Reply to post: RIP DAB

Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again

AliBear

RIP DAB

Quality: Mono? Mono on music stations? Bose (n)-speaker systems in cars for Mono? Great advance.

Quality: Squelchy-compression (on mono) of 64k? For (eg) Planet Rock, Absolute, Capital, Virgin, Jazz – where the bands spend a fortune in time and effort to have stunning soundscapes and sound quality to have it stuffed through the equivalent of a tin-can-and-string. (but then, Radio 4 is J-Stereo. Why?)

Delay: Why bother even transmitting time, let alone the BBC ‘time signal’.

Receivers: I remember my little FM radio with 2 speakers (yes, really!) or stereo headphones would last nearly a year! Partial reason for the size of ‘modern’ digital radios is the necessity to have 4 U2 batteries to give any semblance of being able to go off grid.

Transmitters: it used to be possible for a ‘very local’ radio station to operate an FM stereo transmitter with a handful of components and a car battery. (ahem)

Coverage: 25 miles south of the centre of London is virtually dead. Even the maps show that. Astounding.

Coverage: If you are in a building with poor coverage, you can’t walk around and hear the signal get stronger or weaker to help you find the right spot. If it’s weak, you can’t hear anything. And if it’s borderline, just having people move around can cause silence.

Content: Yes, there are more stations listed. Apparently. When you can get signal (25 miles south of central London?). In gurgly mono. Lovely.

Progress: You tell me?

I suspect delivery by cellular in-car and ‘broadband’ domestically will kill it off. Soon. I hope so.

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