All posts by Michael Rogers
Below are all of Michael Rogers's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Steve, could be a cookie lurking in your PC.
Try deleting all history and related and see if it recurs. You could also be in a botnet
without knowing it. I always delete history at frequent intervals to minimise such intrusion. Before deleting history, you might be intrigued to look and see how many cookies have sneaked in, many collecting marketing data. I would also suggest passwords not be stored. It is safer to keep all personal data on paper and to enter it each time needed, even if that is a slight inconvenience.
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Trevor, I watched the concert on ZDF HD and also compared with the 320kb/s link, but would probably need to upgrade the PC audio to fully benefit. This may the BBCs tentative plan to provide hifi to "discerning listeners". It would be preferable via satellite, but they will assume more listeners have access to the internet than to satellite. The limitations on FTA HD should inform programme provision. Many programmes do not merit HD, whether upscaled or authentic HD. The additional BBC HD channel should ideally be 24/7, with repeats of outstanding programmes, concerts, films, documentaries, etc. from BBC 1,2,3 and 4.
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DRM would solve many problems and be a good overall compromise, using LW, MW and SW as well as VHF,and needing fewer transmitters for better overall coverage. B u t it appears that, despite ongoing trial broadcasts, it has been outflanked by other digital modes, sadly. Betamax Returns...
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David : YESTERDAY is vertically polarised on Kilvey Hill on 530MHz, (channel 28, Arqiva B) together with VIVA, Ideal World, Create and Craft, ITV4, Film4, Russia Today, 4Music and (Sky Sports 1&2). A manual retune of channel 28 would bring it back. Near 100% signal and quality this side of the water on a groundfloor indoor aerial!
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Thanks, Brian. I remember reading this some time back. The conclucions of this and the many other ongoing DRM trials on LW, MW and SW demonstrate the potential, but, as I said, I fear it is now dormant. Because of the number of DAB-receivers sold, DAB+ is unviable now. So it will be DAB. I have some hope that, because of the chain of problems we frequently refer to here, "they" will have a pragmatic re-think and perhaps use DAB for national SFNs, and retain FM for regional and local broadcasting.(BBC, commercial and community). AM would become semi-dormant, but could fill in any gaps and be retained as a future DRM option. A similar debate is resurging now in Germany with widespread unbelief amongst conoscienti that the national flagships DLF and DLR, which are heard way beyond national borders could be removed from LW and MW. Perfidy!
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Ofcom 2011 update now published online, with lots of "exciting" retune events to look forward to... Brian and volunteers, make sure you get plenty of rest with your super-energy balanced diet so as to be ready for the flood of enquiries and postings to come!
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Gerry, here in North Devon I console myself with the fact that we have beautiful views...
You might have more listening joy with an external aerial for FM and ultimately also for DAB. You should be able to get most of what you want via satellite at 28°E (same location in the sky as SKY) - if you have a clear line of view. Broadband radio should be ok with below 1 Mb/s. I have between 0.5 and 0.9 Mb/s and its generally ok, but not good enough for iPlayer, youtube etc. If you suspect performance is not consistent with your download speed, you might wish to check with BT that you dont have a DACS telephone line (unbeknown to you, shared with another subscriber). You wouldnt notice it on the phone, but it would be broadband-unfriendly, Just a thought.
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Gerry, 4miles is certainly pushing it, so its probably the best you can get until they unroll fibre optic... Your speed should be good enough for internet-radio, either via the PC or a webradio. Try different modes and software on the PC. For DAB or FM I would certainly try a three-element rooftop aerial if you can be discrete, otherwise in the loft. A less visible single dipole might suffice. At the radio you can use a crocodile clip from the centre conductor of the coaxial cable from the aerial to the telescopic aerial and connect the shield to the outer part of any headphone or similar socket or the negative contact in the battery compartment. Always disconnect the aerial if there is thunder in the air! Good luck! The beach is for bathing, dreaming, surfing, reading :-)
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DRM+ TRIAL IN THE UK -This is good news! If DRM were moribund, this would not be happening! Extract from drm.org below:-
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The DRM Digital Radio Mondiale standard was extended in 2009 to add an additional mode for operation in the VHF broadcasting bands (known as DRM+), enhancing the established capability of DRM for digital radio services in the bands below 30 MHz.
DRM provides many features to allow user-friendly, high quality radio to be broadcast, including use of station names rather than frequencies, consistent digital audio, additional text and visualisation, an EPG, alternate service signalling, and automatic service following to DRM, DAB, FM and AM services.
After the successful trial in Sri Lanka (November 2010) the DRM Consortium will mount a comprehensive DRM+ trial in the UK. The trial will take place in the Edinburgh area of Scotland in the first quarter of 2011. Its objectives are:
* To measure the coverage of DRM+ operating in various transmission modes (lower capacity, higher ruggedness; higher capacity, lower ruggedness);
* To compare the coverage of FM and DRM+ in terms of transmit power;
* To assess the impact of DRM+ on FM and vice-versa;
* To demonstrate the performance of DRM+ in a range of environments throughout the coverage area, for example, urban, suburban, rural, etc., and therefore provide an analysis of performance in the presence of multipath interference, terrain shielding, man-made obstructions, etc., in both strong and weak signal areas;
* To measure the pattern of the antenna in order to correlate performance in different directions with expected performance;
* To provide suitable measurement data to international regulatory bodies, such as CEPT and ITU.
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Saturday 1 January 2011 9:48AM
A propos, we closet-luddites arent all bad: by definition (ludo, ludis, ludit...) we have more fun...
I understand that the ZDF is broadcasting the New Year concert in HD, whereas the BBC appears to reserve HD for the interests of its neo-luddite MBA strata... I wonder what the respective audio bit-rates will be? Are audio-bitrates for DTT and Dsat audio channels listed anywhere? Do they vary content-dependent?