DAB rant.

[DaiRees]

OK, I know technically that I live in a third world country, but ever since a recent alarm clock unreliability / lateness panic I've been keeping half an eye open for a new alarm clock, so imagine my delight when I was wandering 'round Tesco and I spotted a nice iccle Bush DAB radio alarm reduced from fourty squid to seven pound 72p. Now, having never been one to pass up a bush, coupled with the fact that I likes a gadget or two I obviously snapped up this incredible bargain .

Upon my arrival home I immediately dropped my shopping on the kitchen table, forgetting all thoughts of new gadgets, and got on with some work. Several hours later my train of concentration was rudely interrupted by the memory of my new toy. My keenness to wake up tomorrow morning the often amusing tones of Tony and Angela on the Real Radio Brekfast Show in all their digital clarity failed to overcome my inherant distrust of all things that are in any way related Wales' ability to keep up with the rest of the world. Remembering that we still don't have Freeview up here (March 2010 apparently, hell that's not so bad, we're still impressed with incandescent light bulbs!!) I figured I'd check DAB coverage before going to the effort of opening the box. Using the new-fangled intraweb thingy I found something called a "webshyte" that quicky confirmed my suspicions, the 21st century hasn't come to Merthyr Tydfil yet! I'm so thankful for this moment of foresight that saved me literally seconds of wasted effort and anticipation on the DAB clock radio setup, it will now remain boxed....

I'm really not that bothered, I can wait, I'm Welsh, I'm used to waiting for stuff, but it does strike me that shops in areas that aren't covered by DAB (or Freeview for that matter) should display signs that say something along the lines of "Please feel free to purchase this item, but if you're local it'll be about as much use as a screen door on a submarine".

[teamster1975]

What a bummer Dai!
Hopefully that'll all improve when they turn off the analogue TV transmissions & boost all the signals.

[darrenwall]

when i worked in tesco in town when it first opened in 2003 , we sold dozens of freeview boxes for them all to be returned over the next few days as there was no signal up there .

[Doggy]

According to Freeview we can now get BBC4

We've been getting the lot for at least a couple of years, despite Freeview's denials

Are you sure you can't get any of it?

[mjb]

Doesn't matter if it's unboxed if it turns out it doesn't work

[Welly]

Tell you what Dai, you tell me what time you need to get up and I'll ring you up.......


...have you got telephones there yet?


I fink in Wales the hills 'n' valleys might cause signal issues?

[puggy]

Thats the penalty you pay for living in a beautiful part of the country
that is heaped in history , no sympathy from me

[DaiRees]

I fink in Wales the hills 'n' valleys might cause signal issues?

Yeah that's exactly the problem, and the bit of valley around here is a very funny shape. They've actually got to switch off analogue TV in order to have enough carrier signals to broadcast the digital, so "Digital switchover" here will be exactly that . There'll be no period of broadcasting both together, oh noes, imagine all the old dears who are going to get caught out by that !

There's one small area of town that can get Freeview at the moment (literally a handful of streets), they have sufficient elevation and are luck enough to get a line of sight between two mountains to the main transmitter mast at Wenvoe near Cardiff, and that's 25 miles away!

I could have Terrestrial Digital TV, but I worked out that I'd need an aerial pole about 350ft tall Thanks God for Sky!

Yes we do have telephones Welly, even mobiles ... but our coverage can be pretty ropey at times

[STALLED]

We've had Digital HD TV for ages here and I thought we were archaic!

We didn't get RDS until 2004 - most of the car companies optioned radios without it because they knew that nobody used it. Mine does and fortunately, the majority of the stations have it as well in Sydney!

406's shipped to AUS came without headunits. We had aftermarket ones installed without RDS! Needless to say, it was crap - Alpine all the way!

DAB gets launched tomorrow (Thursday) here - Thing is, it won't take off for a while because the radios are so bloody expensive and people don't demand the technology and functionality!

[Captain Jack]

Actually, I want to get a DAB addon jobbie for my Alpine HU for (and this is sad) LBC 97.3 (London's Biggest Conversation). As soon as I pass Newbury on M4, I tune in to it and only listen that when around London. Here, I make do with BBC Somerset/Cymru But LBC is available on DAB around the Severn Estuary, so I thought.. bargain!

[Welly]

Actually maybe someone can help me here - see, in the Volvo when listening to the Radio I get a text scrolling accross the screen telling you something like "Sarah Kenedy....Coming up...Paper Reviews" etc etc. it also shows the telephone number or text for phone-in's and stuff applicable.

How's it doing that then?

[Captain Jack]

Most modern radios do that. RDS text I think. Or some kind of text.

[robb]

Know what you mean where we stay in the Lakes I cant get a radio signal in my caravan but outside in the car I can .Everyone with dishes can receive TV but only certain caravans can get a signal off an ariel which cause smuch joviality amongst the vanners one will get a signal where the caravan right next door cant

[steve_earwig]

It's dead spots innit, you get the signal direct and another bounced off a large object (mountain, building, mother-in-law etc.) so there's a slight time delay and when the peak of one wave and the trough of another arrive at the same time they cancel each other out. You only need to move about half a meter for the effect to go away.

[STALLED]

Most modern radios do that. RDS text I think. Or some kind of text.

Yep - RDS text!