Digital Switchover - radio?

jackieblack

I know this will seem like a really stupid question to some ......

Our region is due for digital switchover in 2011.
I assume it will be the radio as well as the tv signal that gets turned off when this happens?

(My daughter has asked for a alarm clock/radio for christmas)

mluton

http://www.switchhelp.co.uk/faq_radio.html

But I would buy a Alarm/DAB Radio anyway. The reception if you get it will be a lot clearer.

vyle

I had a chat with the marketing manager of Roberts Radio a few weeks back about this, and his theory is that no matter what, FM will not be switched off until car manufacturers included DAB radios in their cars as standard.

jackieblack

mluton wrote: »

http://www.switchhelp.co.uk/faq_radio.html

But I would buy a Alarm/DAB Radio anyway. The reception if you get it will be a lot clearer.

Thanks for that link :T, that website is really helpful. In case anyone else is interested, it says:
In 2009, the Government's Digital Britain report outlined plans to turn off existing FM and AM National and local services by 2015. This would free up space for a number of "ultra-local" services.
This switch would only go ahead if at least 50% of the UK were listening on digital radio.
The Digital Britain plans aren't concrete, but as it stands, the report recommends moving existing FM and AM services over to digital by 2015.

DAB radios still seem quite alot more expensive at the moment - the one DD has her eye on is £15-£20. We get good radio recption here anyway, we live at the top of a hill and the mast is not too far away!

vyle wrote: »

I had a chat with the marketing manager of Roberts Radio a few weeks back about this, and his theory is that no matter what, FM will not be switched off until car manufacturers included DAB radios in their cars as standard.

Hadn't thought about car radios! That is a good point!

aliEnRIK

Radios not got any set date to be switched off as yet

i8change

FM is here to stay for a while. DAB (old 1980's technology) is being superseded by the superior DAB+ system in other countries now, so has no long term future.
It's a bit of a mess.

http://www.whathifi.com/News/DIGITAL-BRITAIN-report-sets-switch-off-date-for-national-analogue-radio/

First it was on, then it was off – now, with today's publication of the Digital Britain report, it seems that there is a switch-off date for the majority of analogue radio services in the UK. And it's only six years away.
The criteria for the switch-off date are that 50% of listening is to digital radio, national DAB coverage is comparable to FM coverage, and local radio reaches 90% of the population and all major roads.The report expects these criteria to be met by the end of 2013.

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/fm_switch-off.htm

Problems with switching off FM

1. There are 100 - 150m FM radios in use, but only 5m DAB receivers have been sold so far.
2. By the time FM can be switched off, the UK will have switched to using DAB+, so the 5m DAB receivers sold so far will be obsolete by then.
3. The BBC's Controller in charge of digital radio said recently that increasing coverage of its national DAB multiplex to the last ten percent of the population was "prohibitively expensive" and that "hybrid solutions" would be required. This means using DRM and/or DRM+, but there are virtually no receivers available that support DRM and the DRM+ standard hasn't been released yet.
4. No mass-produced cars contain DAB car stereos, let alone DAB+ car stereos.
5. If FM is switched off when there are millions of cars that don't contain DAB+ car stereos, radio faces losing millions of in-car listeners -- DAB+ car adaptors could be produced, but having something like this on the dash-board would be an invitation to thieves to break in, which would lead to millions of people simply not bothering to buy a DAB+ car adaptor and just abandoning radio in favour of listening to CD/MP3 on their car stereo instead.
6. I've been told by someone that has a relation in the car industry that DAB is "years away" from being installed as standard in mass-produced cars because the cost of the FM receiver section of a car stereo is tiny in comparison to the cost of including DAB.

kwikbreaks

vyle wrote: »

his theory is that no matter what, FM will not be switched off until car manufacturers included DAB radios in their cars as standard.

And they aren't likely to be doing that until they give as reliable signal as FM does now. Figure around a week before hell freezes over for that unless the technology changes.

Also don't run away with the idea that DAB offers better quality - too many stations means low bit rates so the quality isn't too hot either.

randomtask_2

since you have no reception issues for FM radio, the principal benefit of DAB is the wider choice of stations - I wouldn't bother if your daughter's only going to listen to stations already available in FM

robredz

The quality is sub FM in most cases, the Radio 3 listeners were unhappy with the quality on DAB, I believe that on speech only services the bitrate can be as low as 90 kbps mono. Others will know more on the tech specs imho

buglawton

DAB does not work properly in my Kitchen but FM (just about) does - in the centre of the Thames Valley, not a Scottish Valley. I think even the BBC has given up on making DAB work.

john_s_2

No one's mentioned battery usage. Last time I checked, DAB radios use far more power than an FM radio.

I have a battery radio in my bathroom - I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands like me. It lasts for months before the AA batteries need replacing.

DAB? No thanks.