Help! Reception problems on DAB car stereo -need help working out what the problem is

[Steve237]

Hi all,

Hope someone can help me identify what the problem is here...

I bought a Sony CDX-DAB6650 car steroe about a year ago and was pleased with it - even with the aerial supplied which fitted to the inside of the window it picked up most stations clearly. Then I got a crack in my windscreen and culdn't salvage the screen aerial so forked out for a combined FM/DAB one to replace the existing FM one on the roof of my VW Golf...

All was working fine until one day it just went all squelchy, you know that noise where it's stuggling to pick up a signal... then I got 'no reception' 99% of the time for all stations, with the occasional 15 minute burst of activity and trouble free listening, so I checked the connections at the back of the head unit and checked the aerial was screwed tightly into the roof - with no water seeping in, but t no avail. Then days later it just worked again, without me doing anything.

Now, months later, it's happened again. This tim i've been unable to pick up anything at all (with the exception of a few seconds here and there) of any station, anywhere in the north of the UK (I spend a lot of time driving with work). Also, I can only seem to pick up Radio 1,2,3 and 4 on FM.

What could be the problem here?

[mannyo]

The last time I had a simillar problem with the normal FM tuner part in a sony headunit was when the tuner itself had failed which resulted in intermittent reception.

Other things to check, Are all the connections to the aerial good. Is the 12v feed to the aerial diplexor working correctly. Does normal FM work, if it does it most likely means a HU problem on the DAB side.

[Steve237]

Thanks mannyo, but after months of not working - it has suddenly just started working again, perfect reception everywhere. Very strange indeed.

I expect sooner or later it will happen again. Very annoying.