# Fiat Ducato radio aerial



## teal

I know this has come up several times but have not seen answer to how you get at it to find whats wrong.We have a Autotrail Cheyyene 634L 2001 and find the reception is bad ie at times i can only get BBC2 radio4 BBC1 and our local one. Today i took the radio out to see whether it is the Fiat one causing the problem by connecting with an old extending aerial which worked fine.So has anyone found how to get into the mirror where they say it is(if it is there)?.


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## DTPCHEMICALS

Best option is to fit a wing mounted ariel.
You may smash the glass removing it from the passenger side window.
We have a brilliant radio/cd/dvd player but reception on radio is cr4p


Dave p


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## gm6vxb

Perhaps not relevent to a 2001 Fiat, but our 2007 Fiat engine management system is very noisy. Radio is nearly useless unless the transmitter is fairly close by.
Did some EMC checks using a spectrum analyser and there is broadband noise from around 35MHz to just over 600MHz, FM radio is in the range 88 to 108MHz.
Also I have a mobile phone charger which gets upset if I switch on the engine then switch off. The charge light pulses for about five minutes after the engine is switched off. Again checking on the Spectrum analyser the noise is quite high until something within the system goes into 'sleep' mode.
Did think about trying to suppress the interference but it is unfortunately too easy to get it wrong. New engine management systems cost a lot !.
Have tried several antennas but no great improvement, so it's back to listening to CD's.

Martin.


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## GerryD

A 2001 Ducato does not have a mirror mounted aerial. It is fitted to some but certainly not all 2007-on Ducatos.
If you cannot see an external aerial then you do not have one.
It is quite common for converters to not fit an aerial as the vehicle was delivered to them with a roof aerial mounted and this will have been removed when the new body was fitted. It seems that no-one ever told them that if you remove an aerial then you must fit an alternative.
Gerry


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## Coulstock

On my 2004 Ducato ,the radio is also crap - the radio aerial is at the top of the windscreen - see below

Harry


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## teal

GerryD said:


> A 2001 Ducato does not have a mirror mounted aerial. It is fitted to some but certainly not all 2007-on Ducatos.
> If you cannot see an external aerial then you do not have one.
> It is quite common for converters to not fit an aerial as the vehicle was delivered to them with a roof aerial mounted and this will have been removed when the new body was fitted. It seems that no-one ever told them that if you remove an aerial then you must fit an alternative.
> Gerry


Hi , strange that as it had a old radio cassette when i bought it but changed to this one with bluetooth etc and cannot find the stations. As for the aerial , as you say it must be attached somewhere in that corner so i thought it might have been in the mirror . Anyway thanks.


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## ed786

When we bought our new M/H in 2006 (2005 model Ducato) the radio reception was terrible. As it was new I took it to the Fiat agent and it was pointed out to me that all the vans parked up at the garage had wing-mounted aerials and I was told that the mirror-mounted aerial would be the problem. I had a wing-mounted aerial fitted (paid for by the supplier of our Rapido) and the radio was immediately OK.

Ed


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## BLF

I had the same prolem but after seeing an earlier post I purchased a Blaupunkt tax disc type AM/FM aerial with booster for £34.99 plus postage. This fits on the windscreen and is hardly noticable. So far I have only tested it locally but I am picking up a lot more stations that I couldn't before. The test will come this weekend when I head south. Heres hoping!


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## brens

Our 2008 fiat did not have an aerial connected,we were told reception is often bad due to the body work of the van!

We then invested in a sony digital radio and a windscreen stuck on aerial,this was also rubbish.

My Mum then gave us a little wind up trannie that she won in a raffle,works brilliant on site,hangs from the heki catch....simples.


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## duxdeluxe

My standard radio in my 2006 Fiat was rubbish. It picked up the stations, but the radio was unbelievably bad....... 

First step to sound improvement is to fit some decent speakers. Did this and at the same time found a Pioneer radio which looked Ok. Fitted this as well and it was all still bad - unless sat stationary in a traffic queue.

This I suppose is the point - the best radio in the world cannot compensate for the accoustics of a noisy, drafty, builders van; which is why I would guess that they fit the cheapest possible kit. Still my nice Pioneer radio/MP3 sounds really good on site! Just don't bother with it en-route unless the volume is cranked up really loud.

P.S. No idea where the aerial is - but there is one connected and yes it does make a big difference


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## Bagshanty

*Radio - new aerial and fix the 1 hour limit*

On the basis of BLF's post above, I also purchased a Blaupunkt tax disc aerial, and spent the afternoon fitting it. The instructions are entirely pictorial, and confusing, but eventually I sussed it out, and it works fine - many more stations than I could get before, even BBC Wales. I did need to get an aerial adapter as the Blaupunkt aerial was different to the Blaupunkt radio

I had some concern about where to connect the 12v supply for the aerial booster - the spec says it's 100mA, enough to drain the battery over a week or 2, but after some searching on the web found the pin outs for the radio, which showed a 12 v aerial output.

At the same time I connected the permanently on 12v feed to the radio to the ignition fed connector, so now we can have the radio on for more than the one hour Blaupunkt allowed us, and have decent reception. That's something I've been meaning to do in the 4 years I've had the van.

Meanwhile, I've been loading talking books onto my new Ipod - ideal for the autobahn


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## artfulldodger

I have an autotrail scout 2000, and also radio bad, it had a wing mounted aeriel (rubber duck type) so thought it would be that that would be the problem, rusty or bad earth, so bought a new one.
I removed the old one to find it was perfect no rust at all,£20.00 waisted, so fitted the new one coz i now had it, radio still the same, poor.
finnished up running a new aeriel wire from the status roof aeriel to the back of the radio and its a lot better..


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