Digital switchover delayed until 2032

[Jonster]

DAB will probably be switched off before AM and FM finally are. Internet is where the future is. I have just bought a tiny Amazon 'Echo Auto' unit for my ten year old car which does not have a DAB radio and the functionality when plugged into the 'Aux' (line in) socket is amazing. It renders DAB technology irrelevant.

[Junk Box Nick]

The thing I like about my LW/MW, FM and DAB sets is they keep working when the internet is down or too slow to stream properly.

As for MW there is something called The AM 'death watch' thread on a certain popular media forum and it's clear that local and BBC low power relay MW transmitters are being turned off in droves.

One discussion that caught my eye was about 1152 Langley Mill ex-BRMB (which I fondly remember as 261m) which is still on air (Absolute or something) though it's reckoned that the licence has already been handed back. There are some other transmitters there - Asian stations I think - but I shall be sad when 1152 does shut, having heard it the day BRMB opened in 1974.

The old Beacon303 990kHz at Sedgley has already gone though apparently the BBC Asian Network has a Tx at the site.

There is a lot of discussion on the thread about how some of the AM Txs only remain on the air due to the the jockeying for licences and coverage by the big groups to keep a foothold in various regions whilst conforming with OFCOM regulations and licences. I have to confess I find all the ins and outs a bit complex to follow.

Some transmitters are already running on reduced power so it's clear that as soon as the operators no longer need them to conform to whatever to satisfy OFCOM and retain their status quo otherwise they'll be turned off.

[Nuvistor]

Re post #21 and 22.
Nick makes a valid point about the internet has to be available and reliable, not always the case at the moment. That could of course change in the next 12 years.
All conjecture but I feel there will be little if any MW/LW ** activity but FM will still have some presence if only the nationals by 2032.

** Apart from pantry transmitters.

[Paul Stenning]

I haven't used taxis here for the last few months, for obvious reasons, but previously when I did I was surprised at how many had AM stations on in the cars. Absolute Radio, Talk Sport and Five Live mostly.

Reception around Cardiff city centre seemed to be adequate, within the limitations of AM and the after-thought nature of the AM sections of many car radios. The one-day Absolute 40s special on Absolute was fine on AM in my flat.

[Jon_G4MDC]

What would they want the AM frequencies for?
Wireless charging of electric cars...

[Aub]

Hopefully us Radio Amateurs could have, at least, some of it. I could then relive my teenage pirate radio days, but legally

[music-centre]

The French speaking station on LW (RTL is it?) keeps going, good signal here in Essex this Morning.

I don't use DAB apart from a clock radio or listen online so its always FM/AM at home, the AM section on my car Radio is so useless it has to be FM there.

Steve.

[Richard_FM]

I get a decent choice of MW stations in and around Stockport, as well as the national ones (Absolute, TalkSport and 5 Live) there are Greatest Hits on 1152KHz (formerly Piccadilly Gold) and Gold on 1458KHz.

I normally leave my Fidelity Rad 24 tuned into 1458KHz because it's the strongest signal and normally has some period correct music playing.

[marty_ell]

My house is located in a river valley; not a very deep valley, just about within hearing distance of a major A road's traffic, not far from a town. So, not exactly the outer Hebrides.

Nevertheless, no terrestrial digital services work here, excepting just one mobile phone provider which manages to get a weak signal to the village (the sight of tourists walking along waving their 'phones in the air, oblivious to traffic, used to be amusing but has long since become annoying !).

Freeview proved hopeless even when analogue TV switched off and the Freeview signal level (so we were told) was boosted.

There has never seen a recorded instance of DAB being received in the village!

Village mains comes via long overhead 33kV lines, so AM is mostly useless due to all the interference from ancient and/or faulty farm equipment and badly installed resevoir monitors etc. The exception is Radio4LW which has enough V/m and low enough freq to get a tolerable S/N.

So in my village the TV comes via satellite or recent fibre internet and radio entertainment comes via FM. I have a very low power FM transmitter which sends radio from the sat box around the house, but when out in the local area it is portable FM or nothing.

I also happen to be one of those weirds who believes a good Radio3 FM signal has a far larger dynamic range and a better sound than any digital system.

So I've been dreading the switchoff and thank the stars for further postponements.


There is also the question of resilience into the future. A simple mono earphone FM radio running from a few AA's will last for days even weeks. And R4LW can be still be heard on a crystal set.

So when Putin crashes the internet and brings down the power stations while Trump's trade war means China no longer sells us batteries, we'll be back to crystal sets for news and FM for music !

Marty

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by marty_ell

I also happen to be one of those weirds who believes a good Radio3 FM signal has a far larger dynamic range and a better sound than any digital system.
Marty

Without digital the Stereo R3 would not easily be possible. Distribution I understand is by Nicam 3 and the earlier PCM system allowed the expansion of BBC stereo FM system.

Like everything else, done well it can be excellent, squeezed to cram the max number of stations just ruins it.

