T6 Aerials, GPS, DAB, FM/AM, GSM - How I Did It -
Taken from a recent thread about poor DAB reception on the head units, and an attempt to help out a fellow member . . . . . . i though id post this here.
All the antennas for the T6 are located in the side wing mirrors.
The left contains:
Aerial connection, Telephone aerial, Radio aerial, inside - passenger side exterior mirror
The right contains.
Aerial connection, GPS aerial, Radio aerial 2, Digital radio aerial, inside - Driver side exterior mirror
***********************************************************************
Now before we go any further lets get this out the way . . . . .all though the factory aerials are not the best and a roof top aerial may be better. the most common problem with RF reception is interference caused by YOUR KIT you've fitted in the van. . . . and most common of these items is the good old 12v USB charger plug. Tomtoms, satnavs, speedcam detectors, dashcams, usb chargers etc etc etc . . . . all these things can cause interference by emitting what is called RFI (radio frequency interference) & EMI (elecro magnetic interference). This effectively causes interference in the RF and power circuitry of the head unit which causes poor "signal to noise ratio" and effectively poor reception.
So the first thing to do it unplug ALL your kit, then go for another test drive. . . . . . If that cures your problem then you need to narrow down what item/items are causing the issue and replacement with a quality branded item/items.
If you still have issues or you want to replace your aerial you will find the coax connector colours further down.
*************************************************************************
Now on with the rest . . .
Basically setup is the same as the T5.1, GPS, DAB, FM,AM etc etc etc all in the side mirrors,
The antennas come with a short loom that goes though into the inner door card and then through the door loom boot to a big zipped bag in the A-pillar with all the connector blocks, which then runs off to the rear of the Head unit.
below is some VW data with some nice pictures and concepts . . . . .
. this is for the T6 specific
.
. and this is from the T5.1 . . . so as you can see, basically the same.
.
.
.
..
ohhh, . . . . . there is also a earth grounding ring that bolts to the inner steel door panel that it the earth for the antennas...... i left mine undone once which caused massive reception issues. The grounding ring is a very important part of the antenna system as it creates the "ground plane" for the antenna array.
**************************************************************
now lets look at some diagrams . . . .
the below is for the right drivers side . . . .
R183 - DAB Digital radio aerial - T1ao - Single connector, black, in right door, near exterior mirror
R50 - GPS aerial - T1al - Single connector, blue, in right door, near exterior mirror
R93 - Radio aerial 2 - T1am - Single connector, yellow, in right door, near exterior mirror
.
.
.
the below is for the left passenger side . . .
R248 - Radio aerial - T1ae - Single connector, white, in left door, near exterior mirror
R65 - GSM Telephone aerial - T1ad - Single connector, purple, in left door, near exterior mirror
If you still want to fit a roof aerial, then this is what they look like and where they are supposed to be fitted.
So all that said and done VW do an ok job with their head units and aerials. Being external from the metal box (faraday cage) of the van aids in having a better reception . . . . . but not having them high up of roof is not the ideal location . . . . . but its a compromise right . . . . . . . .
Roof antennas can get stolen, ripped of by monkeys at the zoo, torn apart but automatic car-washes and my personal hate . . . . . getting into low height car parks and overall van max height. . . . The roof aerials on my old Renault traffic van and astra van were constantly setting damaged or nicked.
so we can see why they have designed it that way . . . . . its a king of best of both worlds type thing so dont be hard on them.
The other factor is signal reception strength in you location . . . rural areas far away from the transmitting antenna may have low signal strength, or there may be large hills and valley blocking the signal path . . . . . built up areas and cities are no better. Tall buildings can block signals and cause huge reflection problems that cause the radio to loose the lock on the signal....
DAB in my opinion is way better than FM for audio quality and data side bands . . . . . but way worse than FM for reception quality and availability . . . gone are the old days of static white noise mixing in with the audio as you drove out of range of your favorite radio station.... Now modern digial DAB will just give you a bit of garbled gibberish the drop the signal competently.
Moving forward i believe even DAB and Satellite Radio will be phased out and internet radio will be the future, with ever increasing 4G coverage and WiMax on the horizon and ever increasing mobile data rates and capacity. The internet is here to stay, and fully online connected head units will be the future. VOIP calls, Live google traffic on the stanav, automatic speed reduction etc etc are all just around the corner.
Hope that answers some questions, any comments or suggestions leave them below.
