Upgrade to DAB Radio

[raysearles]

So this morning the standard FM got an DAB upgrade courtesy of the mobile service from CarCommunications.

The engineer took just 50 minutes to fit the unit, cable through the aerial from the back window, and then "Pair" and tune the controller to the X351 radio system.

The DAB Radio is accessed through a preset (no 6 in my case) FM channel, the controller is wireless to the radio unit and so there is no messing about, you just had to connect to a live ignition feed, which looked fairly easy.

Overall cost £230 fully installed which included an extra £50 for the optional external glass mounted aerial for better reception. I will now be able to get 5 Live Extra again, and get crystal clear Radio 2, just like I had on the XF.

Mounted the controller just below the stop start button, it has 16 presets so more than enough for my needs and as I intend to keep the car for a few years a worthwhile investment.

Here are a few pics of the key items, this unit connects to any of the modern Jaguars with from S Type onwards so would be worth considering if you felt that having DAB was a good thing as I do.

[raysearles]

No pics because this stupid bulletin board system uploaded them all then decided they contravened some mythical rules and sent them to webadmin....what a useless system this is

[raysearles]

And now the pics maybe........if the JEC web gods allow it.......

[abbirkin]

my Portfolio has DAB digital radio but seems to not receive signals most of the time, but am content with the normal FM. Can you explain to me the advantages of DAB to me please?

[raysearles]

In theory DAB should provide a clearer better signal - if you have standard DAB and it does not work there may be a problem with the aerial and if you have Warranty associated with the car I would have it looked at.

The "advantage" is the range of stations DAB offers, such as Radio5Live, 6Music, Radio4Extra, and many others so you get a wider more diverse choice of stations. If those are not of interest then you probably would not be bothered...

The government eventually wants to switch all radio stations over to Digital, and a recent newspaper article suggested the "tipping point" i.e the take up of DAB reaching the governments criteria will be the end of 2016, however this just means that from that point they can set a date for switch off the same way they did for TV signals - so we are probably still a good 5 years away from the FM services being discontinued....

[abbirkin]

Thanks Ray for the explanation. Will persevere with it. Good article in the October magazine!