Personal DAB in car via FM Transmitter

[Flatjack8]

Hi there

The in-car reception of my personal DAB radio (Genus SLM) is very good, particularly for 5 Live Sports Extra, hence ideal for the cricket etc.

As I am sure it is illegal to use the personal Dab whilst driving using the headphones, I was wondering whether it is possible to connect the Dab to the car radio via the FM Transmitter type devices, i.e. the Audia X DGT-202 or similar.

Does the cable that connects to the Dab to the transmitter work ok as an aerial?

Has anyone tried this and if so which transmitter did you use?

Cheers

Flat

 

[tribewright]

I have tried this with a number of FM Trnasmitters, and a couple of portable DAB radios (The PocketDAB 2000 and the Oono MiniDAB) with little success.

It would appear that with most FM transmitters, they use the connecting cable as the transmission aerial, connecting this directly to the headphone socket of the radio means that the radio will expect to use this cable as the receiving aerial. In my area, the 'interferance' from the directly connected FM transmitter drowns out the chance of DAB working, although in the case of the MinDAB, the signal meter still registers that there is a signal, no sound can be heard, both radios have built-in MP3 playback, and this works fine, it is just the DAB which doesn't.

I have heard some people have managed to get the AudiaX to work with the PocketDAB, perhaps they are in a better DAB area, but I have had no luck with this so far.

There are other types of transmitter available, such as the FM Cup from macally (designed for the iPod, but should work with any DAB radio because it has a line input socket) this should allow you to get some distance between the transmitting and receiving aerials, which may help.

 

[figrin_dan]

I've been using one of these recently, and it doesn't use the audio input to transmit. Haven't tried it with DAB yet.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Fla...0?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1177355104&sr=8-7

But I have just noticed this:
http://www.etencorp.com/products/DAB/d110.php

Which look great, but I have no idea where to get one.

 

[StuGib]

This is exactly the same setup I'm trying to achieve with a Virgin Lobster phone I've just got.

The DAB radio in it is excellent with the supplied earphones, but it has a 2.5mm plug for them. My aim is to plug in both something that will act as the aerial (the supplied earphones if necessary) and the FM transmitter, which has a 3.5mm plug.

So far I've bought a 2.5mm-->3.5mm adapter and a 3.5mm splitter which lets me plug in the transmitter, and then my idea was to use some other earphones with a 3.5mm plug as the antenna. However of the 4 pairs I've tried, only the one that came with my wife's phone (which has FM not DAB) worked but the wire was too short to get a good signal. I'm assuming that the adapters/splitters I've got will carry through the antenna signal??

If I could find some earphones with a 3.5mm plug that could act as an antenna (the Lobster manual says it's a Band III antenna but not sure if it's actually any different from normal antenna earphones?) then I'm still fairly confident it would work.

So does anyone know where I can get some earphones OR an antenna cable (I'd cut the buds off the earphones anyway!) with a 3.5mm plug? The usual places I'd look for earphones don't list whether they have an antenna built in.

An alternative, less elegant solution is to get another adapter (3.5mm-->2.5mm) to plug back in the original earphones, but the length of the adaptors will be approaching the length of the phone!

Or am I just wasting my time here?

 

[Churnobyl]

illegal to listen to headphones in a car,who told you this,i do it regularly in my rover and on my motorbike,i even saw headrest speakers on sale in the states a few years back.

 

[figrin_dan]

illegal to listen to headphones in a car.

Illegal to use a mobile device in the car.

 

[wassap]

This is exactly the same setup I'm trying to achieve with a Virgin Lobster phone I've just got.

The DAB radio in it is excellent with the supplied earphones, but it has a 2.5mm plug for them. My aim is to plug in both something that will act as the aerial (the supplied earphones if necessary) and the FM transmitter, which has a 3.5mm plug.

So far I've bought a 2.5mm-->3.5mm adapter and a 3.5mm splitter which lets me plug in the transmitter, and then my idea was to use some other earphones with a 3.5mm plug as the antenna. However of the 4 pairs I've tried, only the one that came with my wife's phone (which has FM not DAB) worked but the wire was too short to get a good signal. I'm assuming that the adapters/splitters I've got will carry through the antenna signal??

If I could find some earphones with a 3.5mm plug that could act as an antenna (the Lobster manual says it's a Band III antenna but not sure if it's actually any different from normal antenna earphones?) then I'm still fairly confident it would work.

So does anyone know where I can get some earphones OR an antenna cable (I'd cut the buds off the earphones anyway!) with a 3.5mm plug? The usual places I'd look for earphones don't list whether they have an antenna built in.

An alternative, less elegant solution is to get another adapter (3.5mm-->2.5mm) to plug back in the original earphones, but the length of the adaptors will be approaching the length of the phone!

Or am I just wasting my time here?

Its a funny connector on the phone, the aerial isnt in the 2.5mm plug, but on the collar on the outside of the 2.5mm plug.

I ended up soldering a 3.5mm socket onto the cable, i basically removed the headphones from the volume control knob thing in the middle of the cable and soldered a socket onto that, jobs a good un!

Reception was great in the car too.

 

[jaydee999]

illegal to listen to headphones in a car,who told you this,i do it regularly in my rover and on my motorbike,i even saw headrest speakers on sale in the states a few years back.

Just be glad that you don't live in the USA then, since in many states is IS illegal to drive whilst wearing headphones. I'm also pretty sure a copper would take a pretty dim view of anyone doing it here in the UK. It is currently not a specific offence to ride a bike or even drive a car while wearing headphones, although police have prosecuted in cases where they believed an accident was caused by listening to a music player. You will also find plenty of websites advising you not to carry out this activity.