DAB reception Rav4 Plug In Hybrid

[Houndcatcher]

In the last few weeks I came out of my Hybrid and switched to a Plug In version.

The DAB reception is pretty grim on the less mainstream stations. I often listen to Radio X or Planet Rock and they are dropping in and out every few hundred yards in my local area(Worthing, West Sussex)

The old one was fine with just the odd dipp in known places. Is this a common issue and should I have a moan? realistically it's unusable for what I listen to!!

[Paul john]

Have you looked at the settings and enable “alt frequency”

[Nick72]

18 minutes ago, Houndcatcher said:

In the last few weeks I came out of my Hybrid and switched to a Plug In version.

The DAB reception is pretty grim on the less mainstream stations. I often listen to Radio X or Planet Rock and they are dropping in and out every few hundred yards in my local area(Worthing, West Sussex)

The old one was fine with just the odd dipp in known places. Is this a common issue and should I have a moan? realistically it's unusable for what I listen to!!

I occasionally listen to DAB stations when not listening to YouTube music or audio books. When I do use DAB I found reception pretty good. But am mainly listening to BBC stations. I have listened to some others and not had an issue. I drive up and down the country several times a month. I was in West Sussex recently but didn't use DAB at the time. Shame, could have tested it. 

Null spots are however quite common. But with FM and AM it would just go fuzzy. But DAB being digital once the signal is below a particular threshold the error detection and correction they probably use is no longer good enough. So you just get complete drop outs. There's no graceful degradation of failure. Can also be caused by interference. Maybe someone is transmitting?

Lots of potential reasons and they can change over time.

If you took it to the dealer I'd expect them  to check impedance and other factors between the antenna and the radio unit. To see if there's a dodgy connection. But I'm not sure they have the know how. That probably means a bit of diagnosis yourself.

Several years back I bought a signal strength meter for the digital TV broadcast. Our telly kept freezing. And the audio was dropping out. I checked a website which said what the signal strength should be for that area and behold my TV aerial was down by many dB. Turned out to be a dodgy coaxial cable which I replaced. 

Amateur sleuthing required? Should be DAB signal strength meters with an antenna available on Amazon so it may be worth driving your route to see if the signal strength drops low when your DAB drops out. 

[Nick72]

14 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Have you looked at the settings and enable “alt frequency”

Oh, what's that for? Not spotted that 

[Paul john]

6 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

Oh, what's that for? Not spotted that 

Some times when traveling between broadcast zones the Dab station has to switch frequency

in old skool term for fm bbc radio one had a frequency range that covered the whole country. 
dab is the same for certain stations and Radio X may be the same. 

try it and let us know if it helped. 

[Houndcatcher]

58 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Have you looked at the settings and enable “alt frequency”

It's already enabled but seems a bit pointless as it's in the FM settings?

Just tested it via Android Auto on a similar route and it is 99% solid so it's definitely the cars reception is rubbish 🙄

[Paul john]

7 minutes ago, Houndcatcher said:

It's already enabled but seems a bit pointless as it's in the FM settings?

Just tested it via Android Auto on a similar route and it is 99% solid so it's definitely the cars reception is rubbish 🙄

Sorry you are looking in the wrong place. 
here is the dab setting page 

 

[Houndcatcher]

7 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Sorry you are looking in the wrong place. 
here is the dab setting page 

 

My bad! Just found that but it is also enabled!

[Paul john]

17 minutes ago, Houndcatcher said:

My bad! Just found that but it is also enabled!

Bother… i thought that may help

[Devon Aygo]

A known issue with RAV4 PHEV;

Also Dash cam installation can have a significant effect on DAB reception adding ferrite cores to the camera ( front & rear if fitted ) power supplies can help.

[Flatcoat]

I have similar problems with my DAB too. Never a problem in previous cars….. dealer simply not interested and claims it is a design or signal fault so cannot be resolved. 

[nlee]

11 hours ago, Paul john said:

Sorry you are looking in the wrong place. 
here is the dab setting page 

 

I was under the impression that DAB alternative frequency was to allow the station to switch to the FM broadcast when the DAB signal dropped. If that's the case, then it's fine for the stations that also broadcast on FM but not so much for those that don't like 5-Live. 

[Paul john]

30 minutes ago, nlee said:

I was under the impression that DAB alternative frequency was to allow the station to switch to the FM broadcast when the DAB signal dropped. If that's the case, then it's fine for the stations that also broadcast on FM but not so much for those that don't like 5-Live. 

OP was talking about Radio X which does have an FM presence. 

[nlee]

5 minutes ago, Paul john said:

OP was talking about Radio X which does have an FM presence. 

Apologies I didn't realise either Planet Rock or Radio X were on FM, they certainly aren't in my part of the country.

[jamiem1987]

Get the recall done as posted above, had mine done at the last service,  no issues now.

[Houndcatcher]

15 hours ago, Devon Aygo said:

A known issue with RAV4 PHEV;

Also Dash cam installation can have a significant effect on DAB reception adding ferrite cores to the camera ( front & rear if fitted ) power supplies can help.

I will look into this. Thanks very much!

[philip42h]

6 hours ago, nlee said:

I was under the impression that DAB alternative frequency was to allow the station to switch to the FM broadcast when the DAB signal dropped. If that's the case ... 

That's not the case ...

DAB broadcasts have a relatively short range. When travelling any significant distance the receiver will need to hop from one transmitter to the next to continue receiving the programme. The Alternative Frequency is set On by default to allow this to happen (which is what we want).

If one is making a short, local journey in an area with poor reception there is a risk that the system will repeatedly swap between two poor signals. Under such circumstances it may be preferable to stick with just one by switching Alternative Frequency to Off. (And then, next time you make a longer journey you will want to switch it back On to save yourself having to repeated retune to stay with the programme you are listening to.)

It does not switch between DAB and FM reception.

[Nick72]

22 hours ago, Devon Aygo said:

A known issue with RAV4 PHEV;

Also Dash cam installation can have a significant effect on DAB reception adding ferrite cores to the camera ( front & rear if fitted ) power supplies can help.

That will be it. Lack of electronic noise filtering.

[nlee]

19 hours ago, philip42h said:

It does not switch between DAB and FM reception.

I presume you mean the setting doesn't control switching between DAB and FM rather than it doesn't do it at all, because it definitely does on mine. It does it regularly and a little pop up message comes up to indicate it has (probably because travelling through mid-Wales the DAB signal is patchy)

[philip42h]

48 minutes ago, nlee said:

I presume you mean the setting doesn't control switching between DAB and FM rather than it doesn't do it at all, because it definitely does on mine. It does it regularly and a little pop up message comes up to indicate it has (probably because travelling through mid-Wales the DAB signal is patchy)

No, I meant that it doesn't do it at all ... and it sounds as though I may well be wrong ... 😉
Which stations do this for you?

Describing DAB as 'patchy' in mid-Wales is very generous! 😄

[nlee]

8 hours ago, philip42h said:

No, I meant that it doesn't do it at all ... and it sounds as though I may well be wrong ... 😉
Which stations do this for you?

Describing DAB as 'patchy' in mid-Wales is very generous! 😄

Usually Radio 2.