Swiching off of FM transmissions eminent

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optimusprime

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What do members think about this new idea .
Swiching off the FM radio transmissions.
The gov minister said , as 40 % of people use DAB radio, and that FM will be closed down and switched off for good asap .
Now this is not very good if you have a car radio, thats a part of the dashboard So to switch it on ,and listen to AM in mono will be about as good as a crystal set of the 1930s.
And you nice sounding stereo equipment will also be of no use on the FM band . Diabolical .
 
Does it mean that just the national FM stations will go? I thought local FM broadcasts would continue.
My nice sounding stereo equipment takes it's radio from the internet ;)
 
This is not new.

In fact, correct me if I'm wrong...this has been delayed already.
 
...The gov minister said , as 40 % of people use DAB radio, and that FM will be closed down and switched off for good asap ....


Makes sense. This only leaves a very tiny minority of 60% of the population without radio. What will the minister say to that? "If they can't listen to analogue radio, let them watch analogue TV"?
 
I don't have DAB. It's never really interested me, but as above my Yamaha amplifier is connected to the internet.
 
I read a while back that the FM switch-off would occur when 50% of the population had a DAB radio. Now, that seems pretty mean to me. Our household has several radios, only one of which is DAB - and that's the one in the car. For many elderly people, their radio is a "companion" which will be taken away unless they fork out for a nice, shiny, brand new DAB radio. I know you can buy gadgets that will add DAB to your car radio but I'm not sure about arrangements for radios around the home.

When the analogue TV signal has switched off, converters were available and, for many, a reasonable solution - but most households (I think) had only one TV set (or maybe my household isn't that bothered about having TV available in every room), so the situation wasn't that bad. With radio, I suspect things are rather different, with many homes having multiple radio sets and sources.
 
Just means a small £20 purchase from Argos buying a dab receiver, have one in my car it's brilliant

Mind you'd need an aux input for it to work
 
I would suggest that the powers that be improve the signal quality of DAB before they switch off analogue. I have DAB in the car but it's constantly dropping out


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I understand that the DAB standard used in the UK is an old one and that modern DAB is better. The trouble is that there are so many old-standard DAB radios deployed in the UK now that it would be politically embarrassing to change the system. Please correct me if I've got this wrong - I'm absolutely positive that there are folks on the forum who know more about this than I.
 
It's a complex subject but as I understand it to those who care about sound quality, DAB is seen as a retrograde step because the government chose an old encoder and a poor sample rate that resulted in it being worse sound quality than FM. The new Dab+ used in Europe has a better encoder which improves quality with low sample rates. I have to say that apart from the absence of interference the Dab radios I've listened to have been unimpressive. Given good speakers, TV sound quality seems much superior.
 
I road tested a development DAB retrofit in my W203 and once the aerial was sorted (took a few attempts with different designs) the sound quality was superior to FM with a greater dynamic range on a par with CD. This was all going through the COMAND via a digital input. Worth noting also I never had any signal drop-out when driving across the south of the UK

The DAB in my Lexus is equally stable signal wise but subjectively I feel it's sound quality is not so good, compared with both the CD and USB inputs. This may improve as I dial in the amp output settings (too many options!)

Digital TV sound quality is always better, whether OTA or Cable as it's transmitted as a Dolby encoding, surround sound is very impressive.
 
I find DAB at home fine but when I had a DAB radio in the car the dropouts were too common to make it a practical alternative.
I hoped they would have improved the coverage since I last had a car DAB radio but having read the post above it appears not.
Plus the fact that many stations use very low encoding to save bandwidth it sounds hideous on anything that has a half decent speaker. Even DAB+ isn't that great.

I really think this system is being foisted upon us without any thought for the end user and their listening enjoyment.
 
I assume DAB is being foisted on us for two reasons:

They will be able to auction off the FM frequency bands for other uses and digital transmitters operate at much lower power outputs which saves energy costs.
 
I would suggest that the powers that be improve the signal quality of DAB before they switch off analogue. I have DAB in the car but it's constantly dropping out

DAB is only good when stationary; every car I've been in that has had DAB is either pretty poor or just about average but they ALL drop signal, especially in built up areas.

I do prefer the greater choice of stations on DAB but until they come up with better ideas for signal strength then I can't see FM being switched off completely.
 
I must be alone then in never suffering from signal loss when on the move?

Either that or the system imperceptibly switches to an alternative frequency...
 
My receiver only loses signal in village town centres where you're surrounded by tall tight-knit buildings, in cit/town centres it's crystal clear

I relate it to a good phone signal, apart from when you're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields the signal is still great
 
I would suggest that the powers that be improve the signal quality of DAB before they switch off analogue. I have DAB in the car but it's constantly dropping out


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I find DAB at home fine but when I had a DAB radio in the car the dropouts were too common to make it a practical alternative.
I hoped they would have improved the coverage since I last had a car DAB radio but having read the post above it appears not.
Plus the fact that many stations use very low encoding to save bandwidth it sounds hideous on anything that has a half decent speaker. Even DAB+ isn't that great.

I really think this system is being foisted upon us without any thought for the end user and their listening enjoyment.

On another thread or forum, it was noted that having something, eg dashcam, plugged into the 12v socket adversely affected the DAB signal. Unplugging mine in my Lexus certainly improved the reception phenomenally!
 

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