So, for a few months I've noticed I've not been getting the usual Traffic Announcements over the radio as I did when I first got the car.  Got the odd one or two, but in my hour commute I used to get several, from at least 3 different BBC Local Radio Stations.  

 

Strange and slightly annoying, but not enough to warrant a full scale investigation - I put it down to the change in the DAB broadcasts as we in East Anglia have lost quite a lot of DAB stations  :no:

 

BUT - I think I've found the culprit, and it's this:

 

 

This dual USB charger/converter has been sitting in the 12v socket for some while after a work colleague gave it to me, and I plug my phones in as and when to charge.  Haven't been taking it out as it fits under the phone box cover, until last week when I needed to plug a sat-nav in on a journey, and suddenly started getting TA alerts again!  Since then I've tried journeys with and without it in and there is definitely a correlation. 

 

All I can think is that either there is some electrical noise being put onto the 12v or GND lines, or it's giving some EM interference or some such which is upsetting the Swing Radio unit!  Anyone has similar, or is this just one of those odd things that happens to me...?

 

Matt

Edited 2 September, 20169 yr by MCG1975

It doesn't take much to interfere with a marginal Dab signal.

I've had similar when fitting my dash cam. I bought one of those hard-wire kits of Amazon. When I connected it to 12V in the car, DAB stopped working.

 

I'd had the same hard-wire kit in my previous Volvo and I couldn't get Radio 2 in our village - seemed to ok everywhere else, so assumed initially it was down to poor signal. When I took it out Radio 2 started working again!

 

I use a old TomTom satnav hardwire kit now, changed the cable as it had the wrong micro/mini usb plug. No interference now