removing / reducing electric interference in the car.

Hate · 16 Jan 2011 at 15:51

Story is this,

I have a portable DAB that I use around and about most days (uses the headphones for an ariel) and has excellent signal for that purpose. I want to use it in my car (as I have a rather fetching tape deck so have a tape with a lead on it) but it appears as soon as I turn anything electrical on in the car (either by starting the car or just flipping the radio on) then the signal dies on my DAB. I can only assume that the electronics are 'noisy' and causing issues - I can sit in my car with the engine off parked up and listen to the DAB fine with earphones but as soon as I turn the radio on or twist the key in the ignition it's gone.

I popped into Halfords earlier and they had something you bolt onto the alternator that helps reduce interference and have seen those doughnut shaped things that are meant to help.

Is there a way of shielding or perhaps reducing the interference without spending a bucketload or having to fish behind the dashboard and individually wrap wires? car is a 2002 Audi S3 and the regular FM radio is fine.

cooljimy84 · 16 Jan 2011 at 16:03

I thought that they were gonna turn FM radio off in the uk in a while, then that would allow them to up the power on digital radio/tv to help solve issues like this....

(the troll in side of me) tin foil hat ?!?!?

MrMoonX · 16 Jan 2011 at 20:05

isnt this the faraday effect because the car is a metal cage, thats what is probably killing the dab, an external aerial will help

Hate · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:38

Nope, as I can sit in the car with the doors closed and listen to the DAB on the headphones (parked up of course) fine, as soon as you turn on the car stereo or the ignition the signal completely goes from full to zero.

cooljimy84 · 16 Jan 2011 at 23:08

poss test other cars, see if the same thing happens. but i'm afraid every thing that is electrical with create "noise"

MikeHunt79 · 16 Jan 2011 at 23:17

Do you have any class D amps in your car?

5abr3 · 16 Jan 2011 at 23:20

The donut things are called ferrites, they aren't a total solution and are only really useful on data cables. Spark plugs are fantastic radio frequency interference generators for example.

It might be a good idea to try another DAB radio as it could be to do with the error correction used insed or the fact the headphones are being used as the reception method (which are a poorly matched antenna at a guess).

Fr0dders · 17 Jan 2011 at 01:13

cooljimy84 said:
poss test other cars, see if the same thing happens. but i'm afraid every thing that is electrical with create "noise"

this

if it happens in other cars there probably won't be a lot you can do.

Dogbreath · 17 Jan 2011 at 09:34

cooljimy84 said:
I thought that they were gonna turn FM radio off in the uk in a while,

It's simply not going to happen when they say it will, there has been nothing like enough uptake of DAB. Not surprising as it's basically crap.