DAB radio aerial.

Topgun · 10-09-2010, 17:20

Hi. I am thinking of purchasing one of these, Panasonic SC-HC30DBEBS DAB Micro System with iPod Dock, which seems like a nice little system. It does, however, seem to have a weakness insofar as the DAB radio signal. If I buy one, it would live in my lounge where there is an aerial output for the TV from an aerial in the loft. My question is basically this, could I attach the system to this aerial output and would that give me a signal for the DAB radio?
In other words, does a TV aerial solely work with TVs, or is an aerial an aerial and it will pick up any kind of signal?
Think I could have worded that better but hope it makes sense!

Jon T · 10-09-2010, 17:53

To some extent an aerial is an aerial and it will pick a signal up, probably not very well though.

An aerial is matched to the wavelength/frequency that it's designed to recieve. TV transmissions are between 470MHz and 800Mhz(ish) in frequency, DAB frequencies are in the 170Mhz-230MHz(ish) range, therefore any aerial designed for TV frequencies is going to be far from perfect.

Matth · 10-09-2010, 23:50

Pickup on an unmatched aerial will be minimal, possibly less than on a simple telescopic.

Not sure if you can get diplexers for TV/DAB, and put a DAB aerial in the loft.
AH YES, YOU CAN GET tv + dab/fm DIPLEXERS (quite cheap, on ebay), You'll need two diplexers, one to merge, one to split, For the antenna, maybe a simple dipole will do. DAB is always vertically polarized, so the dipole is used vertically, and is non-directional. If the signal is very weak, then a 3 or 5 element directional antenna may be required.

Topgun · 12-09-2010, 11:24

Thanks for the prompt and helpful replies. Why does everything in life turn out to be more complicated than you thought it would be, or is it just me?

bonzoe · 16-09-2010, 19:04

No it's not just you, life gets more complicated as you get older, believe me! (or is it just me?)

Now where did I put my slippers..................................?

philwhite100 · 19-09-2010, 14:22

I use my old TV aerial on the chimney and it works just fine.

Also have a DAB tuner in the car and no special aerial for that too again with good signal.

Jon T · 19-09-2010, 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by philwhite100

I use my old TV aerial on the chimney and it works just fine.

Also have a DAB tuner in the car and no special aerial for that too again with good signal.

Your car aerial will be optimised for frequencies closer those used by DAB broadcasting anyway.

As for the TV aerial, as I said, it'll work, but you mileage my vary, as the signal strength required will need to be stronger than if you were using a dedicated aerial.

Also, some TV aerial systems have bandpass filters/highpass filters to them, these would removed DAB frequencies from the feed.