lw395
Well-Known Member
It is a white one......
Powering DAB radios on the boat , solution ?
- Thread starter jakeroyd
- Start date
It is a white one......
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Ours is black.
We got it at John Lewis a few years ago. It will either charge from the mains or its small solar panel. This was useful while we were on a Salcombe mooring for a week.
For some bizarre reason, it doesn't charge while the radio is switched on, but it is good enough for the occasional use that we give it. It also has FM, which uses less current of course. It is quite easy to find on the John Lewis site under Roberts Solar DAB2.
ffiill
Well-Known Member
Given that unless you sail near to big urban centres systems like this are useless why waste the money?
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Sailing around the Channel and North Brittany, we used DAB most of the time, and filled in with FM in places like Fowey without a DAB signal.
lw395
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't have bought a DAB radio specially for the boat, but I find it's nice to have.
At home I use DAB less and less though, too many adverts on Planet Rock most of the time.
nigelmercier
RIP
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Or DAB+
It really needs a group to start a petition to get this nonsense changed, we have become the dumping ground for all the carp DAB gear. I won't buy one until things change.
lw395
Well-Known Member
I can't see it happening.
The problem with DAB in the UK is mostly that people are moving away from broadcast.
Too many channels, too few listeners.
It's expensive technology, if listener numbers are falling to the point where most channels are not prepared to pay for enough bandwidth for stereo, I can't see a business case for a whole new wodge of transmitters.
The people making money are local FM stations.
There might however be a market for audio-only receivers to use the 'radio' channels on the digital terrestrial tv broadcasts.
Probably same old issues with power consumption in portables.
dylanwinter
Well-Known Member
It does seem that Dab is less popular than it was .
when ashore it is spotify via the web here in the thatched paradise
when in a marina with wifi it is also spotify
when it is not available then it is either music from the craptop or radio 4 which I leave going most of the time when alone and down below
although the mornings are becoming relentless drones about how carp it is to be a woman and how all men are bad is now wearing a bit thin.
D
when ashore it is spotify via the web here in the thatched paradise
when in a marina with wifi it is also spotify
when it is not available then it is either music from the craptop or radio 4 which I leave going most of the time when alone and down below
although the mornings are becoming relentless drones about how carp it is to be a woman and how all men are bad is now wearing a bit thin.
D
MM5AHO
Well-Known Member
This sounds like a southern UK thread.
I can often get no FM signal at all at sea, and DAB would be impossible.
Its AM or LW mostly in Scotland, though the Campbeltown station (FM) can be an entertaining giggle for a while!
I can often get no FM signal at all at sea, and DAB would be impossible.
Its AM or LW mostly in Scotland, though the Campbeltown station (FM) can be an entertaining giggle for a while!
dylanwinter
Well-Known Member
strange
never really lost FM while going from Edinburgh over the top around Shetland and down the other side to Glasgow
a couple of nights up the Voes in Shetland we were reduced to radio scotland on medium wave or radio 4 of lw but maybe only twice
are you sure your radio is okay?
D
ianfr
Well-Known Member
I was given one of these as a present. http://www.johnlewis.com/roberts-sol...9?colour=Black
New triple a batteries last about 20 - 30 minutes.
Solar charger is just that, if the batteries are low, then you get about 3 - 4 minutes in direct sunshine before it shuts down and sulks until the battery charges enough for the radio to start again.
Sound is reasonable however.
Rarely gets used due to battery life, we use an old car radio mounted inside the boat on the house battery. Proper stereo and low battery consumption.
Ian & Jo
New triple a batteries last about 20 - 30 minutes.
Solar charger is just that, if the batteries are low, then you get about 3 - 4 minutes in direct sunshine before it shuts down and sulks until the battery charges enough for the radio to start again.
Sound is reasonable however.
Rarely gets used due to battery life, we use an old car radio mounted inside the boat on the house battery. Proper stereo and low battery consumption.
Ian & Jo
Goldie
Well-Known Member
Because Chris, it means I can listen to Test Match Special without the echosounder interfering as it does, clicking away on R4 Long Wave
parbuckle
Well-Known Member
Listened to 6 episodes of Master & Commander on R4 Extra last week drew less than a couple of amps other than tv or wifi I would have listen to FM mostly music news sport and gossip. Long live DAB.
MM5AHO
Well-Known Member
Yes radio is OK, but I was thinking of the hidden away places that I often anchor. Don't listen to FM on passage, only at night. Its especially bad in between hills, lonely bays and suchlike.
