Analogue radio medium wave

Inforapennyinforapound

I usually listen to '5 live' etc in the car with no problems.

However i decided to tune in to this medium wave station the other night for the soccer(rather than my usual FM stations) in the house using my mini hi-fi system.
The background noise was horrendous on every med wave station.Moving the aerial made things only slightly better.It was inaudible in reality.

Was it my hi-fi system?

So i tried using my small battery portable radio.Same problem of horrid background buzzing.(this experiment was in the same room)

I continued the experiment with the portable radio and only when i went into back garden did reception become clear.

I seem to recall a couple of years ago there was no problem with the hi-fi med wave reception(as i say i only listen to FM)

We have wireless broadband and a digital tv.Are these culpable i wonder?

Any thoughts welcome.

Taffybiker

FM was always much better quality than MW, or AM in general for that matter. It is also less prone to interference.

PROLIANT

Switch Mode Power Supplies are the problem along with PLT (Power Line Transmission) Network adapters; they have killed the MF/HF Radio spectrum.
Try turning off all electrical appliance near by and localise the noise, you might be better putting up an external antenna outside with a good earth, that will improve things 100%.

kwikbreaks

Maybe this is just the difference between listening in the daytime when the distant station signals get absorbed by the ionosphere so don't reach you and night when every frequency has about 6 stations fading in and out on it. Try your car radio on AM at night.

penrhyn

Medium wave reception is always poor after dark, it will be so on your car radio as well.
BBC Radio 5 is on DAB radio interference free.

miketerry

DAB radio is much overrated. Often reception is very poor with a "warbling noise". Its expensive and out moded technology. The audio quality is often poor with low bitrates as so many stations are squeezed in, FM is better, pity BBC Radio 5 is not on FM. There is huge public opposition to the DAB changeover - it will not happen in 5 years!

Inforapennyinforapound

Thanks all.

It seems there is no solution then.
I am a bit confused about DAB.Are the AM/Med wave stations broadcast in DAB format?

Also,if 5 Live is so popular(which i assume it is) why is it broadcast on med wave if reception is so hit/miss?

I cant now listen to it at home unless i use a portable in the garden on a nice summer day.I cant begin to describe the interference inside the house.It is so loud it drowns the presenters' voices.

kwikbreaks

5 Live on MW is also one of the biggest causes of interference on ADSL broadband.

As was posted earlier some of the interference you heard will be from electrical kit in your house - if you check again during the day it will give you some idea whether the problem is mostly in house interference which you may just possibly be able to fix (but probably not) or the age old MW night time problem which dates back to when MW was first used and can't be fixed.

Your only option if it's not on FM is to seek out one of the digital options (internet - http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/ freeview etc.). Don't buy a DAB radio specifically for it though as coverage is poor and the quality dire even if you can receive it. Oh - a battery one will chew through alkalines like there's no tomorrow too.

penrhyn

Inforapennyinforapound wrote: »

Thanks all.

It seems there is no solution then.
I am a bit confused about DAB.Are the AM/Med wave stations broadcast in DAB format?

Also,if 5 Live is so popular(which i assume it is) why is it broadcast on med wave if reception is so hit/miss?

I cant now listen to it at home unless i use a portable in the garden on a nice summer day.I cant begin to describe the interference inside the house.It is so loud it drowns the presenters' voices.

All BBC radio stations are transmitted on DAB,as well as digital only stations like 5Live sports extra, BBC Radio 7, as well as a load of commercial stations.
Yes DAB radio suffers from the digital cliff in the same was as Digital TV.
If you want to find out wots on DAB here is a link,
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/dab.html

kwikbreaks

penrhyn wrote: »

Yes DAB radio suffers from the digital cliff in the same was as Digital TV.

DAB is an outright con.

Even if you can receive it perfectly (which you can't in most locations) the quality is low due to low bit rates. The receivers are far more expensive than for FM because they are more complex and require so much power that portable use using batteries is only for the wealthy.

Then to put the tinhat on it the version that the government is pushing is obsolete already.

The 2015 target digital radio cutover simply will not happen - it would be political suicide when the public cotton on to what it actually means - consigning every existing FM radio to the scrap heap and replacing it with an inferior quality, less efficient DAB radio that currently costs a lot more and still will even with high volumes.

boyse7en

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Maybe this is just the difference between listening in the daytime when the distant station signals get absorbed by the ionosphere so don't reach you and night when every frequency has about 6 stations fading in and out on it. Try your car radio on AM at night.

Thanks for that - I always wondered why, when I was a youngster, Radio 1 was unlistenable after about 6.30pm. It always surprises me that so many people managd to listen to John Peel, when I had to switch off when Bruno Brookes was still on.