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/BBC/PCMandNICAM/History.html

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by dglcomp

The thing is do the frequency ranges used by LW/MW/VHF (FM) in the UK actually have any high value use outside radio broadcasting unless they are thinking of moving DAB down to band II and repurposing the current band III DAB frequencies for something else.

In practice, MW/LW and the Band-II FM allocation have Llareggub[1] value to the mobile-data types.

"Broadcast" radio [and most serial/linear media, where someone-in-some-sort-of-authority decides the timeline of what you hear/view] are doomed: "On Demand" is where the future lies - so you can watch yesterday's EastEnders or Corrie on your morning-commute.

[It always amuses me listening to legacy-media stuff like BBCR4's "You-and-yours" where some old-person complains about something being broadcast "before the 9PM watershed" - they clearly don't get the whole on-demand timeshifted media-economy that's been the thing this millennium]

IMHO the likes of OFCOM should monetize and re-invigorate MW/LW by offering loads of low-price licences: £1000 gets you a year's ability to run 5Kw on a given frequency. No "Quality thresholds" or similar nonsense needed - if your cheque clears you've got your channel.

[1] See Dylan Thomas, "Under Milk Wood" and read Llareggub backwards.

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

Like everything else, done well it can be excellent, squeezed to cram the max number of stations just ruins it.

Because DAB is 'stretchy' it gets hit by the 'there's always room for one more' syndrome in its recursive form.

David

[dsergeant]

Having for the past few months left the radio in the kitchen permanently on Classic FM it was not until yesterday I found that Talk Radio on DAB had been replaced by a mysterious new station, Times Radio, which I gather is linked to the newspaper. A retune found Talk Radio elsewhere, now in DAB+, and clearly the new station had taken its place. DAB doesn't seem to automatically retune and there is no publicity of when you have to do this, unlike Freeview.
That radio seems still though to find most of its time on FM, a far easier system. At least I have a few more years of that left.

Dave

[stitch1]

It’s a shame this decision didn’t come earlier, part of the decision to switch off local stations like BBC Newcastle must have been driven by the impending ‘switch off’.

We’re lucky here as we get R4 on MW so hope that continues.

I agree about DAB going before FM, and they say DAB take up not as fast as expected this has to be down to better internet connections, the 60’s teenager with a tranny is replaced by a phone (we’ll wonder why we call them that one day) battery life is getting less of an issue and data costs are coming down (it’s fairly easy to get find free WiFi on the go now too).
My daughter has moved to her own house, she had a DAB radio which she’d use for several hours a day while she was getting ready, but she’s left it behind now replaced by a smart speaker.

I have family living in the north west of Scotland they can’t get AM or FM (in a deep valley) and internet is poor but they listen to the radio on Sky and last time I visited I was surprised to get a 4G signal.

Keep listening!

John

[Paul Stenning]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

In practice, MW/LW and the Band-II FM allocation have Llareggub[1] value to the mobile-data types.

Exactly what I was thinking. Couldn't carry enough data and the wavelength is too long for mobile device aerials.

There's no money in it and it would annoy the public for no good reason so no real surprise that it has been thrown into the long grass again for another decade. Government and Ofcom probably hoping that by then there will be so few listeners and stations that the decision will have made itself.

[MurphyNut]

Sounds like good news to me, I'm not interested in DAB radio, the sets I've heard sound horrible, I get so much enjoyment from my vintage radios, I've never bothered.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Well I'm really pleased to learn of this.
I think the problem is one of reception. I was asked to fit a new rod aerial to a modern DAB radio the original having broken due to constant fiddling. Incredibly it was the first one I had actually laid my hands on. With the job done [and that was a saga..]it was time to test it. A full scan produced no signals at all on the ground floor and upstairs [it is a chalet bungalow] it managed just one station that sounded as if it was being transmitted from a country that does not exist. My neighbours experience the same problem and receive their radio via other digital sources but it's not portable anymore.

Horsham is generally poor for reception and always has been back to the Alexandra Palace days. Most outdoor aerials are fitted with pre amps but FM comes through OK with just the usual rod. The garage has an outdoor aerial and receives all he needs to on DAB but nothing on the self contained aerial. Car radio? Forget it.

It's fine if you are in a large town with a high signal level but I can't help thinking when they state the number of DAB radios sold, how many are actually used on DAB rather than FM. Certainly not many in this area. I hate that word UPGRADE. John.

[Refugee]

DAB gives a reasonable radio-3 through an external amplifier.
Apart from that it is only good for speech/news.
Digital broadcasting would be better if it had the mixing data included so that background music remixed at the receiving end so that the speech can be followed more easily.

[Scott37]

I note this article refers to commercial stations. Will the BBC decide to switch off analogue radio anyway as part of its cost savings programme?

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by Scott37

I note this article refers to commercial stations. Will the BBC decide to switch off analogue radio anyway as part of its cost savings programme?

Not sure if they have closed yet with the present health problems.
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/01/bbc...-transmitters/

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more to go, even some of the National stations on this list are reducing power. Keep making the service less useful until they can say there are too few listeners to keep them on the air.