What's the point of DAB radio?

Jon_01

Bought a new car a month or so back. It's fitted with both FM and DAB radio.

Has the first long trip today and found that DAB 'appears' to be a completely pointless. As soon as I left the city (Bristol) it just gave up! Long pauses with the odd one second of sound. At one point there was silence for a good 4 to 5 minutes! And this is on the M4!

On the way back I switched to FM and not a single problem, clear all the way no dips in signals, no drop outs.

I thought DAB was supposed to be a step forward?

stator

When you get it, it's better. More stations and higher quality on BBC.


Unfortunately DAB hasn't received all the funding that Freeview has. So coverage isn't as good as it could be.



What sort of antenna does your car have? A good antenna and you can get a good signal in most places.

robin58

Trouble I find you get more stations but less of interest.

On my area where I can pick up both local and London stations, once you take away the ethnic ones, religious, and multi copies of the same station in different areas like Heart and Smooth, there is not much left.

Out of about 80 stations there are are about 10 I listen to and about 6 of them I can get on a normal radio.

To be honest I more interested in internet radio. It has more choice of stations from around the world.

googler

Jon_01 wrote: »

Bought a new car a month or so back. It's fitted with both FM and DAB radio.

Has the first long trip today and found that DAB 'appears' to be a completely pointless. As soon as I left the city (Bristol) it just gave up! Long pauses with the odd one second of sound. At one point there was silence for a good 4 to 5 minutes! And this is on the M4!

On the way back I switched to FM and not a single problem, clear all the way no dips in signals, no drop outs.

I thought DAB was supposed to be a step forward?

The point is to squeeze more stations into the available broadcast spectrum, so that those in control can say "Look at all the choices you have", conveniently ignoring the fact that most folks find one station they like and stick with it.

The point is also for the Govt to drive the "digital switchover" so that they can have a task/bullet point that they can tick off when it's done, and crow about how successful they were.

Doshwaster

The whole point of DAB is to be able to tune into Test Match Special without the crackle of LW.

25_Years_On

Doshwaster wrote: »

The whole point of DAB is to be able to tune into Test Match Special without the crackle of LW.

I've never had any crackle with long wave. Where I am digital radio is fine only on the telly but not very portable and DAB hardly works. FM isn't great. Long Wave remains my best option at home as long as I listen to Radio 4. I guess that's technology for you.

JP1978

USB 12V Chargers that you use to charge your phone or Dashcam, or hardwire kits for Dashcams can and do cause interference to DAB, FM or both - a strong DAB signal will be reduced but still acceptable, a weaker DAB signal will be eliminated.

Many of the USB chargers have not got the suppression chips in them to stop the interference.

Quite a few of the better ones advertise they are interference free but the ones bundled or cheap, often wont.

So, take out your USB chargers on your usual commute and see if any change

Chino

25_Years_On wrote: »

Where I am DAB is fine only on the telly but not very portable.

That's not DAB, that's radio on DTT.
https://ukfree.tv/channels/radioontv

EssexExile

The point of DAB is to get more lower quality radio stations paying for licences & to free up the old FM bands to be sold off for more money.

esuhl

Yep - digitisation into super-low-quality audio means you can cram more channels into a certain bandwidth, so the government can earn more money from broadcast licences.


Like the move from CD to MP3, it results in much lower sound quality.

interstellaflyer

Jon_01 wrote: »

Bought a new car a month or so back. It's fitted with both FM and DAB radio.

Has the first long trip today and found that DAB 'appears' to be a completely pointless. As soon as I left the city (Bristol) it just gave up! Long pauses with the odd one second of sound. At one point there was silence for a good 4 to 5 minutes! And this is on the M4!

On the way back I switched to FM and not a single problem, clear all the way no dips in signals, no drop outs.

I thought DAB was supposed to be a step forward?

I'd go back to the dealer, I've fitted a DAB radio in my car and have no problem with reception at all, as for what's the point, well you can escape the mainstream radio stations playing the generic sounding heavily auto tuned garbage that passes for pop music these days.