Installing roof mount DAB aerial. Relocate original aerial for GPS?

Hi everyone,

I have ordered a roof mounted DAB aerial (Kinetic DRA-6003) to go along with the Autodab Go I have arriving and am wondering on a couple of points.

I would like to install the new DAB aerial in place of the original aerial on the roof (B7 AVANT). I am thinking this as I dont want two aerials ontop of the car. However, the original aerial I believe is also the GPS reciever for my RNSE sat nav. Could I just relocate this to somewhere inside the vehicle out of sight liek rear quater window. Would it still get a GPS signal from inside the car? I dont use the gps very often and also have a tomtom so im not overly bothered if its not fantastic.

Or could I just mount the new DAB aerial inside the vehicle. It would probably get a better signal than the film interior window aerials that are usually supplied with get you going dab kits. How woudl I provide the dab aerial with a 12v feed?

Any help on any of that is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Craig thank you for the info. I wasn't aware of a combined dab/GPS aerial that was suitable as I had a search but the ones I found stated they weren't suitable for replacing a shark fin amplified aerial. Do you happen to have a model number of one that would work or the one that you used.

Do you use it for dab radio as that is my main concern I am wanting the strongest dab reception possible. I don't mind surrendering the quality of the GPS signal if I need to. I like your idea about the GPS puck.

Very good of you to get me that thank you very much. I think I'm going to try the Aerial I have coming this week and see if there is a way to relocate the current one as it will save me returning equipment and spending a bit more. I wish I had posted this first, but I guess which ever solution I go with, I will need to run a dab cable from the front to the back of the car which may prove awkward. I will post back with updates for people's future reference once it's all completed. I may end up getting the skoda aerial if things go that way so thank you for the info on it!

It ended up working really well.

I replaced the shark fin with a roof mounted dab aerial Kinetic DRA-6003, ran the power from fusebox with an inline splice kit, up the pillar, along the driver side of the car by fitting it behind the pillars along the headliner (was very awkward, if i did it again I would go along the bottom of the car rather than the headliner).

Ran the dab aerial cable along opposite side of car in the same fashion. Again, I would recommend going along the bottom of the car. I think there was a reason why I went up but cant think as to why at the moment. Attaching the cables to a piece of coat hanger makes it a much easier task to get along the route.

I then used another in line splice to power the AutoDab unit as I didn't want it plugged into the cig lighter 24/7 as I hate wires. I ran the cable from the fuse box, behind the dash above the pedals, around the trim between the front seats, and back up between the front ash tray (had to remove it a bit to poke the wire out). I struggled to get it straight from fuse box to front ash tray for some reason.

Mounted the Autodab using a Brodit pro clip and a generic universal adapter (Herbert Richter Adapter plate - 1492) which fits perfectly.

Sounds like a lot of work but only took me around 2 hours in total. The signal is great in my area and never drops out with this Ariel compared to the window mount one it comes with. Sorry I have no images of the cables/routes at the moment.

My biggest complaint so far is the Autodab GO. I don't think its a good piece of kit after having used it up to now. Having to tune in via FM frequency is a bummer as its almost impossible to find a good dead FM frequency to use, especially if travelling distances as different areas pick up all sorts of crap across the spectrum. Would work much better using AUX but B7 has no AUX unfortunately. Picked up next top nothing in France and Spain, maybe this is the aerial but re-tuning found next to nothing. I have found if you start the car and radio, without the Autodab turned on, it wont connect to the channel you have tuned in when you do turn it on, and you have to manually search again via your car radio. Also if you retune for dab stations, it wipes your presets and saved stations. A few other niggles but to be fair it does the job it was designed to fairly well.

G10RNT said:

I understand this was a while a go, but I’m looking to do this too now.
Am I right in saying that this is a simple job of unplug the existing aerial and plugging in the new Skoda one?

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I used a different aerial, but from my experience from accessing the aerial by removing the rear interior light and bit of headlining, the cables are not attached at that end of the aeriel for disconnecting. You would need to follow the cables to I think the aerial amplifier to disconnect them.