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 analog switch-off discussion has gone eerily quiet. Is that good news or bad news? I tried a portable DAB+ radio in the new car. FM reception was better, even though the FM/AM radio in the new car is substandard. I am mildly surprised that so many similar music stations are evidently still commercially viable, both on FM and DAB. I had secretly hoped that the market would sort them out, thereby allowing high bitrates to the survivors.
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MikeB : The points you make are all valid - but overall sad in the EU context. When the EU is so minded, it enforces open markets and more, with little regard to geographical commercial and consumer interests. Change for the better is unlikely. Hey ho...
I note that sometimes the same film is showed within a few days on UK and continental channels, suggesting a linked commercial arrangement. As a sop, I do - gleefully - on occasion see a newish film that has only been on pay-through-the-nose-TV in the UK :-)
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I am curious about streaming mobile radio via 3G or 4G. What is the subscription cost for sufficient bandwidth to listen for many hours a day? In less populated areas mobile signals are patchy, as is DAB (and even FM to a lesser degree). In order to attain acceptable nationwide coverage, a lot of infill relays will be necessary, which is not an attractive option for commercial operators.
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Monica , see earlier posts here dealing with this question. Any standard satellite
box and dish will receive Italian broadcasts from Hotbird at 13E. However, some
primetime programmes on RAI etc will be blocked. To receive all free-to-view programmes you need a tivu box registered to a bona-fide address in Italy with the codice civil. Sky Italia is a separate subscription service.
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I find it near-perfect as it is. It would be ideal if the FreeSat frequencies could be listed by squeezing the
columns or typeface. If needed, the list can be printed out for cross-checking etc. Older browser versions
do not display the table correctly, but that is a user-problem.
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High pressure might be an issue, inducting co-channel interference from other
transmitters over the horizon in the direction your aerial is pointing. We have had
similar issues on the lower-powered muxes, but all is back to normal again for now.
This ain't nothing compared to joys ahead when the power-wielders crush the 700MHz
muxes lower down for the CCI clash of the titans so as to allow mobile-providers to
swamp the 700MHz frequencies with offerings for the privileged...
Whopee !!!!
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Margaret Allison : excellent advice from MikeP and MikeB. Without detailed information on the location, it is night impossible to offer specific advice.
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Neili Bell : you could also use Megalithia :
Terrain - shows radio profile between two UK sites to optimise you DTT, Freeview, DAB or analogue TV reception
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Monday 10 November 2014 11:17AM
With aforethought I chose the words "should" and "fundamental EU principles". There are many examples of such inconsistency in EU practice. This is not the forum for wider discussion of such issues, however :-)