DAB Radio

Everything technical about radio can be discussed here, whether it's transmitting or receiving. Guides, charts, diagrams, etc. are all welcome.
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Mike Volume
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DAB Radio

Post by Mike Volume » Sun Sep 10, 2017 1:20 pm

Albert H wrote: Fri Jul 28, 2017 3:04 pm I think that I'll start another thread about DAB. There are exciting developments going on!
Perhaps a radio that can receive a much narrower band multiplex just enough for one station?

MC Spanner
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Re: DAB Radio

Post by MC Spanner » Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:35 pm

I still don't see how DAB has any place in pirate radio, especially not in the UK. It will completely remove any chance of blundering into a pirate like you used to be able to do on FM by turning the dial. A pirate DAB station would have to somehow tell listeners it was there. Surely this would lead to getting taken off immediately. Using an existing multiplex may be possible but this would be more of an IT project than an RF one.

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by MiXiN » Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:58 pm

Like Amateur radio, Pirate Radio is on its last legs now. Analogue is dwindling, and there's barely anything to listen into on a scanner like the good old days

When analogue has been completely replaced with DAB, I'll be out of here and looking for a completely new interest.

This DAB is sad to see, particularly when there's absolutely nothing wrong with analogue.

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by regulaterz » Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:15 pm

will their be a day when the FM SW LW frq will be just white noise????the emergency services have all gone digital on the tecra radios that use gsm like a mobile and when they go out of service they use fm for short distance.back in the day ya mobile had its number hard weird in to the phone analogue .then they brang out the chip gsm MiXiN is right nothing much to listen to on the scanner now days even amater radio went online years back.its a new phase everything 0S N 1S

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by MC Spanner » Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:25 pm

MiXiN wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:58 pmWhen analogue has been completely replaced with DAB, I'll be out of here and looking for a completely new interest.
I've had a few arguments with various people about it but I don't believe Band II will ever be anything other than a broadcast band and therefore I don't think you'll be searching for a new hobby any time soon, Mixin. You've got a 20MHz allocation around 100MHz. This will be no good for phones and PMR is well served elsewhere. Ditto DAB (for now) and TV would be impractical. There are hundreds of millions of active FM radios out there. I heard that there will be a good few years use of Band II left for community broadcasting and I honestly will be waiting with baited breath to see what pops up the minute the BBC nationals vacate. I don't think I'm alone in this either.

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by yellowbeard » Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:32 am

I am in Ireland, one look at the DAB coverage map makes me think for us it's the oppostite. 44% of the population here has no DAB, that equates to about 70% of the land mass. There is plenty of life left in FM here, and 44% of the population could use a pirate DAB service just so there is something on that button on their radios. The stations that are on DAB here are terrible, and mostly repeats of the national services available on FM. In Ireland DAB sucks, licenced radio sucks and pirates are few and far between. I blame the kids for the pirates and the corporate interests for the licenced, one good Radio Caroline type operation could sink them all.

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DAB Radio

Post by Maximus » Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:20 am

I think DAB will take off. The radio in my car automatically detects new multiplexes.

When I hop through the stations, any new ones automatically appear without having to scan. So it’ll be easy for listeners to stumble upon your pirate station.

Also your bitrate can be set much higher than the legal stations. Potentially making your station have superior audio clarity.

The emergency services are scrapping Tetra soon and switching over to EE 4G, so I wouldn’t worry about about interference anymore :)


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Re: DAB Radio

Post by Albert H » Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:19 pm

MC Spanner wrote: I honestly will be waiting with baited breath to see what pops up the minute the BBC nationals vacate. I don't think I'm alone in this either.
You're not! I'll put a few kilowatts on 89.1MHz in the south east of England. A well-presented "oldies" station on that frequency would get an audience in the millions!
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Re: DAB Radio

Post by 4therecord » Wed Sep 13, 2017 1:20 pm

Yes, I have also thought about this (as I'm sure have Ofcom!) - I think the only way they can even attempt to do it is to leave all the TX's on just carrying "Capital has now moved to DAB only..." type messages for probably a year or more!!!!

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by bristolpirates » Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:19 pm

4therecord wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2017 1:20 pm Yes, I have also thought about this (as I'm sure have Ofcom!) - I think the only way they can even attempt to do it is to leave all the TX's on just carrying "Capital has now moved to DAB only..." type messages for probably a year or more!!!!
I wonder, would they even bother doing that? Maybe for a week or so, but after that they know any potential audience should be aware that DAB is live now, so just switch the rigs off and save money.

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by MC Spanner » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:05 pm

4therecord wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2017 1:20 pm Yes, I have also thought about this (as I'm sure have Ofcom!) - I think the only way they can even attempt to do it is to leave all the TX's on just carrying "Capital has now moved to DAB only..." type messages for probably a year or more!!!!
Fair point, I hadn't thought about that. Surely the BBC won't leave their entire network switched on for too long? Someone might have to let the Daily Snail know how much that'll be costing the license payer ;)

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by Dan » Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:07 pm

This is all irrelevant. They are still broadcasting on MW ffs. FM will never switch off but the listeners might if they stop making receivers.

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by thewisepranker » Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:10 pm

They're still putting new stations on FM...

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by regulaterz » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:42 pm

interesting read to some one interested lol

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/0 ... he_masses/

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Re: DAB Radio

Post by Albert H » Thu Dec 21, 2017 3:19 am

yellowbeard wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:32 am I am in Ireland, one look at the DAB coverage map makes me think for us it's the oppostite. 44% of the population here has no DAB, that equates to about 70% of the land mass. There is plenty of life left in FM here, and 44% of the population could use a pirate DAB service just so there is something on that button on their radios. The stations that are on DAB here are terrible, and mostly repeats of the national services available on FM. In Ireland DAB sucks, licenced radio sucks and pirates are few and far between. I blame the kids for the pirates and the corporate interests for the licenced, one good Radio Caroline type operation could sink them all.
Radio Nova pretty much achieved that back in the 1980s. It had virtually national coverage on MW (and a huge number of listeners in northern England) on 828kHz and good stereo coverage of the south-east of the country on 88 MHz. They had high profile studios in Dublin and great financial backing. They were killed off by the Government. Most of their presenters are in legitimate radio these days.
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