UK channels now on DAB in Dublin.

10000maniacs

Maybe its just atmospheric conditions (doubtful) but tonight I got the full range of UK channels on my DAB radio with a small telescopic antanna. I am in Dublin 4.
For 4 hours I got a glimpse of what proper DAB could be if it was done right.
Putting RTE in charge of the broadcast medium for DAB & Saorview has in my opinion not been good for digital radio in this country or similarly terrestrial TV.
Hopefully an independent authority will take over control of both services and give people the choice they demand.
RTE should never have been put in a position to be able to take DAB down with it's cutbacks as only RTE DAB channels have been available for years on the network. They go and DAB is silent.
I assume that's what is on the horizon when the RTE digital radio channels are discontinued.

Radio Gold

10000maniacs wrote: »

Maybe its just atmospheric conditions (doubtful) but tonight I got the full range of UK channels on my DAB radio with a small telescopic antanna. I am in Dublin 4.
For 4 hours I got a glimpse of what proper DAB could be if it was done right.
Putting RTE in charge of the broadcast medium for DAB & Saorview has in my opinion not been good for digital radio in this country or similarly terrestrial TV.
Hopefully an independent authority will take over control of both services and give people the choice they demand.
RTE should never have been put in a position to be able to take DAB down with it's cutbacks as only RTE DAB channels have been available for years on the network. They go and DAB is silent.
I assume that's what is on the horizon when the RTE digital radio channels are discontinued.

I agree with everything you have said, I think with the way things are in RTE an independent Authority would be far better like say a transmission body for all of Irish Radio and TV.

10000maniacs

Radio Gold wrote: »

I agree with everything you have said, I think with the way things are in RTE an independent Authority would be far better like say a transmission body for all of Irish Radio and TV.

Yes, when a radio station wins and buys a license to broadcast, they should be automatically placed on the DAB network as part of the price. Also there should not be a prohibitive premium for channels to go HD on Saorview.
DAB wouldn't be on its knees now if there was an independent authority running it. DAB is so successful in some countries in Europe that there are proposals to ditch analogue there.

HarbourRed56

Agree totally that it was a mistake putting RTE in charge of DAB. Bought a DAB radio over 5 years ago expecting the service to expand with other radio stations coming on stream. But the DAB service as far as I'm concerned is dead now thanks to RTE. Bought an internet radio earlier this year and can now listen to my favourite radio stations from Ireland and abroad. It does not include RTE stations.

SPDUB

HarbourRed56 wrote: »

Agree totally that it was a mistake putting RTE in charge of DAB. Bought a DAB radio over 5 years ago expecting the service to expand with other radio stations coming on stream. But the DAB service as far as I'm concerned is dead now thanks to RTE. Bought an internet radio earlier this year and can now listen to my favourite radio stations from Ireland and abroad. It does not include RTE stations.

RTE is not and has never been in charge of DAB in this country .

The commercial sector is under the control of the BAI and they refuse to give anything more than test licences to anybody new interested in starting a DAB station and have done nothing to make the existing stations go onto DAB because those existing stations don't want DAB .

The BAI is the organisation to blame for the death of DAB not RTE.

DAB wouldn't be on its knees now if there was an independent authority running it.

As mentioned above and I can't emphasize it enough it is because of that independent authority DAB is on it's knees

marclt

There was quite a period of tropospheric ducting going on last week. Especially enhancing signals from the East/South East.

watty

If UK DAB was done right they would be using 4x as many multiplexes and 100s of low power fill in transmitters. They are using a fraction of allocated frequencies for DAB in Band III and coverage is much poorer than FM.

The low number of Multiplexes means bitrate is far far too low.

DAB is only as successful as it is in UK due to Ofcom pressure and Politics. Norway is a bad example due to number of Norwegian State channels and the politics. DAB suits national broadcasters with loads of real channels.

Widescreen

Real pity that DAB hasn't taken off here.

I'm sure loads of people have wasted money on DAB radios here over the past few years.

We won't be getting our money back though:mad:

DAB would be great if they all got on board. You'd have Today FM 80's, 90's the extra RTE channels and the likes of Classic Hits, and Newstalk might start other channels.

Plus all the local stations should be up on it too. Then radio would be great.

