Status Aerial for radio.

[Guest Tracker]

Has anyone tried using the Motorhome roof top status tv aerial for base van radio reception in an attempt to get a better and more consistent signal and also to avoid having to fit a proper radio aerial to the van?

 

Thanks.

[davenewellhome]

Judging by the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the Status 315 (flying saucer type) for TV viewing I doubt if they'd be any batter for radio, I'd go for a dedicated good quality radio aerial on the wing.

 

D.

[wints]

I've just fitted a rubber aerial to my grp Mirage. This was to replace the omni-directional 'gazelle' one which also provided tv reception. The gazelle was awful on both radio & tv. I measured, and measured again before drilling a hole high up passenger side on the a-class. Because of the grp body I ran a separate earth cable from a good earth to the 'jagged' washer which usually clamps to the inner surface of a metal body.

The radio reception is now great.

Allen

[Dancer]

Tracker - 2008-11-20 5:19 PM Has anyone tried using the Motorhome roof top status tv aerial for base van radio reception in an attempt to get a better and more consistent signal and also to avoid having to fit a proper radio aerial to the van? Thanks.

Yes. I tried it Richard. Bl***dy awful.

Did'nt want to replace the original aerial on the plastic wing so got a powered windscreen 'stick-on' jobbie from Halfords. Brilliant results, well worth the 15 quid it cost and the hour it took to thread the wires neatly round the screen. Power for the aerial is taken from the dedicated aerial feed wire out of the back of the radio, only fed with current when the radio is switched on.

[Guest Tracker]

Thanks Frank, and all posters - that is what I suspected - although the Status does have a nice pair of horizontal extendable FM radio antennae, heaven alone knows how you are supposed to get on the roof to extend them, and even then it might be a tad iffy to drive with them extended!

 

I looked at the stick on windscreen aerial and wondered whether it would work as well as a wing mounted whip aerial as it is still surrounded by a lot of van from three sides and above?

[Rosbotham]

Can't say I've wired it to my cab radio (hence tried it on the move), but I've had a secondary car radio fitted in the habitation part of my motorhome, fed from a splitter on the status. My status (can't recall model number) is specifically designed to cope with radio usage, and has a telescopic aerial as well as the "flying saucer". Works well...I extend / retract the telescopic by perching on the motorhome lounge seats & sticking my head through the Heki.

 

This said, TV reception is terrible, so it's probably going in favour of a satellite dish...just leaving me the headache of what to wire my habitation radio from....will probably have a "whip" aerial fitted on the roof.

[neillking]

Maybe you won't have to get another radio aerial in that case. A lot of radio channels appear on my sky box and I guess on other sat systems too. One of the slightly amazing reasons for buying a fully automatic in-motion sat dome is apparently to listen to your favourite UK radio programmes while driving abroad!

[Earthmover]

Hi Rosbotham,

My Fiat based van seems very unusual indeed, It doesn't judder in reverse, no smoking clutch, The radio reception with the aerial in the mirror gives perfect reception 99.5% of the time (Kenwood Radio). The Status 530 TV/Radio aerial pulls in a perfect picture in either analog or digital or both provided you point it at the right transmitter?. If you want to watch Analog or digital you might have to point it a different transmitters, depending were abouts you are in the country,

If your status aerial is like mine the amplifier has three aerial sockets on, Just check that your aerial plugs are plugged into the right locations on the amplifier!!?. Mine was once dislodged putting some clothes into the wardrobe and at first I stuck them back in the wrong locations, result only a ghosted picture. may be worth checking. You also have to make sure set it to the right polarity, horizontal or Vertical or somewhere in between, it can be a bit like setting up a Sat dish?.

If your going to site and want to know in advance what direction to point your TV aerial log on to WWW.digitaluk.co.uk Then key in the postcode for the site, click the TV aerial installer button and it will give you all the Info on the local transmitters along with a compass bearing from the post code location.

cheers Em.

[Rosbotham]

Well I'll eat humble pie...turns out my aerial's a Maxview Gazelle rather than Status. It's an omni, so no point knowing which direction's the transmitter's in.

 

Personally I've found the Peugeot Boxer X250 cab aerial to be very dodgy...but I do tend to be in the wilds of Cumbria.

 

I appreciate Sky gives me lots of radio channels, but having plumbed in a radio/MP3 player with speakers to the habitation cabinets I don't fancy listening via the TV. My radio's got an aux in, but it's front mounted so the wiring will hardly be elegant.

 

Was thinking of a Vision Plus VP radio antenna fitted to the side to plug the gap...

[Tony Jones]

MY Cavarno has the standard Ford aerial just above the windscreen (screw-on mast, identical to the one I had on my Escort), but it's a few inches short of the high-top, which I think is affecting my reception. I asked my Ford dealer if they do a longer version, but apparently not. The only suggestion I got was that there may be one made as a CB aerial.

Any ideas where I might get one of those?