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Old 16th December 2018, 00:01   #1
jim_k
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Default DAB radio / Christmas meets / Grilles

Hi,
I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on the following:

Firstly, on my way to work I often loose radio signal and wondered if DAB radio would be worth looking at. I looked on youtube at some after-market add on systems need power from the cigarette lighter and have an aerial the sticks on the screen. They look a real mess and depending on who you listen to, they may or may not be any better than the analogue signal. Is there a product anyone could recommend that doesn't mean you have to change to a new head unit? I'd be interested to hear other experiences.

My second question is that in between Christmas and new year I'd like to visit a car museum or meeting with my family. One year we went to Gaydon around the start of the new year and had a good time. Is there anything open like a car museum or a Rover meet as I'd like to get out and about and look at cars. I'm in Reading so anything in 90 mins range would be ideal.

Finally, I have as a second car, a Jag X type. A few weeks back a pheasant flew up in front of me and snapped the plastic blade in the lower radiator opening. I'm thinking of replacing it with a mesh panel but on ebay some of these are £80-100 which is ridiculous. Has anyone crafted a mesh panel themselves and how did they find it? I'm temped to make my own.


Thanks in advance for any help / information.

Jim
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Old 16th December 2018, 17:16   #2
gadget1960
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jim_k View Post
Hi,
I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on the following:

Firstly, on my way to work I often loose radio signal and wondered if DAB radio would be worth looking at. I looked on youtube at some after-market add on systems need power from the cigarette lighter and have an aerial the sticks on the screen. They look a real mess and depending on who you listen to, they may or may not be any better than the analogue signal. Is there a product anyone could recommend that doesn't mean you have to change to a new head unit? I'd be interested to hear other experiences.

My second question is that in between Christmas and new year I'd like to visit a car museum or meeting with my family. One year we went to Gaydon around the start of the new year and had a good time. Is there anything open like a car museum or a Rover meet as I'd like to get out and about and look at cars. I'm in Reading so anything in 90 mins range would be ideal.

Finally, I have as a second car, a Jag X type. A few weeks back a pheasant flew up in front of me and snapped the plastic blade in the lower radiator opening. I'm thinking of replacing it with a mesh panel but on ebay some of these are £80-100 which is ridiculous. Has anyone crafted a mesh panel themselves and how did they find it? I'm temped to make my own.


Thanks in advance for any help / information.

Jim
Hi Jim, I fabricated a fairly heavy gauge stainless grill for my sons focus a while back, bought a sheet big enough to cover the grill easily from evilbay and had to trim the size to fit the grill shell with an angle grinder, if you do this ... make sure you get the 'welded' mesh as if it's just woven it moves around all over the place, I chose a mesh hole size of 1.2cm. I had to very carefully cut the inner plastic mesh from the grill surround leaving just the frame / shell, from that point on it was a bit of a task to find a way of permanently fixing the mesh to the frame so it looked 'factory'.
This was achieved by getting a friend of mine to Tig weld some little tabs to the mesh where they would line up with the inner part of the plastic grill surround and then very carefully drill a small hole in each of the tabs where a small self tapping screw could be used to fasten the mesh to the inside of the gril.
It involved a lot of head scratching but the outcome was spot on, it actually looked like a factory option.
I have also seen the mesh laminated to a grill shell using fibreglass, looked great from the outside but the inside was a bit of a bodge.
Depends how OCD you are really.
Good luck with it though, got to admit ... that very same mod has occurred to me on more than one occasion, if I decide to give it a go i'll post up some pics on the process.
Btw ... had a few DAB radio's in various cars and to be honest ... they're total pants IMO, far too sensitive to the area we live, always losing signal at the slightest provocation and seems to want to tune itself to any station coming from France! Other peeps may have had a different experience but I won't be buying another for sure.

Last edited by gadget1960; 16th December 2018 at 17:20.. Reason: dab opinion
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Old 16th December 2018, 17:53   #3
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Hi Jim.
I have a dab head unit.
Use a decent aerial and it should be ok.
I never listen to analogue in the car now.
Before that I used a Pure Highway dab unit. No problems but again you need a good aerial.

If you're in Reading you could do worse than check out the New Years day classic gathering at Brooklands. Within an hour from you, you will probably have to park in the general car park but you'll be treated with a fantastic museum and up to 1500 classics
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Old 16th December 2018, 19:24   #4
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I have an Xtrons DD unit with built in dab+.It was supplied and fitted by Jubbarelly, member on here.
As mentioned above by GF, a good qualty amplified external aerial is vital to good performance of the radio. I found that the windscreen ones are hit and miss,particularly in rural locations, at night and when other electrical systems on the car in use. Jubs fitted a shark fin for me that I supplied. The scan found 96 dab stations and reception is near perfect on most of them (4/5 bars) under all conditions.The aerial seems to be the key compinent in consistantly good reception.
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Old 16th December 2018, 23:02   #5
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Thanks guys for that information. Much appreciated and will help me decide on what to do next. Valuable information from your experiences. Best regards, Jim
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Old 16th December 2018, 23:06   #6
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Just had a look at the Brooklands meet on new years day. That looks ideal. Will take the 75 down there with family and hope the sun comes out. Great shout. Thanks for that, didn't know this was on.
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Old 17th December 2018, 13:27   #7
johnnyb44
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I've been very pleased with my pure highway 400 this year. I've had great reception with the windscreen aerial in Wales.
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Old 17th December 2018, 19:13   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VVC-Geeza View Post
I have an Xtrons DD unit with built in dab+.It was supplied and fitted by Jubbarelly, member on here.
As mentioned above by GF, a good qualty amplified external aerial is vital to good performance of the radio. I found that the windscreen ones are hit and miss,particularly in rural locations, at night and when other electrical systems on the car in use. Jubs fitted a shark fin for me that I supplied. The scan found 96 dab stations and reception is near perfect on most of them (4/5 bars) under all conditions.The aerial seems to be the key compinent in consistantly good reception.
Interested, also have a Jubbarelly Xtrons. Can't receive a.m. reception. Would like 4xtra so DAB seems to be a route. Which shark-fin aerial did you use? Water-tight fitting?
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Old 1st January 2019, 22:16   #9
jim_k
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Hi,
Today I had a really good day out at Brooklands. Aside from all the classics on display (all makes and models) there was so much to see. The aircraft, cars, aero engines, Barnes Wallis exhibits, WWII stuff, jets, Concorde and much more. Nearly forgot the bus exhibition too...

Really inspiring engineering on display and so much I knew nothing about. A great place to visit. Arrived at before 10 and left at 4pm as they were closing up. As for classic people took along, several mint P5B's, an Ital, Allegro's, Maestro, P6's, MGF's, Metro, SD1, Morris Minor. A great place to visit and very reasonable price too.


BTW I've not done the Grille. I instead found a spare air splitter in the shed and mildly modified it so that it slots over my existing broken one on my Jag. Glued it on and car looks as good as new.


Thanks Gary for Brooklands recommendation.


Jim
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Old 1st January 2019, 23:51   #10
VVC-Geeza
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldie View Post
Interested, also have a Jubbarelly Xtrons. Can't receive a.m. reception. Would like 4xtra so DAB seems to be a route. Which shark-fin aerial did you use? Water-tight fitting?

Hi,sorry I missed your post.


I bought THIS shark fin.It's a good fit and watertight.It has a square shank so we drilled a round hole firstly and then carefully filed four flats.You will also need the extension cables to run to the headunit + a connector for the DAB connection,or two connectors if you intend to use the aerial for the sat nav.


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