HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT DAB RADIO IS SO CRAP ?

[KILLERPARSNIP]

Hello all,

I tried DAB radio a few years ago and thought what a load of rubbish ! fast forward to now I drive a vehicle at work that has a DAB radio , boy it's even worse the stations drop out regularly , sounds rubbish when it does work and spends half it's time sounding like someone talking under water. This is all despite being in a highly populated area that you think would have good coverage ! then today I dug out the radio and installed a temporary outside antenna and discovered that 2000 watts of power line of sight between me and the transmitter and it still doesn't make it ! I make the same trip on 70cm with 0.5watts !

Rant over

[Transwarp]

I have a DAB radio in work van and think it's ok, plenty of station choices. It does drop out now and then depending on location but l switch it to FM in rural locations that l know has poor DAB coverage.

[rob42]

I bought 10 year old Ford Focus, two years ago. Being the Titanium Navigator edition, it has the Sony sound system, which has a DAB Radio. It's the first car I've had with DAB Radio, and I could not be more impressed. Clearly there's a huge difference between your experience and mine, but I'm unsure as to why that should be.

[KILLERPARSNIP]

The vehicle I'm driving is a 2026 plate costing £230,000 and the service in the Black Country is so poor I have given up trying to use it , unfortunately general broadcast radio does not suit my tastes so there is no other option, I live in Shropshire about 10 miles from the nearest mutiplex which line of sight. I get a couple of stations Asian and Classic which must me broadcasting at 10,000 times the power of the sun as when ever I'm in a poor signal area they are always super strong on all wave lengths ! Most of the stations listed are none existent and even if they were again none of the ones that suit my taste are broadcast from this transmitter. There are two more transmitters a little more distant (15 miles) which do transmit my stations ( Rock Music) but I get nothing from them. Again I reach these locations easily with 500mw on 2 and 70 cms !

[KILLERPARSNIP]

I have just read that an average DAB radio has a sensitivity of -86dbm but needs a stronger signal for it to demodulate the signal. looking on the web at VHF this is a s9+10 so to work it must be stronger !!!! I can hear AM/FM and SSB down to S 1 and sometimes less. Maybe my workings are well off but if they are somewhere near right now wonder I don't hear anything ? I intend to try over the weekend with a better out door antenna ans see it there is an improvement !

[Transwarp]

The vehicle I'm driving is a 2026 plate costing £230,000

[grafter]

The vehicle I'm driving is a 2026 plate costing £230,000

Maybe we're meant to be impressed at this point or just marvel at the size of his d*** ?

[rob42]

Maybe we're meant to be impressed at this point or just marvel at the size of his d*** ?

Ah, right... I see; so that's what "Super Member" means

[KILLERPARSNIP]

The vehicle I'm driving is a 2026 plate costing £230,000

Maybe we're meant to be impressed at this point or just marvel at the size of his d*** ?

I'm not expecting any one to be impressed ! It's not mine ! ( I drive a near micro car as I'm a cheap skate ) The point was you would think as it cost so much it would at least have a descent radio.

more to come !

[KILLERPARSNIP]

Right as far as DAB goes I needed /wanted a radio to stick on my allotment shed and decided to buy a cheap Goodmans DAB radio ( £20) mainly to use the FM side of it. I turned it on and found I could get all the stations of interest to me with no problem ( problem is you have to get it in exactly in the right spot to receive them but it does work) I decided to compare it against my DAB stereo which has an external antenna and found in roughly the same position as the antenna, it was receiving much better and more stations could be heard, Then I thought i would try it at work in my works vehicle. With both of them on at the same time on the same station I found when the signal dropped out on the works vehicles radio most of the time I could still hear the station on the small portable radio ! So it appears you would have to be careful which radio you use ( if possible) as some of them must be totally deaf ! I'm not saying it is perfect but in all fairness it's a lot better than I had originally thought. So my marks out of ten score has now gone up from 0 to 7ish !

So I officially take back my original title

[KILLERPARSNIP]

DAB.jpg