't use anything else for radio.

On very rare occasions, for a second or two, it may lose signal, but it's never been an issue.

[RayBaz]

That sounds impressive. So, you don’t have the Pure in your IQ ? Out of curiosity, what length of aerial are you using ? Thanks 

[glimp]

1 hour ago, RayBaz said:

That sounds impressive. So, you don’t have the Pure in your IQ ? Out of curiosity, what length of aerial are you using ? Thanks 

I've got the standard aerial in my iQ (totally standard set-up) and my other car uses the aerial that comes with the Pure (it sticks on the inside of the windscreen, top left). Like this...

However, I've just splashed out on a cheapo 16" aerial for the iQ - £4.25!!!! I fancied seeing if it makes any difference.

[RayBaz]

Cheapo …. £4.25 sound marvellous to me …. Bar Humbug ….. Where do you get that from and I assume it just screws into the existing base ?

[glimp]

5 minutes ago, RayBaz said:

Cheapo …. £4.25 sound marvellous to me …. Bar Humbug ….. Where do you get that from and I assume it just screws into the existing base ?

eBay of course! Just hope it fits. It'll probably make no difference.

LINK TO EBAY

[RayBaz]

Noticed this too about an hour ago, and at that money it’s no real loss 😂 Going to send for one too and we can compare notes 👍

[glimp]

9 minutes ago, RayBaz said:

Noticed this too about an hour ago, and at that money it’s no real loss 😂 Going to send for one too and we can compare notes 👍

Even if it's no good, it'll make the cars look uber-cool 😎

 

 

 

...maybe not

[RayBaz]

Noticed this too about an hour ago, and at that money it’s no real loss 😂 Going to send for one too and we can compare notes 👍

3 minutes ago, glimp said:

Even if it's no good, it'll make the cars look uber-cool 😎

 

 

 

...maybe not

 As soon as I have it fitted I’ll let you know 👍

[RayBaz]

On 11/4/2023 at 2:42 PM, glimp said:

Even if it's no good, it'll make the cars look uber-cool 😎

 

 

 

...maybe not

Afternoon fellow Tarts as I have fitted the same cheapo aerial as suggested by King Tart GLIMP. As suspected it has made no difference whatsoever but looks great. Next step will be Pure DAB conversion 😁

[glimp]

7 minutes ago, RayBaz said:

Afternoon fellow Tarts as I have fitted the same cheapo aerial as suggested by King Tart GLIMP. As suspected it has made no difference whatsoever but looks great. Next step will be Pure DAB conversion 😁

Fitted my new, longer (16"), cheapo aerial a few days ago too. I tested the new one against the original aerial in a dodgy frequency area (a town centre) and - same as your experience - it made no difference at all. The sound still broke up in exactly the same way, at the same points.

Be aware that DAB also has the occasional poor reception spot - also in built-up areas, in my S.E. England experience.

[RayBaz]

I suspect that the Pure DAB route is the likely route for me. Being in Bletchley near MK it’s easy to get away from interference from buildings and the like so standard FM should at least be able to find a BBC channel ….. but lots of crackle and a signal that comes and go’s like a pay rise 😒So next time I am in Herts and I see a same colour IQ as mine at warp factor -3 will be you enjoying an intermittent radio signal too…. Wicked 👍

[Barkley]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:33 PM, RayBaz said:

It has the standard short aerial

Nobody seems to expand on which part of the radio spectrum is being listened to. All aerials arc a compromise (and always have been). Adding length doesn’t mean ‘better reception’ and depending what frequency is being listened to, will decide the optimal length.  MW, LW, FM and DAB all have differences - what are you listening to?  If FM, can you switch to mono and does it sound better?  If so, check the lead for water ingress - but fixing this is a thankless task!

[RayBaz]

Ohhh. I would like to listen to Heart which has a national frequency as well as a local plus Radio 2 all usually available on FM. You mention switching to Mono. How do we do that then, as I have to admit that the radio adjustment sequences are somewhat of a faff to the older brigade 💁

[Roy124]

On 11/2/2023 at 5:21 PM, glimp said:

the optimum length for an FM aerial at 100Hz is around 75cm, so he reckoned all car aerials are a compromise

Actually 749mm and that is for a quarter wave unipolar.  A longer aerial would suit lower frequencies. 

From Wiki:

"The original version of DAB used the MP2 audio codec; an upgraded version of the system was later developed and released named DAB+ which uses the HE-AAC v2 (AAC+) audio codec and is more robust and efficient. DAB is not forward compatible with DAB+.^[16] Today the majority of DAB broadcasts around the world are using the upgraded DAB+ standard, with only the UK, Romania, Brunei, and the Philippines still using a significant number of legacy DAB broadcasts"

and the following perhaps supports my observation that I can lose LBC or TalkTV but can still receive BBC.

BBC, spending your 'tax dollars'  an afford HiFi whereas commercial radio cant.

"The broadcaster can select any desired sound quality, from high-fidelity signals for music to low-fidelity signals for talk radio, in which case the sound quality can be noticeably inferior to analog FM. High-fidelity equates to a high bit rate and higher transmission cost"

[Barkley]

Digital Radio’s UK introduction was nonsensical - even when DAB+ was developed it is said BBC spent so much on the old DAB they had no plans to support +, which meant OFCOM turned a blind eye to regulation to let ‘the market decide’.  
 

I only recently realised that if I forked out money for Toyota’s DAB Module as an accessory for my inbuilt TNS system, most of the stations I listen to were on DAB, but more importantly were on DAB+ which the Toyota accessory does NOT support. (Not their fault, designed in 2008-9 the DAB+ standard hadn’t been ratified then).
 

So even if I sprang for the £200 add-on, I wouldn’t get all my stations as the tuner would sail past all the DAB+ ones. @glimp has the right idea, cut your losses and go for a modern unit like the Pure.

Alternatively, I’m finding it cheaper to use the inbuilt BT on the TNS and stream from my phone instead - all the DAB+ stations offer a streaming feed, and the buffering ensures minor annoyances like aerial glitches are smoothed out too.

[Cyker]

It's even stupider than that - DAB+ was deemed *illegal* in this country for a long period because, and this is the stupid part, they didn't want to cause hardship on the tiny number of early adopters of DAB, who would have to get rid of their DAB-only equipment and exchange it for DAB+ compatible.

That put back DAB in this country by decades, because DAB is a garbage protocol - It doesn't even work properly in a moving vehicle because it has no doppler-compensation, and the codecs were so inefficient it is the main cause why everyone thinks FM is better quality.

They fixed all of that in DAB+, but because it was banned for so long, it crippled adoption, until they finally started allowing small-scale trials.

[RayBaz]

On 11/15/2023 at 1:33 PM, RayBaz said:

Ohhh. I would like to listen to Heart which has a national frequency as well as a local plus Radio 2 all usually available on FM. You mention switching to Mono. How do we do that then, as I have to admit that the radio adjustment sequences are somewhat of a faff to the older brigade 💁

Finally had the old exide Battery fail so I decided to replace it with a genuine Toyota Battery and remove the new aerial and refit. Yes, cleared all the radio stations and hey presto I have been able to re tune my local Heart station. Marvellous…. Still an absolute faff and gave up selecting and re selecting to find bass, treble and fade. That’s for another day 😁