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TDO got this request via e-mail.

Hi there I was wondering whether you have come across the autocab despatch system conflicting & interfering with car stereos?

My problem is that both my autocab & car stereo will work perfectly fine but just not together I either need to have one or the other turned on otherwise when the office send me a signal to send me a job, track where I am etc the stereo speakers send out a brief crackling sound, then after a bit my autocab will stop working, I seem to need to turn my stereo off & leave it for a while before my autocab despatch system will work again. I will more often than not just take jobs off my 2-way voice radio & leave my autocab off so I can listen to the stereo while at work, this can present another lesser problem of when I wanna speak to the office I have to turn the stereo off otherwise if I speak for 5 seconds or more the stereo will turn itself off & I'll have to reset it.
I have tried asking various people & tried various solutions but none have worked so far, as you can see I'm having alot of difficultly with my system at the moment & any advice would be helpful thanks.

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Sounds like a job for Radioman.

Sod of a job when you need to turn the stereo off to get a bit of work.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Surely the obvious answer is to ask Autocab tech' support?

Check that the power supply cabling (to the radio/data head) is short and the contacts are clean. You may need to replace the battery.

Failing that, encase the data head in aluminium foil. Although I find it hard to believe there is an EMC problem with Autocab data heads.

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Next time you wave, use all your fingers.

Hi
It seems that you have a couple of problems from what you have described:

1. RF (i.e. the signal coming out of your two way radio) interfering with your car stereo system.
2. Your car setereo system generating some sort of noise which is blocking your reception on the data channel.

Please can you answer the following:

1. What type of car is it your driving.
2. Where is the antenna located on the vehicle.
3. Is the antenna a bodymount, bootclip, magmount or window mount.
4. Do you know if your operating Low Band or Mid/High Band (your antenna would be around 38inch long with no coil at the bottom if low band, and around 16 to 17 inch long with no coil if mid/high band).
5. What type of car stereo has been fitted to the car.
6. Where is the radio fitted to the car and is it wired directly to the battery?

As for no one being able to help you, well these sort of problems do occur and can be fixed (eventually).

You can either send the reply as a personal message or better still reply on group so that others can see the suggetions/progress with your problem as they might have a similar problem or issue.

regards
RadioMan

Hi
It seems that you have a couple of problems from what you have described:

1. RF (i.e. the signal coming out of your two way radio) interfering with your car stereo system.
2. Your car setereo system generating some sort of noise which is blocking your reception on the data channel.

Please can you answer the following:

1. What type of car is it your driving.
2. Where is the antenna located on the vehicle.
3. Is the antenna a bodymount, bootclip, magmount or window mount.
4. Do you know if your operating Low Band or Mid/High Band (your antenna would be around 38inch long with no coil at the bottom if low band, and around 16 to 17 inch long with no coil if mid/high band).
5. What type of car stereo has been fitted to the car.
6. Where is the radio fitted to the car and is it wired directly to the battery?

As for no one being able to help you, well these sort of problems do occur and can be fixed (eventually).

You can either send the reply as a personal message or better still reply on group so that others can see the suggetions/progress with your problem as they might have a similar problem or issue.

regards
RadioMan

Such good advice, he said it twice.

Thanks for the replys guys, I have tried autocab tech support & they suggested maybe some junction box or it was earthed incorrectly, I think the contacts have been checked also. Other people have suggested I may need a independant power supply or rewiring, others said I could need another ariel.

I did get the lads from Halfords to refit the stereo again but that didn't work, one of the lads from the my office/garage had a look at it & tried trying the power directly from the car instead of having the car stereo linked directly to the battery as I'd asked, this didn't work but I have since learned that the stereo has 2 lives one which is a permenant live directly to the battery to keep it's memory(time & date etc) & the other is it's main power supply, which live was redirected I'm not sure about, maybe that's worth trying again.

I will try & get the answers to your questions radioman.

We have had similar problem. We have many brand new Octavias which come with their car radios pre tuned to Century FM (a local radio station). When listening to this station the Autocab data unit (new type) will not communicate with base properly. Autocab support say the frequency of the radio station is close to the one the system uses?? Anyway , no amount of changes in wiring / antenna location has sorted it, the only solution is to not listen to that radio station. It affects all new skodas (over 10) in our fleet so is not an isolated incident.