Radio antenae

[Archiesgrandad]

Our Pilote Galaxy is fitted with a half decent Sony radio, but reception is awful. I'm sure the problem is the aeriel (take 3), partly because as a former owner of a Scimitar GTE with it's GRP body we have travelled this path before, and partly because on this van we have a grotty little plastic thing, showing an intruiging selection of bits of Sticky Fixer, Blue Tack and heaven only knows what, which hangs near the windscreen, and has obviously been stuck to it at some time.

More than anything else I would like to fit a half decent aerial (take 4), I think that's it isn't it?, so that we can use the radio when on the move. Beyond that I would like that aerial,( I'm getting confident about take 4), to be good enough for us to be able to receive BBC Radio 4 on longwave pretty well all down the western side of France.

In our sailing days we could pick up Radio 4 longwave half way down Portugal with a cheap little transistor radio attached to an external aerial (I' pretty sure now, Take 4 it is), so is it possible, and more importantly, is it practical to fit a suitable aerial (getting confident now) on the van to enable us to do this.

Just to short circuit the obvious, I realise that the aerial, hardly need to comment now, will need to be grounded to the chassis, and I also realise that it may not be practical to replicate the 68 foot mast we had on the boat, but hopefully it will be possible to do better than our current sad state.

AGD

[lennyhb]

Not sure if you are saying that it has bits of sticky pads on the screen because it has a screen mounted aerial or the previous owner had one once and it's not there any more.

 

I was going to suggest a screen mounted aerial there are cheap amplified ones on for about a fiver others on the forum have reported good results with these. There is a good quality amplified one by Bosch it's about 25 quid that always receives good reports but I can only find it on ebay from Thailand so may have been discontinued.

 

For long wave in France probably better with a very long whip aerial that is a multiple fraction of the wavelength. 198kHz =1514 metres so a 1/256th aerial would be 5.9m.

[tonyg3nwl]

Hi, just a couple of points. When you were sailing, you have an advantage of salt water all around you which provided a good earth plane for your large mast mounted aerial to work against.

 

Inland, well away from water, on rocky hill tops or in deep valleys your signal reception will be much weaker due to poor ground conductivity, or obstructions, or worse still electrical noise generated by overhead cables etc.

 

As am amateur radio enthusiast, I carry special tuned aerials, in the form of loaded whip aerials.

They are of course adjusted for short wave reception, not long wave broadcast signals.

 

 

Your long wave aerial should be mounted on a good metal part of the motorhome, Not on fibreglass or other non metallic parts, as high up as is practical, remembering low bridges and filling station overhangs etc.

 

Dont expect to get such a good signal as when you were sailing, and try to find the very best long wave receiver possible, not your average transistorised cheap rubbish.

 

Alternatively, get a satellite reception setup, and take the radio and tv from that instead.

 

Tonyg3nwl.

 

[Rayjsj]

Not exactly an answer but linked, After fitting a new JVC Dab+ radio in my van, I fitted the supplied windscreen, Stick on Aerial, with a booster. I must admit I didn't expect much from it, and was prepared to buy a new (expensive) aerial to get a better dab signal. However I underestimated the little 'Stick on' jobby,

once I had read the intructions properly, it said 'Energize the booster' with a command from the Radio ?

This I did, and the Differance was amazing, Crystal Clear Digital signals on the move, which i didn't get before. I didn't realise that the special 'Digital Radio' aerial socket, included a power source for the booster. Anyway it does (on my JVC at least). And the supplied stick on is very adequate. Ray

 

 

Engineers mantra: when ALL else fails, read the instructions.

[fjmike]

After having an accident with a tree tangling with the external aerial I purchased a windscreen mounted one from Ebay. As it was amplifed I connected it via fuse and switch to the leisure battery and before fitting it to the top of the windscreen I put it on the dash and gave it a try. I was amazed how good it was pulling in stations that the roof mounted aerial could never get. I have recently had a new windscreen fitted and the aerial was stuck to that and is still working brilliantly