Connection of RDS-TMC aerial to car aerial

MarkMarkB · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2008 Posts: 80

I have read a couple of comments about doing this to improve TMC reception. It would also be a lot tidier. Can someone please explain exactly how to do this?

Also, would manually programming the local frequency of Classic FM (the TMC carrier I believe) speed up initial data collection, rather than leaving TomTom set to "strongest signal"?

Thanks.

mikealder · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:20 pm Post subject:

Have a look in This Thread where I detailed how to couple an RDS receiver to the car aerial, its not difficult and doesn't cost much in financial terms or time.

As for the frequency relative to your current position I have a POI file that will show you the nearest transmitter that also offers information on power output and frequency, its easy to use the device to find the correct frequency to use anywhere in England, France or Scandinavia. I will e-mail the POI file over to you later today, although the more recent Navcore versions have reduced the time the device will stay at a manually entered frequency to a very short period compared to what it used to do - Mike

MarkMarkB · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2008 Posts: 80

Mike,

thanks very much indeed for this info. Now, if I could trouble you for a bit more advice:-

1. Presumably if the car's aerial is of the electrically extending variety, one has to drive around with the radio on (to extend the aerial) in order to get an adequate RDS-TMC signal. Or is it good enough with the aerial retracted?

2. One of our cars has a permanently live lighter socket and the radio aerial built into the windsceen. Would you recommend the later USB plugged TMC aerial for this application, or will the round plugged 4V00.013 (which I already have) be just as good when attached to the radio aerial?

Thanks again,

Mark

mikealder · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 2:08 pm Post subject:

You will need the aerial extended to make use of the added performance, consider wiring the switch aerial wire (the one that drives the aerial up and down to an ignition fed supply rather than the stereo, this way the aerial will be up whenever the car is running.

I wouldn't recommend connecting to an aerial thats built in to the screen heater elements as they are sub-optimal, my V70 has such a system and its as good as useless which is why I fitted a third party aerial (Hirschmann) to the roof.

As for the type of RDS reveiver there is little to choose from between the round plug and Mini USB style, the Mini USB does offer the advantage of only a single connector to plug in to the device for each trip - Mike

MarkMarkB · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 07, 2008 Posts: 80

The aerial isn't part of the screen heater. It's a unit built into the front screen which is not heated. It works very well for the radio.

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