.
Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread
.
Taken from a recent thread about poor DAB reception on the head units, and an attempt to help out a fellow member . . . . . . i though id post this here.
All the antennas for the T6 are located in the side wing mirrors.
The left contains:
Aerial connection, Telephone aerial, Radio aerial, inside - passenger side exterior mirror
The right contains.
Aerial connection, GPS aerial, Radio aerial 2, Digital radio aerial, inside - Driver side exterior mirror
***********************************************************************
Now before we go any further lets get this out the way . . . . .all though the factory aerials are not the best and a roof top aerial may be better. the most common problem with RF reception is interference caused by YOUR KIT you've fitted in the van. . . . and most common of these items is the good old 12v USB charger plug. Tomtoms, satnavs, speedcam detectors, dashcams, usb chargers etc etc etc . . . . all these things can cause interference by emitting what is called RFI (radio frequency interference) & EMI (elecro magnetic interference). This effectively causes interference in the RF and power circuitry of the head unit which causes poor "signal to noise ratio" and effectively poor reception.
So the first thing to do it unplug ALL your kit, then go for another test drive. . . . . . If that cures your problem then you need to narrow down what item/items are causing the issue and replacement with a quality branded item/items.
If you still have issues or you want to replace your aerial you will find the coax connector colours further down.
*************************************************************************
Now on with the rest . . .
Basically setup is the same as the T5.1, GPS, DAB, FM,AM etc etc etc all in the side mirrors,
The antennas come with a short loom that goes though into the inner door card and then through the door loom boot to a big zipped bag in the A-pillar with all the connector blocks, which then runs off to the rear of the Head unit.
below is some VW data with some nice pictures and concepts . . . . .
. this is for the T6 specific
.
. and this is from the T5.1 . . . so as you can see, basically the same.
.
.
.
..
ohhh, . . . . . there is also a earth grounding ring that bolts to the inner steel door panel that it the earth for the antennas...... i left mine undone once which caused massive reception issues. The grounding ring is a very important part of the antenna system as it creates the "ground plane" for the antenna array.
**************************************************************
now lets look at some diagrams . . . .
the below is for the right drivers side . . . .
R183 - DAB Digital radio aerial - T1ao - Single connector, black, in right door, near exterior mirror
R50 - GPS aerial - T1al - Single connector, blue, in right door, near exterior mirror
R93 - Radio aerial 2 - T1am - Single connector, yellow, in right door, near exterior mirror
.
.
.
the below is for the left passenger side . . .
R248 - Radio aerial - T1ae - Single connector, white, in left door, near exterior mirror
R65 - GSM Telephone aerial - T1ad - Single connector, purple, in left door, near exterior mirror
If you still want to fit a roof aerial, then this is what they look like and where they are supposed to be fitted.
So all that said and done VW do an ok job with their head units and aerials. Being external from the metal box (faraday cage) of the van aids in having a better reception . . . . . but not having them high up of roof is not the ideal location . . . . . but its a compromise right . . . . . . . .
Roof antennas can get stolen, ripped of by monkeys at the zoo, torn apart but automatic car-washes and my personal hate . . . . . getting into low height car parks and overall van max height. . . . The roof aerials on my old Renault traffic van and astra van were constantly setting damaged or nicked.
so we can see why they have designed it that way . . . . . its a king of best of both worlds type thing so dont be hard on them.
The other factor is signal reception strength in you location . . . rural areas far away from the transmitting antenna may have low signal strength, or there may be large hills and valley blocking the signal path . . . . . built up areas and cities are no better. Tall buildings can block signals and cause huge reflection problems that cause the radio to loose the lock on the signal....
DAB in my opinion is way better than FM for audio quality and data side bands . . . . . but way worse than FM for reception quality and availability . . . gone are the old days of static white noise mixing in with the audio as you drove out of range of your favorite radio station.... Now modern digial DAB will just give you a bit of garbled gibberish the drop the signal competently.
Moving forward i believe even DAB and Satellite Radio will be phased out and internet radio will be the future, with ever increasing 4G coverage and WiMax on the horizon and ever increasing mobile data rates and capacity. The internet is here to stay, and fully online connected head units will be the future. VOIP calls, Live google traffic on the stanav, automatic speed reduction etc etc are all just around the corner.
Hope that answers some questions, any comments or suggestions leave them below.
.
Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread
.
