DAB Radio in Waterford

space2ground1

Can anyone tell me if I should be able to pick up DAB radio stations in Waterford City at the moment?

Thanks!

allthedoyles

These guys would know the answer :

http://www.totalbroadcast.net/DAB.html

robtri

as far as I am aware there is no DAB coverage in Waterford...
they where testing a couple of years ago, but iirc they turned it off....

space2ground1

That would explain the big zero on the radio!

Trick of the Tail

The DAB trial in the south east has finished for now, maybe to restart in a couple if months.

Depends on licensing.

Of course it would be better if the BAI would pull their finger out and decide to licence DAB properly!

space2ground1

Is DAB considered to be the future of radio transmission? I went shopping for a radio and nearly all had DAB capability.

ei9go

Anyone in Waterford tried connecting a DAB radio to the old VHF TV antenna to see if there is any coverage from the Cork or other directions.

RTE2 on VHF before Saorview is close enough in frequency to DAB for the aerial to work.

smalltalk

Got a new radio with DAB on it last year and was able to tune into a couple of stations which were great ,some were just music and no waffle:)The stations disappeared around two months ago,it would be great to find out if they will be back.

danjo-xx

Answer I got to a question I asked on the Radio forum back in June.

Do not buy any DAB RADIO that does not have DAB+. If RTE launch DAB nationwide in the future it will be DAB+.

I think its truly dead in the water, someone else said FM is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Trick of the Tail

I've said before that DAB is not and should not be postulated as a replacement for FM, but as an addition to.

The UK have made that mistake, which has led to the slower-than-otherwise uptake of DAB (although it is now very popular there). Well, that and the structure of providing transmission in the UK in which one or two companies provide transmission, charging far too much for DAB).

DAB is ideal to enable smaller-budget, more niche, specialist stations to get on air. That's the way it should be pushed here.

Indeed the BAI are legally obliged to increase diversity and listener choice, but they seem to be ignoring this for fear of weakening the commercial position of their FM stations.

Which I don't think it would.

delahuntv

with mobile broadband speeds and fibre in the home, there's very little need for DAB in the future. Most if not all radio will eventually be via online. Hence probably less investment being made.

Adding DAB to a device at manufacture has little cost and is seen as a selling point, so it tends to be available on most new radio devices these days.

Hissing Sideban

ei9go wrote: »

Anyone in Waterford tried connecting a DAB radio to the old VHF TV antenna to see if there is any coverage from the Cork or other directions.

RTE2 on VHF before Saorview is close enough in frequency to DAB for the aerial to work.

Yes they work very well for DAB. We have one on the roof of our office near the Motor Mile and get Cork RTE DAB and I have one at home in Tramore( a log periodic type) that gets it as well.
I can get Cork on my car DAB radio on the copper coast road.

vinnielo

A report in http://www.dbdb.ie/q2-2014-report/ says that Cork is now on.