Member Since: 04 May 2007
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 4317
Hybrid TV diversity antennas
I have a USB TDT (DTT?) tuner in my D3's CarPC connected to an amplified antenna in the luggage compartment next to the side window....
The truth is that it works really well, but above 30km/h the reception drops out quite a lot.
This is a common problem with digital TV 'on the move' and a recent post from Blue Meanie has got me thinking a bit...
As you can probably guess from the photo of the antena, reception is often better when travelling down a particular road compared to the same journey in the opposite direction - obviously when the transmitter is on the right hand side of the D3 the signal reception is better.
I have decided to try and go for a diversity tuner (like the Pinnacle USB Dual DVB-T) which will happily take two antenna inputs to (hopefully) give a much stronger and consistent signal.
The obvious thing would be to fit another antenna on the other side of the boot, but I'm pretty sure that the existing antennas in the side windows are partially shielding my stick-on antenna and therefore it makes sense to use these...
My question is this:
The are four TV antennas (2 on each side)...seeing that Blue Meanie has been able to solder the cables onto the pads clears that one up...
So why are there four antennas? I've never heard of a diversity system with more than two antennas and it makes sense to have one on each side of the D3, but why four?
Each antenna has a different shape/design, so I'm guessing it has something to do with frequencies....I read on here that one is for PAL, the other for SECAM, the other for NTSC, but I'm not too sure about that - ISTR it's the tuner that needs to be changed for each of these systems, not the antenna.
Which kind of leads up to the point that only two antennas will ever be used - maybe digital TV is transmitted on different frequencies in USA/Japan and they use the other antennas, whilst in Europe, we use the other two....
Does anyone have any idea about this?
Does anyone have the Hybrid TV fitted and can tell me which of the four antennas are connected (maybe even all four are connected?)....2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE AutoBuckingham Blue 2007 Golf GT DSG
17th Mar 2009 3:57 pm
Alex08
Member Since: 09 Nov 2006
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 1600
As far as I am aware, the antenna on mine is only connected on the drivers side rear window. The passenger side has a non connected solder button on the glass but no wire attached.
17th Mar 2009 7:55 pm
PaulP
Member Since: 04 May 2007
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 4317
Cheers Alex
So that would be the right-hand side rear window....but which of the two antennas? The one closest to the C pillar or the rearmost one?
Thanks for the help 2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE AutoBuckingham Blue 2007 Golf GT DSG
17th Mar 2009 9:10 pm
Alex08
Member Since: 09 Nov 2006
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 1600
Don't have the car here today - will look when I go home unless someone else wants to post.
19th Mar 2009 9:48 am
PaulP
Member Since: 04 May 2007
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 4317
Thanks again.
I'd be interested to know the antenna setup on other D3s with the hybrid TV fitted....
It would be cool to contrast different systems from UK and other parts of the world to see how it works.
I also bought the Pinnacle Dual DVB-T tuner the other day and it is excellent - ths signal has definitely improved over the one-antenna setup, but it now just needs a 'proper' pair of antennas I think.2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE AutoBuckingham Blue 2007 Golf GT DSG
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