Self Loading Freight - Yes the antenna was connected at the time. The digital stuff does still work, just can't get anything other than static no matter what frequency it's tuned to. (not even any different pattern of static no matter what freq. which i thought was strange.)
Anyway I'm not too bothered as it was getting on a bit & I've bought a replacement now. I was just curious really as it stopped working so abruptly. It took me about 6 months actually before I connected the two events.