All posts by Michael Rogers
Below are all of Michael Rogers's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Too many not-so-cheap DAB radios have been bought for them to be dumped long before their useful life-span so as to be replaced with DAB+ receivers. DAB will have to be retained for many years yet. Broadcasters will aim to limit duplication, so even if a new national mulplex were DAB+, they would have to be convinced of the viability of broadcasting on both until saturation of DAB+ coverage and receiver sales allowed DAB to be discontinued.
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Rearguard action, I know, but in times of emergency, the best coverage receivable on a battery-friendly portable radio has its merits. It is more feasible to protect and maintain a few AM and FM main transmitters than a multitude of DAB main and filler transmitters. My expensive DAB radio just died in its infancy, but I still have a fistful of semi-ancient portable AM/FM thingys (plus a few with soothing glowbugs). I will have to settle for a cheapo DAB replacement. Are there any reviews which include battery consumption ?
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Amen, Amen, Steve. The best way forward is evident to those not constrained by political and business interests : FM and DAB to share, not duplicate. AM to fill propagation gaps and provide emergeny local information coverage to legacy battery radios. DAB+ retained as a next-generation option - unless even better evolves by then :-)
On the local bus today, I overheard people (unaware of CCI) complaining about ongoing abysmally fluctuating DTT reception, when aforetimes analog was consistently watchable. If the movers and shakers ignored the anomalies of CCI following DSO, what hope for punter-friendly radio and TV reception when 3-4-5G merchants shake their cheque books?
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It would be nice to know what these engineering works are intended to achieve. A few days ago I overheard people on the local bus complaining that they still could not get a consistently reliable television picture. It comes, breaks up then disappears for a while and so on. They were not happy as they had no problems when it was still analog. I don't know whether they understood that the cause was co-channel interference from Carmel "bouncing off" the rising and falling Bristol Channel. I am sure they would be happier to know that they endure an unacceptable service so that 3G and 4G companies can beef up their future profit margins...
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There are a lot of notices of brief service cuts for engineering works, but without any indication of the purpose of such works. It would be most interesting to know!
A few days ago I overheard people on the local bus complaining that they still could not get a consistently reliable television picture in Ilfracombe. It comes, breaks up then disappears for a while and so on. They were not happy as they had no problems when it was still analog. I don't know whether they understood that the cause was co-channel interference from Carmel "bouncing off" the rising and falling Bristol Channel. I am sure they would be more understanding if they knew that they endure an unacceptable service so that 3G and 4G companies can beef up their future profit margins...
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Dave Lindsay: Indeed, but just regular maintenance, improvement of coverage, response to CCI, change of radiation patterns, additional services, DAB/FM radio, mobile services, or what?
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A contact near Nice reported initial loss of signal on 2E, but recently most channels returned without any modification of the system. Perhaps Monaco expats have pulled a few strings :-)
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As posted, my friend near Nice initially lost all, but then most returned without
any change to the installation. So either the initial tx power was increased or
Monaco expat power came to bear... Reception reports do seem to indicate that the radiation pattern is somewhat jagged. Maybe the tx parabole got a bit bent on deployment :-)
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I doubt we would ever agree on how to best prune the BBC. To me, local news on radio and BBC1 are very important. I am sure they could be streamlined without sacrificing quality. I suspect BBC running costs could be drastically reduced - symptomatically brooding : upper echelon salaries and benefits, the many unattended screens behind the newsreaders, unnecessary travel, facility maintenance, outsourcing etc etc. The credits at the end of a programme or film suggest a huge number of people are employed to produce one-hour of air-time. If I had to choose between a subscription-based BBC and SKY, I would, with regret, lean towards SKY - simply because the overall quality of service offered by the BBC continues to drift away from its high standards of former times.
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Tuesday 4 February 2014 8:28PM
That would be the preferred and obvious transition, but duplication costs might be an impediment, as they are now where unnecessary duplication on AM, FM and DAB is counter-productive.