Bombay Bad Boy Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 doesn't quite have the ring of 'Athlone, Paris, London, Hilversum, Moscow etc.' like the proper steam radios though DAB channel 9D is centred on 208 Mhz, which might bring in Radio Luxembourg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ushtey Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 My Pure DAB has been picking up the BBC stations in Onchan for the past couple of years. The reception, until now, has not been that great however. Still, 5Live and 5Live Extra work fine so I can at least listen to the Sports Report as I make dinner/do the washing up. Shame they didn't update the website after the digital switch in Carlisle though, it said the our post code wasn,t scheduled for DAB coverage until 2009, a new DAB stereo would have made a welcome christmas present. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Anyone know how well it works in Port Erin? If at all. If you find the answer to this offline, could you post up. Given how awful MW reception is here and how FM is almost non-existent, I've been waiting for ages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambon Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Anyone know how well it works in Port Erin? If at all. If you find the answer to this offline, could you post up. Given how awful MW reception is here and how FM is almost non-existent, I've been waiting for ages. Sounds like you need a good antenna. I have no trouble in P.E. picking up all 4 BBC stations, all 3 local stations, Irish Radio 1 and 2, plus several other FM stations that I think are from Wales. Cannot speak for MW. I only ever listen to that TT week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cret Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Anyone know how well it works in Port Erin? If at all. If you find the answer to this offline, could you post up. Given how awful MW reception is here and how FM is almost non-existent, I've been waiting for ages. Certainly. I agree that the FM is poor down in the village too (might be better on the hills either side). I've got several FM radios with different aerials and not get great reception. I just ordered a loop aerial that I can lash onto the side of the chimney stack so if it makes a big improvement I'll let you know. Dipole aerials work best I think, but are very directional when horizontal so I don't think they're great for getting all stations, just certain ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ai_Droid Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 More than 30,000 people on the Isle of Man can now receive digital radio as a transmitter is installed. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7144939.stm Digital radio had been available for years through an astra dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William_Hartnell Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Likewise with Port St Mary, Cronk Road area? If anyone has managed to obtain a decent signal I would be very grateful for the information as the tardis could do with a new wireless for Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cret Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Can't you just go forwards in time to when there is good reception there? Or if you go forwards to when there definitely is and you own a dab radio, you could bring it back to now so you can clarify the situation. Come on Erinites - someone must have a dab radio down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballaughbiker Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Been getting DAB up north for a few years from Divis (about 60 miles away) so I would think that Port Erin/PSM would be possible from Carnane with a good outside aerial. As I've mentioned before , DAB is only good for choice as the quality is no better than FM and its sometimes worse. If you've got Sky, I wouldn't bust a gut for DAB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cret Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 DAB is only good for choice as the quality is no better than FM and its sometimes worse. I don't understand that. Not saying you're wrong of course as I don't know any better but surely the whole idea of DAB is that being digital, if you receive it then you receive a pure digital signal meaning good quality, or don't receive it properly at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frances Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 The best audio quality on DAB is that of R3 and that audio quality is noticeably lower than the audio quality available from VHF/FM (tho many low cost receivers do not achieve the quality available). The audio quality on other BBC stations ranges from considerably worse to the absolute dire. CFm is also broadcast so heavily compressed as to be unpleasant on any decent system. However if all you use is a small portable in a noisy environment then you may not notice much difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzi Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 The best audio quality on DAB is that of R3 and that audio quality is noticeably lower than the audio quality available from VHF/FM (tho many low cost receivers do not achieve the quality available).The audio quality on other BBC stations ranges from considerably worse to the absolute dire. CFm is also broadcast so heavily compressed as to be unpleasant on any decent system. However if all you use is a small portable in a noisy environment then you may not notice much difference Audio snob? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cret Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 However if all you use is a small portable in a noisy environment then you may not notice much difference Nope, it's a fairly expensive hifi setup, and whilst I'd love to see a lot of 'hifi snobs' do some blindfold tests to show up the level of overpriced nonsense in that industry, I do appreciate good sound quality. Does surprise me though as I had always assumed DAb would provide a considerable increase in audio quality. Bah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballaughbiker Posted December 20, 2007 Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re quality - it should Cret and certainly has the ability to, but in practice...... At the moment the 50+ year old technology of FM is better imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ai_Droid Posted December 20, 2007 Share Posted December 20, 2007 I don't understand that. Not saying you're wrong of course as I don't know any better but surely the whole idea of DAB is that being digital, if you receive it then you receive a pure digital signal meaning good quality, or don't receive it properly at all? That's true in terms of signal strength, because dab is digital you theretically either get it in full quality, or you don't. The quality on dab should be constant. FM can be varying quality from very good to utterly shit depending on reception. This isn't always true however because of the nasty error correction Dabs using. There's generally no background noise with dab though, when there can be with mp3, there's also no shadowing or overlap of signals. The problems with dab is that it's bandwidth constrained, largely because of the bandwidth taken up with analog channels, and the multiplexes cram lots of channels into their allocated bandwidth to cover the cost of broadcasting. So you end up with shit bitrates, 128k at best, in some cases mono, not sterio, which is pretty weak and lower quality than a perfect FM reception. The other problem is that dab is using an old and frankly shit compression format, MP2 with very nasty error correction, which can let dab down in bad reception. Sky also uses the same format, but at a higher bitrate, so it sounds much better, though it can be beaten by FM still if you've got the gear. On the internet, things are much more varied, but generally better. Most reputable stations (not any manx radio station, sigh) broadcast at at least 128k mp3 in stereo, with some offering 192k streams. That's very listenable, and far cheaper to set up than DAB, but then the potential audience is far lower. Internet radios are starting to become common in homes, but not in cars or mobiles for obvious reasons. Won't be long though until wireless net access is affordable and widespread, and I think you'll see DAB die pretty fast once it does. DAB is a waste of cash in my view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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