Hi all,

 

The DAB on the RNS315 Amundsen Plus system in my 2015 Rapid Spaceback doesn't work; it scans but does not find any stations. I noticed this when I test drove the vehicle before purchase and I asked the garage (which was not a Skoda dealer) to look at it, which to be fair they did, and their auto 'trician replaced the roof antenna which did not fix the issue and in the end their opinion was that the head unit was probably faulty. As everything else about the car was perfect and me not being a huge fan of DAB anyway, we haggled over it and I bought the car knowing it had the problem. That was over a year ago, since when I've done less that 1000 miles because of the covid pandemic.

 

Anyhow, I've just had a go at trying to troubleshoot the problem a bit more and I noticed that if you press and hold Setup to access the hidden service menu, both the FM Monitor and AM Monitor functions display Ant 1 ON but the DAB Monitor shows Ant 1 OFF. 

 

Can anyone give me a steer as to what this could mean? Does it mean the antenna is disconnected, or the power to it is turned off? If so, is this a setting that can be changed by someone with VCDS?

 

I have a background in radio and electronics but from 30 years ago; I'm a bit reluctant to start pulling things to pieces, unless I know exactly what I am doing!

 

If it helps, the system shows the following data:

Part No. 5JA035912M

Software version: 0500

System Hardware Version H80

 

Many thanks for taking the time to read this

Alan

 

Alan, did you solve your issue? I don’t have a service menu so can’t see antenna status but would bet the dab aerial is an issue but I can’t confirm which aerial is for DAB. 

One simple but maybe wasteful way to rule out or in, the aerial or its lead or aerial amplifier would be to buy a simple DAB screen aerial and plug it in instead of the car's one.  I did this when I retro fitted a DAB radio to a car without DAB, the aerial I bought was from Halfords for easy access to, I did not plug in the 12V supply and just "hung" the aerial over the passenger's seat back, I am not in a good DAB reception area and that worked very well for me to prove this used DAB radio was working and I then got the CP removed and set about buying in a suitable Fakra cable and eventually a used DAB aerial amplifier..

Hi kjb400 and rum4mo,

 

Thanks for getting back to me guys, much appreciated. 

 

No I haven't solved the problem - yet! I haven't had the unit out yet to look at the connections on the back and try to identify which of the connections is which. It's going to happen at some point! 

 

To access the service menu btw you have to press and hold the setup button for quite a while, about 10 seconds, You then get a menu like Versions, AM Monitor, FM monitor, DAB Monitor and it's the latter option that that gives me the message that the antenna is off. I don't pretend to know what that means - I'm clutching at straws a bit that even a setting, and run4mo you may well be right that it means the antenna faulty or the wrong one. Maybe it just needs a 12 volt supply...  

 

The only other option is the garage that services the car for me recommended a guy who is a mobile auto electrician who they say is very reasonably priced and would probably have the software or be able to check it out for me. 

 

Thanks again,

 

Alan

Hi Alan, I must have a different model because I don't get that menu only the version/ firmware options. 

 

I am going to pull it out next week and ohm out all the antenna wires. Then if it seems the dab wire is indeed to the roof antenna I will replace it with an amplified shark fin.

@kjb400I'd be interested to hear how you get on. I've just read on a different forum that the roof antenna might not actually contain the DAB bit - on some cars they are in the mirror or the rear screen. So the garage I bought the car from may have replaced the wrong bit! 

 

Alan

There was a comment on this (Fabia Mk iii) forum  by @FabiaGonzaleswhich may help - topic 470966:

 

Posted 30 August, 2019

 

"The DAB aerial seems to be the roof mounted thing.

 

I say this as i recently went through a car-wash and forgot to re-attach the aerial, i had rubbish signal the entire journey home!"

I have tested the cables from the head unit to the antenna and confirmed they are good and there is 12 volts available. The antenna is a 6R0035501A with two fakra cables from it one for FM and one for DAB. I can only assume the aerial is an active type and has failed. In order to not have to run wires all the way to the front or cut and make up new connectors which I don't have the tools for, I just order the 6R0035501D shark fin. I will fit this when it comes in (within 2 weeks) and will post back the results.

 

I received the new aerial and fitted and DAB working brilliantly. Or at least as good as it ever has. So the old antenna was bad probably water ingress. I will open it and take a look. Since I now have a GPS on the shark fin I may run a new cable to the front for that but not any time soon.