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DAB+ in the car: The winner of our competition drives in

29.11.2017

Translation: machine translated

Roger Wiesli has won the digitec competition. His VW Beetle is now equipped with the future of radio - DAB+. We were there when it was installed.

The blue VW Beetle, built in 2013, rolls into Sandro Angeloni's garage. The owner of Exclusiv Car Hifi in Hallwil, Aargau, is installing a DAB+ receiver in the Beetle. Because its owner, Roger Wiesli, has won the digitec competition. Not only does he get the receiver for free, but also the installation by a specialist.

There are a few things to consider during installation. "Many people don't fully realise all the vehicle components that are installed behind the dashboard," says Sandro. The trained car electrician, who now owns his own garage specialising in mobile entertainment systems, and one of his employees, Besmir Lokaj, take a look inside the vehicle, which has been slightly modified by its owner.

Car adapter

Pure Highway 600

A model of a classic Beetle is installed in the centre console. Fixed so as not to jeopardise driving safety. More striking, however, are the numbers on the rear seat windows. 42: "A little nod to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'," says Roger. He can't help but grin, because Douglas Adams' work, which contains important life lessons like an instruction manual for flying - you have to fall over but miss the ground - is one of his favourite reads.

Before installation: The Pure receiver is small and unobtrusive

However, he did not venture inside the vehicle. For good reason. Sandro explains: "There is very little space behind the centre console and the glove compartment that is not occupied in some way". This makes laying cables difficult and often a matter of skill. Because some things don't work at all. "For example, laying a cable in front of the airbag is dangerous". The other systems in the vehicle should also not be impaired in their function. Sandro and Besmir therefore take a closer look at the vehicle and discuss the smartest cable duct. Because the task ahead of them is somewhat complex.

Where the cables have to go

At the end of the work inside the Beetle, an antenna must be glued to the windscreen on the passenger side and the control unit of a Pure Highway 600 must be easily accessible from the driver's seat. At Roger's request, the control unit is mounted in front of the compartment by the gear stick. Roger is certain that there must be sweets in the compartment itself. "My father already had sweets in the centre console. I've known that since I was a child," he says.

So the path of the cable is clear: from the aerial on the right-hand side of the car to the centre console. But the two car hi-fi specialists are ambitious. "Just letting cables hang around is easy, but we do it in such a way that the installation is as invisible as possible," says Sandro.

The first panelling is removed. Then everything happens very quickly. Plastic parts are dismantled, cables are lashed down. Through behind the airbag, down behind the console and out of the centre console. The cable for the AUX input of the radio is routed behind the centre console so that the cable itself is only visible for a few centimetres.

Music from Winterthur in Aargau

After the installation, Roger takes a seat in his vehicle, which he drives to the office every day. He is one of the more than 80 per cent of people in German-speaking Switzerland who listen to the radio every day. Be it in the office, on the building site, at home or, like Roger, in the car. Even if the technology seems outdated and the music concept of some stations can be criticised more than enough, it is impossible to imagine Swiss society without radio. If only to get worked up about said music programme - Anastacia again?

With DAB+, he now has a larger and more extensive selection of stations. "I like Top Two," he says. The station, which has its studios in Winterthur, is not a Swiss favourite like SRF3. But, says Roger, it plays good music. Music from the 1980s. "Music from my generation," he says.

With the switch to DAB+, the smaller stations will be available in more areas, depending on the layer. "A layer is a broadcasting area in which the stations are broadcast," says Sandro. However, there is no better or worse reception in a layer, he adds. "You either receive the station or you don't." Noise is therefore a thing of the past. The major stations in Switzerland, including SRF1, are available in each of the five SRF layers in Switzerland, but a small radio station can, for example, obtain a licence for the layers of all major cities, but leave out the rural areas where few listeners live. It is therefore at least theoretically possible that micro-stations - provided they can raise enough funds for the licence - such as the Zurich alternative radio station GDS.fm can also be heard in Geneva or Chur.

Even better: instead of a narrow FM frequency band, radio diversity can be increased under DAB+. According to Sandro, around 130 radio stations can be received on the DAB+ network in Switzerland, and the trend is rising. This is because FM will come to an end in 2024. The ageing technology will then be retired. A partial exit from the FM business is expected in 2019. Radio Energy has already announced the withdrawal of all three of its stations from the FM network.

In addition to radio, the Pure DAB+ receiver can also stream music from a mobile

Shortly after midday, the job is done. The Beetle looks like it did when it entered the garage. Except that there is an aerial on the windscreen and a small digital display lights up next to the gear stick. Top Two sounds from the loudspeakers. Disco Inferno by The Trammps echoes through the hall.

Last instructions before the journey home. Besmir Lokaj explains his new device to Roger Wiesli

Time for the journey home
.

One week later

A week after the installation, the editorial team receives an email. Roger Wiesli's name is the sender. Is something wrong? Has his recipient been harmed? No, quite the opposite. Roger describes his experience to us.

"The reception is really good. With the exception of tunnels or subways, I have practically seamless reception," he writes. Although the receiver can only save 20 channels, he doesn't think that's a problem: "I only listen to DAB special stations anyway." Even though the Pure Highway can only save 20 stations as favourites, up to 100 stations can be received simultaneously in Switzerland. However, if all the stations in all the layers are added together, there are still more than 100.

The Pure Highway 600 can also stream music to the car's audio system via Spotify. This didn't work straight away during the demo in the Hallwil installation workshop. Tinkerer Roger has since found out why it didn't work. The function is not available to non-premium Spotify users. "Now I have a reason to switch to the paid version. My sons have been pestering me about it for a long time..."

The aerial is already coming off again. Roger seeks advice

However, he gives the aerial poor marks: "It's already starting to come loose," he writes. He is now looking for a solution to reattach the antenna. Because the aerial is the only real negative point in the whole DAB+ story. If you have a solution for sticking a thin antenna on a transparent film to a windscreen, let us know in the comments.

Sandro read the text before publication, of course. His first thought: "During filming, we stuck the antenna on and took it off again several times. It could be that the adhesive has lost its strength". His solution: replace the aerial film and that's it.

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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