how many dab radios can you run from a DAB aerial?
anything special to look for? like tv aerials, wideband ect
and DAB worth it?
can ya get a DAB signal through a digital TV aerial?

cheers

ss

is that with a bit of wooood then  

i am only jealouse scruff just egnore me

[quote author=big_all  link=1099870873/0#4 date=1099875133]i am only jealouse scruff just egnore me [/quote]

We all do anyway

Andrew

god, whats all this kissing going on in the forums, stop it right away!  

[quote author=plugwash  link=1099870873/0#9 date=1099911181]

freeview has some radio stations but i think its a seperate system from DAB and i don't think it has everything DAB does

i've seen local radio stations mention being on DAB and everythign my freeview box lists is nationa

[/quote]

Im not convinced, theres a huge difference in quality and it has a delay which shows it's on a different bandwidth

my experiance is that a roof mounted tv arial does much better at fm than a loft mounted FM arial for receiveing FM broadcasts

so i can't see why DAB couldn't be picked up by a decent wideband TV arial mounted in a good location

sure a good quality FM arial on the roof would be best

but what im saying is that if you have a TV arial on the roof then at least in my experiance loft mounted FM arials are a waste of time

btw im in a student resisdence block and it seems i can't get uktv history and several other freeview channels here so no its not all bliss

Ok DAB radio's easy. If you're in a marginal area you can just do a simple loop in the loft. If your transmitter lines up nicely across the signal path you can tack up a very simple arrangement.

Make a loop of copper wire from the palm of your hand around your elbow then do this on the other side so you end up with something which would fit across both arms.  (assuming you're an average sized male & ignore the gaps at the sides where my brackets don't join up   )

Kind of like this

________|  |________
(__________________)

The ends at the top should be connected to the centre and shield of your aerial cable respectively. This will pick up DAB band fairly well.

Old school dipole manufacture from the maestro of the make do.    

[quote author=plugwash  link=1099870873/0#14 date=1099944931]btw im in a student resisdence block and it seems i can't get uktv history and several other freeview channels here so no its not all bliss [/quote]

Thats because thay channel along with some others don't come as standard, you have to pay for top up TV which is £7.99 a month + one off £20 connection fee (connected yourself), you then get a viewing card which decodes them channels.

Thats if of course you have a box with a card reader, all boxes between 2002 and late 2004 didnt have slots, they now have around 8 boxes with slots, the big seller is the Thomson DTI2300 which sells for around £80, It's not a match on my sony, but it really isnt too bad, main things that are not as good to the sony are the channels take longer to load.

I beg ur pardon mate, ur right  

Just checked it out, it's the other UKTV channel im thinking off (Gold) - also UKStyle is not free, UKTV History is free and is available here, are you missing any others  ???

Never beleive anyone when they say size doesn't matter

Yep for DAB the dipole length will aim to be about 1/4 of the wavelength of the centre frequency. In a domestic situation like this, size of cable matters only in so far as the the fatter it is the more signal hits the bu66er in the first place. But if you go for a loop at the end so it keeps the upper and lower cables approximately 3 inches apart, in old money, then you'll be in the right ball park. This is slightly larger than you'd have on a horizontally mounted dipole, but it allows for the fact that it'll be on a loft batten which will slope with the angle of the roof. If you're just putting it on a horizontal timber then reduce it slightly to about 2.5 inches. The total width of the wire dipole should come up at about a couple of feet (use some nice 4mm solid if you can get it). I reckon you'll find this will give you much inproved FM as well as spot on DAB if you stick it into a combiner or the FM i/p of your loft amp.

Happy Blue Petering