FáilteDAB: Coverage, Tests and Services

Onic Pride Vibes has been added.

Nothing so far said in the media and I very much doubt they will.

Hope I’m wrong

GOLD will remain as part of their plans, but the Minister has to make a decision on the axing of the others, will be interesting to see how quickly RTÉ shut them down.

They must cost almost nothing to run. Radio 1 Extra at least should be kept and used for things like sporting commentaries.

Yes, it is with the CnaM and AFAIK they have passed it back to the Dept. Though in the CnaM mention them all in their review of public service broadcasting.

Never understood why Arena and Game On didn't move to the music parts of daytime Radio 1 with repeats at 7pm and 11pm on Radio 1 for Extra. Plenty of pointless Podcasts from RTÉ that could also make the cut along with the imported international radio.

I'm in the Midlands, so always have reasonable spillover from Dublin stations, but also regionals from South East and South West in addition to national and our local station. Including the Failte DAB stations now on offer I could tune well over 35 stations. They really are a welcome addition to the FM stations.

we are lucky here in south Wicklow overlooking the sea with strong UK DAB ,UK fm stations and some outside area Irish fm

Currently have 69 dab channels

I meant to post this some days ago but last Friday evening (9th May) stopped at the elevated 'Scenic Layby' on the N25 a few miles from Dungarvan Co. Waterford towards Cork

https://maps.app.goo.gl/DA5C97RouFD8Cu4M6

and whilst I was there I could receive a stable reception of Failte Dab on channel 10D (215.072MHz ). I was somewhat surprised at the solid stable signal, though of course current atmospherics likely helping reception.

I do not have a DAB car radio but put a portable DAB radio on the car roof to optimize reception - also had a breaking up reception of the the UK's BBC National MUX (12B) and Digital 1 (11D). Manually scanning DAB channels there was also something just about registering on signal strength reading on 8A but not decoding. Failte DAB could be received with this radio inside the car, depending on positioning.

This elevated layby has views along the coast to Hook Head Co. Wexford (and its lighthouse when dark). South-west Wales would be a bit to the right of there across the sea. Safe to say the (broken) UK DAB reception there was from Haverfordwest considering the clear path in that direction.

This location has a great path eastwards - northwards. Nova on 100.5 for example. Waterford city pirate on 105.1 (almost 30 miles away in a straight line) could be heard clearly there on the car radio, otherwise elusive to hear around there. FM signals from Co. Cork were cut-down by rising ground in that direction, this helped reception of some distant stations from other directions.

BTW this is the same layby where Sharon Shannon made this video!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYdj6JQmkJU

We must be close to a trial end / official launch? 1 June maybe?

That's fair enough, the whole thing is a temporary licence.

But at this time they are still adding stations, renaming others, changing picons, I read here also reports on technical changes i.e. bitrates, frequencies, etc. All typical in a 'beta' or pre-launch phase, especially for a completely new platform.

That said, within the 365 days there must be an end to testing and into a Live / launched period.

Am guessing Failte or the station operators need to test market interest during the 365 days, so a launch or announcement aimed at the broad public would be made.

This was more what I was asking as opposed to when the service might be fully licenced (which is another good question).

is onic classical not on it?