So... the replacement aerial fitted perfectly, the square hole in the roof was a perfect fit, the old one has a flying lead off it which plugs in behind the drivers side quarter trim... 22mm socket removed the old aerial, I think it was 21mm but 22 worked!
New aerial i will find what it was, I know it was 35 quid or thereabouts and fitted a treat, the dab and fm/am leads were a good length, had maybe two feet spare
I dropped the passenger side trim out properly and then the roof lining cane down and I was above to get a socket in to undo the old aerial and popped it out once I worked where the plug was (see above) and then threaded the new leads in, I put the o ring as a seal on the bottom of the aerial base before this I should add, it kind of fits around the square lug on the base of the aerial
Once in the hole you need an assistant to press the base down, I had the lead through the middle of the nut instead of folding it over through the side of the earthing spike which is attached to the nut (I’ll take some pics so you know what I’m on about, but I fitted it while I was at work and had v. Little time
Ran cables (you need some 3-5a cable to extend the aerial power feed as although you get 5m of 2x aerial leads the turn on power is 3ft long) they got taped together and ran along the roof lining and down the a pillar to the side of the glove box, which I also removed to enable me to lose the cabling and remote interface boxes etc
It also makes it way easier to thread everything in and not trap cables behind the stereo
Interface works a treat for the steering wheel, volume, source etc all work fine
So it was a bit shakey in the workshop and kept dropping signal but as soon as I pulled it outside it was clear it was the metal clad workshop killing the signal
Fm works a treat, I suspect my old aerial base was in need of replacement so it made sense to swap to dab when I had the chance
Radio doesn’t seem quite as easy to navigate as my 8300 in my campervan, but it was thirty quid cheaper could just need to use it and play for a bit yet
Dab performance seems awesome and v.crisp, switching between r2 dab and r2 fm I can tell which is which
Fm seems decent also, can’t say I’ve had decent performance to compare it too mind previously...
Compared to the campervan it seems comparable