Hi

Interested to red this thread as I too took ages looking into my options. I went with the dabonwheels option. They allow you to try stuff first, and in the end I bought a little clarity adaptor which plugs into aux in my armrest. I experimented with aerials, and found glass mount rubbish. Magnetic worked best but as you say looks crap. But...... I had an ingenious plan :-) I put it on the tailgate and bought the 5m version of aerial cable. It now tucks into the rear window edge up to top of tailgate and enters the car then tucks neatly down the side of rear seats, under the footmat and into the armrest :-)

Works.perfectly and is unobtrusive. It's also versatile if I drive a works car, just untuck the cable and transfer everything to new car. I love it now as I can listen to 6 music whenever I'm in the car. Bliss :-D

The VW and equivalent Skoda units are exactly the same shape and size and all the plugs and connections are the same making fitting very easy and all extras like MDI, reversing sensors should just work. Running the aerial for the DAB is the hard bit but you will have to do this with any DAB

Am considering this again, could you (or anyone who reads this) give a bit more detail about what's involved with the fitting of the DAB aerial?

Ta.

There are lots of different types of aerial available:

Roof mounted: You need to remove your current aerial and replace it with a model with the necessary connections. Wire in a power supply if required (model dependant). Expensive and the most work to install as long cable runs, removing the headliner and lots of trim involved.

Magnetic: An additional aerial mast held on by a magnet -like minicabs use. The cable will have to enter the car through the edge of the tailgate or round a door.

Glass mounted: Several types of these. Internal are contained inside the car like mine and External have a mast on the outside which lines up with the stuff on the inside.

If you look here you will see the different types of aerial available and most of them have a link for the fitting instructions so that you can see how feasible it would be for you to fit.

As an example here is the instructions for mine. I had to remove the A pillar trim from my car and the side panel from the dashboard in order to run the cable and also join the grounding plane on to the metal work -on my aerial this is a self adhesive metal foil (referred to as earth sheet in instructions). Mine took about 30 minutes to do

There are lots of different types of aerial available:

Roof mounted: You need to remove your current aerial and replace it with a model with the necessary connections. Wire in a power supply if required (model dependant). Expensive and the most work to install as long cable runs, removing the headliner and lots of trim involved.

Magnetic: An additional aerial mast held on by a magnet -like minicabs use. The cable will have to enter the car through the edge of the tailgate or round a door.

Glass mounted: Several types of these. Internal are contained inside the car like mine and External have a mast on the outside which lines up with the stuff on the inside.

If you look here you will see the different types of aerial available and most of them have a link for the fitting instructions so that you can see how feasible it would be for you to fit.

As an example here is the instructions for mine. I had to remove the A pillar trim from my car and the side panel from the dashboard in order to run the cable and also join the grounding plane on to the metal work -on my aerial this is a self adhesive metal foil (referred to as earth sheet in instructions). Mine took about 30 minutes to do

Thanks Greenstripe that's really useful. Do you happen to have any pics of your one on the car?

Brilliant, thanks.

Welcome.

Fairly rubbish mobile shots while I was waiting for fuel -hope you get the general idea.

Well the best I can give is a through glass mount. You don't have to pay big bucks to get a decent one either. My first one was an old panorama mobile phone unit, all I did was replaced the whip with one cut to length.........DAB is on 209 MHz - 229 MHz so if you calculate at a mean frequency of 220 MHz Then go here and input 220 MHz and choose either a quarter wave or half wave length. That will make the the antenna resonant at the desired frequency. Another improvement is an in-line amp, 'close to the antenna end' so all you do is amp the strongest part of the signal, instead of the weakest part at the radio end.

Easy when you know how :p

Just a bump,

Have you guys found that the aerials are working ok?

Thinking of installing a DAB box of tricks, but not sure witch way to go on the arial side of things, are the stick on ones any good?

I too would be interested in the findings.

 

First thing I fitted to the LT a couple of years ago was DAB, but since I had ripped out the interior putting a proper aerial above the cab was not a problem. I am not sure I want to start undoing headlining, but not having 6Music is killing me.

Some useful info here regarding DAB aerials. You dont have to drop the headlining although it makes it easier.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/339985-dab-ariels/#entry4103879

I fitted a Pionner 3500DAB at the weekend, and bought a pioneer dab aerial of the 'bay  

 

This aerial is stuck on the inside of the windscreen

 

Is working fine.  I used to have a Kenwood 4551u stereo and used their version of this aerial (virtually the same thing!) and again these work fine. Halfords also sell their version too!

 

http://www.roadradio.com/Pioneer/CA-AN-DAB.001/

 

http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-audio/car-audio/dab-radios-car-stereos/autoleads-dab-film-antenna-smb-dab-aa1

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/kenwood-dab-a1-in-car-digital-radio-glass-mount-antenna-n21kf

Just noticed you have an auto dimming mirror, nice retrofit that!

Hi everyone is just bought a a Skoda Octavia VRS 2011 but It doesn't have DAB radio. I,m wondering if any can tell me if This VW headset will fit? The models is a 5K7035200E. Any help would be greatly appreciated 

I have a pioneer 3500 dab unit using just an internal glass mount aerial and reception is fab,just make sure when fitting it its earthed properly to the 'a' post

Reception was a bit patchy for me in my area with the stick on glass aerial. I got an external through glass aerial which is top centre of the windscreen behind the rear view mirror. Looks fine actually. Reception is much better with the external aerial. 

 

This one:

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_DEGA-4001_glass_mount_DAB_car_aerial.html

Edited 10 February, 20179 yr by paddypaws

I fitted a Columbus dab unit and genuine dab vag roof aerial.

all works great.

Edited 10 February, 20179 yr by tubbytommy

On 07/02/2017 at 18:19, Peagre said:

Hi everyone is just bought a a Skoda Octavia VRS 2011 but It doesn't have DAB radio. I,m wondering if any can tell me if This VW headset will fit? The models is a 5K7035200E. Any help would be greatly appreciated 

No

On 07/02/2017 at 18:19, Peagre said:

Hi everyone is just bought a a Skoda Octavia VRS 2011 but It doesn't have DAB radio. I,m wondering if any can tell me if This VW headset will fit? The models is a 5K7035200E. Any help would be greatly appreciated 

 

 

It'll fit physically, but it won't work. First thing it'll do is flag up Component Protection Activated on the screen and mute the sound. If you go through Skoda main dealers to ask them if they can code the unit to your car they'll generally decline.