I have improved it at times by switching from pulpit mounted whip antenna to masthead Marine band antenna. It works better, but denies the marine radio its signal meantime, and a faff to change connectors at the back of the radios.
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Well, my car radios (all of them) regularly become unusable on FM as we drive up the M74 over the Southern Uplands. Fine once you're in the Midland Valley. So, I'd certainly expect to have problems in places on the West Coast, if I bothered to listen to the broadcast radio at all
On DAB - basically, the UK went in for it too early, before the technology was mature. So, the result is that we use a broadcast standard that is out-of-date, allows poor quality, and which is not widely used anywhere else in the world. Your UK DAB radio is unlikely to work anywhere else, unlike an FM radio which will work anywhere. DAB has also been used to cram many low-quality stations into the available band-width, rather than transmitting the high quality that is certainly possible with it. It is interesting that broadcasters like Classic FM are drawing back from DAB.
lw395
Well-Known Member
DAB came out a long time ago now, the uptake of mobile internet etc was not predicted in much detail.
There is very little wrong with the standard, the real problem is not enough listeners to fund it.
The technology is there for satellite DAB, but where is the market?
The same may happen with TV, what are the economics of having so many channels when the audience has skipped off to the interweb?
I'm sometimes finding nothing I want to watch, even making half an effort at setting a HDD recorder.
I don't watch much TV, I can see the point coming where I watch no live TV at all.
I know several younger people who do not own a TV, they watch only DVDs and downloads.
There is very little wrong with the standard, the real problem is not enough listeners to fund it.
The technology is there for satellite DAB, but where is the market?
The same may happen with TV, what are the economics of having so many channels when the audience has skipped off to the interweb?
I'm sometimes finding nothing I want to watch, even making half an effort at setting a HDD recorder.
I don't watch much TV, I can see the point coming where I watch no live TV at all.
I know several younger people who do not own a TV, they watch only DVDs and downloads.
elton
Well-Known Member
DAB+ is vastly superior to DAB. DAB+ cannot be adopted on top of DAB. DAB+ is used by most of the rest of the world.
And there are no stereo DAB stations, apart from those of the BBC.
Bit rates are abysmal, yielding pathetic audio bandwidth.
Battery life is unsatisfactory.
I suspect the standard was adopted in view of broadcasting licence revenue, by elderly management with poor hearing.
NickRobinson
Well-Known Member
Me too- I have cancelled my TV licence without any pain. I use Iplayer legitimately perhaps one hour/night sometimes.
I am a R4 fan (shipping forecast 0520 onwards!)and R4 Extra too
lw395
Well-Known Member
The standard allows for plenty of bitrate and can be extremely high quality audio.
I've tested DAB receivers with HP audio analysers and similar kit.
It's fine, good enough to show up issues with most CDs.
However if Planet Rock only gets its adverts heard by x-number of people, it will only be paid y amount to broadcast them, so decides it's uneconomic to rent more than z amount of bandwidth.
Half the target audience is downcasting their podload or something instead.
The BBC provides channels that attract a lot of the remaining, aging audience.
Local FM stations remain popular, because people like local traffic news and stuff.
There are an awful lot around now.
It's interesting to ponder what might have happened if the UK had waited for DAB+, but whenever you launch a technology there is always a case for waiting. There are actually probably millions of DAB receivers in the UK than can receive other bands ( I forget the name of the band above 400MHz somewhere, it was 10 year ago now!), but the transmissions never happened.
The battery issue is fair comment, as is the criticism that the aerials are too big.
But that is fairly much true of all digital broadcast, reception is more complex than FM AM or PAL etc.
But the critical thing is that the fall off in the growth of listeners restricted the number of transmitters that have been commissioned.
So the gaps in reception did not get filled as quickly, feeding back into the lack of listener growth.
I regard the adverts on the radio as punishment for not planning ahead and carrying my own music.
Face the facts, the wireless is mostly for old people now....
elton
Well-Known Member
It might be capable of decent audio quality, but that isn't what it delivers. As I wrote earlier, all but the BBC transmit in mono only, and at pathetic bit rates. I suspect the youngsters have abandoned radio because it sounds so atrocious. It's as bad as a 96kbs mp3, and that's saying something.
Incidentally I looked at the bit rate of Planet Rock on the internet the other day, expecting 128kbs or better. What I found was 47kbs
They really have lost their way on the issue of quality.
