Any circuit board/aerial experts about ?

[ColeyS1]

I bought a new pair of bluetooth and fm earmuffs to replace an old pair

They got alot of good things about them, having good fm reception isn't one of them ! My old pair had a wibbly wobbly external aerial

I was wondering if I could try fitting one to these but am a little unsure. All these have that look remotely like an aerial is a single strand of wire, solder to 'ant' on the circuit board. It then goes through something blue and insulated, then splits into two insulated wires.

If fitting an external aerial would resolve the issue, they would definitely be worth keeping. They block out so much noise compared to my old one, have a lithium ion rechargeable battery, built in bluetooth- just the crackly radio let's them down completely. Perhaps I should have just returned them, but I like a challenge :lol:

Coley

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[dickm]

Don't know much about these things, but might you be better using the Bluetooth connectivity to get a good audio feed from a "proper"FM receiver? And that way you'll also be future proof for when those thieving bar stewards turn off the FM signal so they can sell the waveband and force us to go DAB.

 

[ColeyS1]

Dickm I really appreciate your thoughts. I'm a little lubricated at the moment and probably stupidity told me German engineering would be on point. Truth be told, I'm sure these would be great in a normal workshop environment. I've found the absolute 100% perfect solution-The only issue is there 5 times the price. The faraday shed I work in can't cope without an external antenna.
Cheers
Coley

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[ColeyS1]

I've been thinking about your suggestion. I've got an old radio that has a good big aerial, so has decent reception . I could plug in an fm transmitter to that, and transmit it on the same, or spare frequency. That might be an easier option than trying to connect a new aerial.
Cheers

Coley

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[John Brown]

Use a Bluetooth transmitter, FM transmitters are fairly crappy in my experience.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5mm-Bluetoo ... SwCGVX~foq

You may find cheaper ones, I've had a couple in the past, and don't remember paying that much.

 

[woodenstx]

The problem is actually less about the anteanna and more about the ground plane.
Usuaully you'd have a nice big ground plane to make the FM work well, BUT from the looks of it, this device will have a ton of different ground planes in there, thus making it harder for the FM to do its job

What MIGHT work, is where the ant exits the ear muff, to line that with tinfoil (but not touching the ant) and ground it to the battery -ve That should help improve how the ant works and voilla.
Edit to add, dont wrap the whole ear piece in foil as the Blutooth wont work :lol:

Cant wait for FM to be closed down, and HDR to be implemented instead, but I fear thats atleast a decade away

 

[BluegillUK]

Today I learned you can get Bluetooth ear defenders!

 

[ColeyS1]

The problem is actually less about the anteanna and more about the ground plane.
Usuaully you'd have a nice big ground plane to make the FM work well, BUT from the looks of it, this device will have a ton of different ground planes in there, thus making it harder for the FM to do its job

What MIGHT work, is where the ant exits the ear muff, to line that with tinfoil (but not touching the ant) and ground it to the battery -ve That should help improve how the ant works and voilla.
Edit to add, dont wrap the whole ear piece in foil as the Blutooth wont work :lol:

Cant wait for FM to be closed down, and HDR to be implemented instead, but I fear thats atleast a decade away

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I think these are probably not worth messing about with. The good news however -

The phrase night and day springs to mind . Lesson learnt- buy a recognised brand. Hopefully these will give another 10years of service.
Cheers

Coley

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