Just switch on your DAB radio and all the channels load up in a flash and you miss no channel.

FM relies on user tuning in stations manually. Probably loads of people out there who have never listened to many of the new stations.

I know there's internet radio but lets face it DAB would be way more convenient for listening to the radio at home.

Can't see how it's the business over in the UK and we live in the past here.

Ah well.

watty

FM doesn't rely on manual tuning, there have been sets with presets for 30 years. Decent ones can auto scan and store. For mobile or travel the manual tuning is ALSO needed for ergonomics, with a scale beating a simple Frequency display, which is why many phones/tablets implement virtual tuning scales with station names updated via RDS.

DAB Issues:
DAB economics and technology mean that nowhere uses enough bitrate for decent quality.
Inter-multiplex station change time is very slow.
Different sets have different audio delay.
About 1/10th to 1/20th battery life on portables compared to FM.
No use for local & community, the economic & spectrum advantages apply only to SFN, i.e. National stations
DAB+ is simply used to double the number of stations.
Extremely rare on phones. Many phones have FM radio because the feature is included in some WiFi/BT chips. The iPhone has a diisabled FM radio because they stupidly took off the 3.5mm audio jack (fashion statement + sell buds at twice price of a decent phone). The earphone cable is the FM aerial.
Never seen a DAB set with decent ergonomics. You have to step through the stations on many, on a too small screen, to get names found on the local mux/muxes.
Too few fill in transmitters to have decent coverage. More sudden loss of quality and entire reception on DAB than FM, compounded by too few transmitters.
DAB is a duplicate of DTT for radio.
Many DAB sets have FM for local/community, but not enough FM memories / presets. The only models with MW, or MW/LW/SW reception for stations outside the National Programming Ghetto are discontinued.

Also most DAB sets sold in Ireland were by UK stores or from UK distribution and had no indication if DAB+ compatible. Most non-car models have a laughable size speaker and poor ergonomics, eg volume. This could be rectified but it's unlikely.
I know people living in UK and most only use FM on their DAB portables or DAB Car Radios. More reliable and faster station change.

Niche nationwide stations are more economic on Internet than via DAB.

The UK figures for Digital Radio use count sets with DAB and FM, as Digital Listeners. They also add Internet, Satellite and DTT to boost the Digital Listening figures.

RTE would be better spending money on Content than on DAB. The rollout stalled years ago at less than 50% Geographic. Population % figures are optimistic and misleading for car travel or portable use.

JDxtra

Yes, fully agree. The problem with internet radio is finding the stations - especially on a dedicated radio device. On a smart phone, it's easier - but not all local stations are on the same platforms like TuneIn and smart speakers.

DAB, if done right, could offer lots of local choice in a platform where you are not lost in a sea of international and internet only stations.

Johnboy1951

@watty

Nice to see you back posting.

PacMan

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

@watty

Nice to see you back posting.

Agreed.
Welcome back Watty

Capt'n Midnight

watty wrote: »

FM doesn't rely on manual tuning, there have been sets with presets for 30 years

Presets 30 years ago ?

More like double that with the old push button car radios

Pull button out, tune to station and then turn the dial a smidgen clockwise.
Push button ALL the way back in.

byte

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Pull button out, tune to station and then turn the dial a smidgen clockwise.
Push button ALL the way back in.

Ah! So that's how they worked! I remember them being in older cars of my father's, back in the day but never did figure out how to make the presets work!:)

watty

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Presets 30 years ago ?

More like double that with the old push button car radios

I was thinking of electronic presets on FM Radio.
There were of course table valve radios in the 1930s with presets. One even had a wireless remote control.
85 years ago.
I have a 1950s DAC10 that has some electrical presets. Preset by tuning extra coils via holes in the base.
I just got a Sangean ATS818CS / Roberts CS818, made maybe 28 years ago with 45 presets, only 9 for VHF.
I've had a Sony ICF2001D for years, originally released in 1985, that's 35 years ago. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_icf_2001d.html It's only got 32 presets, but the presets are not per band, unlike the 818 they store the band and if AM, the bandwidth, AM/USB/LSB etc.

Both of these perform better than any DAB/FM set I've tried.

It just that since 30 years ago electronic preset radios for VHF are common. Only the cheapest sets are Analogue only.