MW/AM Reception After Digital Switch Over

Not being a techie and I don't know if this a valid query but would AM/MW radio reception improve after the DSO seeing that the analogue TV transmitters won't be active? I realise that the powers that be won't increase their power output. I listen to BBC 5 Live on 693 and Talksport 1089 MW in the car, hence my interest. I live in Sligo by the way.

Antenna

zorro2566 wrote: »

Not being a techie and I don't know if this a valid query but would AM/MW radio reception improve after the DSO seeing that the analogue TV transmitters won't be active? I realise that the powers that be won't increase their power output. I listen to BBC 5 Live on 693 and Talksport 1089 MW in the car, hence my interest. I live in Sligo by the way.

The Analogue (or digital) TV transmitters themselves would have zero effect on MW.

However, MW/LW reception may be (indirectly) deteriorating further due to ASO on radios in homes (if not cars/outdoors) as the switchmode powersupplies used by the increasing number of TV set-top boxes required can be expected to create more interference on MW/LW on nearby receivers.

Digifriendly

On a related note ASO for UK radio has been put back. The aspirational target date of 2015 has been abandoned. Those in the know suggest it will not take place until at least 2020. As I like listening to Radio Wales/Scotland on my car radio I'm thankful for this delay as digital radios in Ireland are unlikely to pick up these channels except along the eastern seaboard.

coylemj

zorro2566 wrote: »

Not being a techie and I don't know if this a valid query but would AM/MW radio reception improve after the DSO seeing that the analogue TV transmitters won't be active? I realise that the powers that be won't increase their power output. I listen to BBC 5 Live on 693 and Talksport 1089 MW in the car, hence my interest. I live in Sligo by the way.

The only thing that potentially might (but probably won't) affect AM radio is that the VHF signals from the older transmitters will be switched off.

In your case (Sligo) that means the Truskmore transmitter will stop broadcasting RTE1 & 2 on VHF which is closer to AM than UHF (on which digital TV is broadcast) but there is a huge gap in frequencies. FM radio lies between VHF TV and AM on the spectrum so the effect on AM reception of VHF TV being switched off will be practically nil.

watty

In your case (Sligo) that means the Truskmore transmitter will stop broadcasting RTE1 & 2 B]TV[/B on VHF which is closer to AM than UHF (on which digital TV is broadcast) but there is a huge gap in frequencies. FM radio lies between VHF TV and AM on the spectrum so the effect on AM reception of VHF TV being switched off will be practically nil.

Absolutely nil

In practice no-one anywhere has any plan to turn off VHF-FM Analogue. Some LW & MW (particularly MW in Ireland and Austria) has been turned off simply to save money as it was claimed VHF-FM Duplicate services give enough coverage. Nothing whatsoever to do with any ASO. Even Digital Radio is very little support out side UK, and to bolster UK figures they count DAB radios even if used only for VHF-FM, Internet listening and even Radio via DTT and Satellite is added to the count to make DAB look better. DAB has been crippled by Greed in UK. Too many channels per mux and not enough Transmitters to try and keep the transmission costs down, which mysteriously still manage to be higher than FM. Add also 4 to 16 hours DAB radio battery life compared to 200+ on an Analogue (AM and/or FM) Radio. Instant Analogue preset station change compared to up to 2s or more on DAB!

ASO is PURELY about TV, the aim being to make some money selling of part of the UHF spectrum to Mobile Operators. It's the first time in 90 years of public broadcasting that Spectrum has been taken from Broadcasters purely to give Treasuries almost only a once off income. The Scheme was hatched over 15 years ago when Digital TV was seen as a Single Definition only replacement of Analogue. With HD, 3D (really Stereoscopic TV), ultra HD, and some day real 3D and also demand for more channels the idea of reducing spectrum for TV is daft.

Also it turns out that Mobile needs 500x more capacity to cope with data use. The Cell sizes on the 800MHz "digital dividend" band are too large due to low frequency and data capacity too poor to give any more than 3G/HSPA+ does today. What LTE/4G mobile for data needs is much smaller cells (= more overall capacity) and bigger spectrum so only the 1800MHz to 2600MHz bands are really suitable.

Of course Comreg thinks (I've been told) that TV should be 100% Satellite! No portable / transportable / mobile TV and one Solar Flare or Satellite PSU failure wipes it all out. TV by Dish only? No thanks!

The Cush

watty wrote: »

In practice no-one anywhere has any plan to turn off VHF-FM Analogue.

The Danish Authorities recently announced their plans for radio broadcasting for the next 8 years.

If 50% of radio listening is digital by mid-2018 they will consider shutting down FM radio by the end of 2019.

watty

That's similar "money saving*" wishful thinking to the UK.

(* It's an apparent but not actually really significant svaving)