All change to DAB radio

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finlandia

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Hello,,First post so be gentle :)
Does anybody know when "normal" boat fm radios will need replacing with DAB ? Mine onboard is going to need replacing in the near future so am thinking of replacement . Halfords sell reasonably cheap normal radios but if they are u/s in a few years is it false economy .should I bite the bullet and splash out on a DAB?
 
There will be a switchover, even if it's done on the basis of phoney statistics. Can't see it happening before 2018 at the earliest, but if you're buying a new radio for the boat it would obviously be sensible to get a DAB set. I think I'd look for a Digital/FM/AM set.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Everyone now knows DAB is utterly useless, and despite an incessant publicity campaign, DAB radio sales have dropped through the floor.
 
PCUK said:
Once that happens we won't have a radio at home as DAB doesn't work in our house! Same as analogue TV. We can't get Freeview so had to buy satellite. B*stard government cons
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Amen.

We soldier on with intermittent television reception, it was better 40 years ago, some progress.

It the DabCon ever comes off I shall post my radios to Downing St and tell them to shove them up the little orifice and pull them down again.
 
Cardo said:
I thought DAB was a complete failure?
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In many ways, it is. But the government wants to free up the radio frequencies used by FM, so wants to switch to DAB. They said that before FM is switched off, half of all radio listening has to be on a digital platform, digital coverage has to match FM’s (97 per cent of the country) and local digital radio has to reach 90 per cent of the UK. It's getting close to those numbers!
 
We also don't have a very good DAB radio signal it only works upstairs or perched on top of our fridge/freezer. However, we can get free view but actually use freesat. Originally we used an old sky decoder but now have a smart telly with freesat built in.
PCUK said:
Once that happens we won't have a radio at home as DAB doesn't work in our house! Same as analogue TV. We can't get Freeview so had to buy satellite. B*stard government cons
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LadyInBed said:
I hear that DAB works ok in London, so thats 90% of the country covered!
It won't be much good on the boat when in France!
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That is a good point - because of the UK's adoption of an early standard, a DAB radio that works in the UK will almost certainly not work anywhere else in the world. There is also an issue that DAB radios are notorious for having high power requirements.
 
pvb said:
But the government wants to free up the radio frequencies used by FM, so wants to switch to DAB.
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Free up the radio frequencies? Shurely you mean 'sell off the radio frequencies'?

I'm quite amazed how bad DAB radio is - my set has to be plugged into the mains, and can only be used in one place in the house. And it's mono! I would think internet radio will eclipse DAB. FM will be around for some time yet. Don't forget, DAB radio was designed to standards set 20 years ago, and it's woefully out of date now, let alone when/if FM is switched off.
 
http://www.techradar.com/news/audio...adio-switchover-what-you-need-to-know-1208563

It seems to have been put back to at least 2020.
By which time internet radio over 4g might be cheap and relaible.
Or not.

Personally, I would get a 'mechless' head unit, that plays MP3 from usb or SD card.
The one I bought for £38 about 4 years ago is fine.
Even does long wave....

No dab.
But I could plug the dab portable into the aux skt if I wanted.
 
LadyInBed said:
I hear that DAB works ok in London, so thats 90% of the country covered!
It won't be much good on the boat when in France!
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The only UK radio service you can get in France is Radio4 LW. I suppose it might be possible to get some FM reception in the very North of France if it is range of UK transmitters but certainly does not work in Brittany. Bit of a pain as car radio now does not have a LW option.
 
lw395 said:
http://www.techradar.com/news/audio...adio-switchover-what-you-need-to-know-1208563

It seems to have been put back to at least 2020.
By which time internet radio over 4g might be cheap and relaible.
Or not.

Personally, I would get a 'mechless' head unit, that plays MP3 from usb or SD card.
The one I bought for £38 about 4 years ago is fine.
Even does long wave....

No dab.
But I could plug the dab portable into the aux skt if I wanted.
Click to expand...

The last thing ISPs and cell providers can afford to do is increase the take up of internet radio.

if you broadcast the FA cup final to 8 million, that's 8 million IP connections via routers, switches etc. vs 1 big transmitter.

That's why the phone companies are pressing Govt for the broadcast band.
 
Whichever party is in power, they'll try to reduce the bandwidth free radio is broadcast on - then they can sell the released bandwidth.
When I bought a DAB radio I made sure it could also be used for internet (via my WLAN) because that's where I think the biggest coverage wil be - the last of the real Nokia mobile phones I bought offers about 2300 preset international radio stations via internet, either WLAN or cellular.
 
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I stopped worrying about DAB when I installed a cheap Lidl car radio on my boat to replace the old cassette player. What I like about the new set is not the radio but the fact that it takes USB memory sticks as well as SD Cards. It means that in the volume of a cigarette pack I can keep enough SD Cards to allow me to listen to music of my choice 24/7 every day for some three weeks without ever repeating myself (not that I would ever want to, of course!)
 
davewarburton said:
The only UK radio service you can get in France is Radio4 LW. I suppose it might be possible to get some FM reception in the very North of France if it is range of UK transmitters but certainly does not work in Brittany. Bit of a pain as car radio now does not have a LW option.
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FM poor in Cherbourg marina, else good reception when anchored.
Good on CI's side of the peninsula from R Jersey ;)
 
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