103.2 Dublin City FM

mtjm

What is it with that station quality? was listening to it the other day and the reception was so bad at first I thought it was something to do with the car or what ever, when I listen to it on walkman or radio at home I find I have to hire it up as the quality is quite low, even in some places you can't get a reception

It’s a disgrace for a community station the reception frequency is so bad, who is funding this BAI? Should be asking for a refund if you ask me!

gavindowd

Calm the Ham, Apparently its Live Drive is great in terms of the traffic, presenter and music

Infoanon

mtjm wrote: »

What is it with that station quality? was listening to it the other day and the reception was so bad at first I thought it was something to do with the car or what ever, when I listen to it on walkman or radio at home I find I have to hire it up as the quality is quite low, even in some places you can't get a reception

It’s a disgrace for a community station the reception frequency is so bad, who is funding this BAI? Should be asking for a refund if you ask me!

The frequency 103.2 is one of the best in Dublin - afaik the tx power is 2kw and while DC FM are not coming from one of the main masts - costs prohibitive - it has a good signal across Dublin.

DCFM audio - it has an optimod but the audio is always low - but when sourced from their studios the audio is of an acceptable quality, however livedrive is from the council offices and is of much lower quality.

Who funds it - ultimately you and me ! - through various grants. LiveDrive is their flagship programme.

win2one

I'm sure 103.2 would welcome a few quid from the BAI but they only give out the licence. I'm also probably stating the obvious now but as its a community/special interest licence a big thank you from me to all the Volunteers who play Real music instead of the usual S.... thats on most of the rest

ThisRegard

I have found the signal strength has worsened over the last couple of week, my car no longer keeps it locked and goes looking for a better signal and the station name no longer gets displayed on the head unit.

Infoanon

ThisRegard wrote: »

I have found the signal strength has worsened over the last couple of week, my car no longer keeps it locked and goes looking for a better signal and the station name no longer gets displayed on the head unit.

Tuned in this evening -

RDS is not on - thats why there is no station name displaying, if you have 'AF' alternative frequency then you car radio will try and find an RDS version of Dublin City radio.

RDS turned off could be indicative of reduced power or a backup transmitter - although minimal - RDS does take some of the output power.

The station was over modulating badly - the compression release time was dreadful forcing the signal into Mono - I have come across this before where a badly tuned RDS system has been connected to the transmitter.

I didn't have a signal meter with me so I can't judge if the power was reduced but the audio issues described above would give a listener the impression of a weaker signal.

Newstalk on 103.3 (!) does cause interferance in some areas

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

Tuned in this evening -


RDS turned off could be indicative of reduced power or a backup transmitter - although minimal - RDS does take some of the output power.

The station was over modulating badly - the compression release time was dreadful forcing the signal into Mono - I have come across this before where a badly tuned RDS system has been connected to the transmitter.

It's a myth that RDS (or stereo) takes some of the output power. The power remains exactly the same. On a weaker signal the radio will simply just not decode the signal. There is no advantage in switching off the RDS.

Compression release time will not force the signal into mono. Over modulation might.

Infoanon

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

It's a myth that RDS (or stereo) takes some of the output power. The power remains exactly the same. On a weaker signal the radio will simply just not decode the signal. There is no advantage in switching off the RDS.

Compression release time will not force the signal into mono. Over modulation might.

RDS - Disagree with you on that - there is a minimal drop in power in my experience when using an RDS unit.
Stereo/Mono - depends on the type of receiver - Newstalk broadcast in Mono.
Compression release - should have explained that better - the result is longer over modulation which leads to mono - I also suspect that their stereo separation is too wide which is exaggerating the affect of the over modulation.
Dublin City used to have their own engineer - I don't know if that situation still exists or if they use an agent now.

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

RDS - Disagree with you on that - there is a minimal drop in power in my experience when using an RDS unit.
Stereo/Mono - depends on the type of receiver - Newstalk broadcast in Mono.
Compression release - should have explained that better - the result is longer over modulation which leads to mono - I also suspect that their stereo separation is too wide which is exaggerating the affect of the over modulation.
Dublin City used to have their own engineer - I don't know if that situation still exists or if they use an agent now.

OK. You can disagree with me if you like
I've engineered stations for over 30 years so i have an idea what I'm talking about. There is ABSOLUTELY no difference in power output!

Regarding compression, the release time has nothing to do with over modulation.....at all!
If they're using an Optimod then the ATTACK time is likely set and cannot be adjusted. The release time can be set as required and will have NO affect on over deviation .

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

I also suspect that their stereo separation is too wide which is exaggerating the affect of the over modulation.
Dublin City used to have their own engineer - I don't know if that situation still exists or if they use an agent now.

You can't really have too wide separation. You can enhance the stereo image using an Orban 222 for instance but this is not going to force the signal into mono or increase over mod.
I can't hear the signal here so can't comment on what the problem is.

chris_d

never have a problem getting reception in the car, but it can be difficult/impossible using radios with smaller aerials in work and at home.

big fan of the station. i really enjoy live drive and i catch some great shows when im listening at irregular times.

Infoanon

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

You can't really have too wide separation. You can enhance the stereo image using an Orban 222 for instance but this is not going to force the signal into mono or increase over mod.
I can't hear the signal here so can't comment on what the problem is.

Don't know what DCFM have in their audio chain but they would not be the most flushed financially, thus if you use a basic stereo expander you have a drop off with the lower frequencies as you up the 'expansion'.

To the listener the stereo to mono affect is thus exaggerated - a lot also depends on the radio at the other end.

Infoanon

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Regarding compression, the release time has nothing to do with over modulation.....at all!
If they're using an Optimod then the ATTACK time is likely set and cannot be adjusted. The release time can be set as required and will have NO affect on over deviation .

I always thought Attack time was how quickly the agc will react to a sudden change in audio level while Release time is how long it takes the agc to get back to normal after correction - Open to correction

On DCFM the audio is taking an age to correct itself .

I listened again today and the audio was fine - jazz programme - thus two issues come to mind , recorded vs live programmes AND live drive comes from the city council offices not the DCFM studios thus is there something in that audio chain causing the problem.

As an aside - DSFM - Dublin South FM - where over modulating (again!) this afternoon

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

I always thought Attack time was how quickly the agc will react to a sudden change in audio level while Release time is how long it takes the agc to get back to normal after correction - Open to correction

On DCFM the audio is taking an age to correct itself .

I listened again today and the audio was fine - jazz programme - thus two issues come to mind , recorded vs live programmes AND live drive comes from the city council offices not the DCFM studios thus is there something in that audio chain causing the problem.

As an aside - DSFM - Dublin South FM - where over modulating (again!) this afternoon

BIB,That's correct. But it's won't (or shouldn't) have any effect on the max mod level which, unless I misread your post, was what you're inferred.

There is that issue with the link from The Civic Offices but from a personal view, the content of that program is more important and i could live with the poor audio quality unless it's got worse since i last heard it.

real rocker

mtjm wrote: »

What is it with that station quality? was listening to it the other day and the reception was so bad at first I thought it was something to do with the car or what ever, when I listen to it on walkman or radio at home I find I have to hire it up as the quality is quite low, even in some places you can't get a reception

It’s a disgrace for a community station the reception frequency is so bad, who is funding this BAI? Should be asking for a refund if you ask me!

I understand that unusual atmospherics brought in a French FM station which affected Dublin City FM and Spin reception. I understand the situation is ok again. More work being done re LiveDrive sound scenario.