All posts by Michael Rogers
Below are all of Michael Rogers's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
The Grand Plan looks okay-ish. The big imponderable will be the final de-facto coverage, especially BBC local radio. Given the discrepancies between DSO
promises and practice, a modicum of uncertainty is not unjustified.
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John Lloyd: You might wish to research whether there are future plans for DAB to displace 1548kHz. The
discontinuation of medium-wave broadcasting will affect many who listen to more distant transmitters.
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I very much hope this proves to be the case, Brian! Ofcom certainly suggests indoor reception will be satisfactory. Current observations of local DAB reception indoors and on the road from existing transmitters, however, compare unfavourably with FM and AM - except at higher elevation. The licensed commercial mux from Huntshaw Cross is behind schedule, but should be empirically indicative once operational.
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Yep - fingers crossed! How soon might BBC Radio Devon be broadcasting on 10C from Huntshaw? Prediction from Ofcom consultation document: "Map 1 demonstrates what coverage within the North Devon PPA would look like once Huntshaw Cross was on-air. The Huntshaw Cross transmitter would provide indoor coverage to 52.56% ... of households and 66.99% ... of major roads." (No mention of minor roads.)
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See earlier posts on this and related pages. Only some broadcasts are soft-scrambled. You will need a Tivu box and a codice fiscal to register and be able to watch all programmes free. Be wary of advertisers offering this "service".
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If the flatscreen has a SCART socket, use that. If not, follow jB38's recommendations above. You will presumably know that the main RAI channels are at times not free-to-view. For 24/7 you need a Tivu sat-box activated via a codice fiscal - eg a family home address. See earlier postings here. Good to know that being in the EU brings us greater restrictions than before :-)
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Joe Alessi: If the flatscreen has a SCART socket, use that. If not, follow jB38's recommendations above. You will presumably know that the main RAI channels are at times not free-to-view. For 24/7 you need a Tivu sat-box activated via a codice fiscal - eg a family home address. See earlier postings here. Good to know that being in the EU brings us greater restrictions than before :-)
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RAI is on Hotbird, 13°E, 10.992 GHz, vertical, 27.500. Some broadcasts are no longer free-to-view. For full FTA service you need a Tivu box activated on the basis of a codice fiscal (eg family address in Italy). See other postings on this site. Rete4, Canale5 are similarly affected.
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First check the channels you can identify against a web-listing such as lyngsat or kingofsat to confirm your dish is on 13°E. You might be on a different satellite... There are countless FTA channels on 13°E, including a lot of Italian shopping in low-quality video. If these show, tune the receiver to 10.992GHz vertical, 27500, to receive the main RAI channels, some of which will be FTA at any given time. You may need to set up a new TP for 10.992 GHz. lyngsat or kingofsat will give you all the data needed to tune in any other Italian channels of interest. If you are not on 13°E, check identifiable FTA channels against listings for other nearby satellites. That will tell you which way you will need to swivel the dish for 13°E. Tune the receiver to 10.992(RAI) or 11.727 (TVE Internacional) and slowly swivel the dish to 13°E and then incrementally optimise the signal strength and quality as indicated by the signal bars in your menu. RAI and other main channels are now part-time soft-scrambled. A Tivu receiver registered to a codice fiscal (eg family address in Italy) will receive all the formerly FTA channels. See other postings here.
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Monday 9 January 2012 9:54AM
"...initial findings from...tests are that DAB coverage may be more extensive than has previously been predicted (Ofcom). Surely, no-one will dare to think this just might develop into a big let-out clause... Unless an impressive network akin to mobile phone networks evolves, there will be not a few quiet-spots when AM and FM wither, especially where commercial broadcasting would not be profitable. MF signals wriggle their way into coastal and valley terrain rather better than FM or DAB frequencies. DRM on MF would have been a superior solution, but so would Betamax have been. The horse has already bolted...