Car DAB Radios

[dwynnehugh]

My 1968 Ford Anglia – Motorola AM radio – Long Wave and Medium Wave or in truth (where I lived) L wave only.  No CD player, no CD input, no Bluetooth, no visual display, the station memory – exactly where you tuned it into the last time, stereophonic speakers – eh!! No memory card input – no nothing really – but I was happy!!

Happy days of long gone!!

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Ed P]

Problem with DAB is that it does not live up to its promise of full national coverage. It remains terrible in many parts of the UK. Where it is good it is very very good but where it is bad it is appalling or non-existent. link

Coverage is worse than shown on the map. I live in a average good area according to the map, in reality I need a full roof-top mounted dab aerial to get anything!

[blacklion1725]

I’m sure that’s right Ed – I’m in a very “green” (good) area and so are most of my regular destinations. I made sure the unit I got had AM as well as DAB and FM, and there is the option of streaming internet radio from phone to bluetooth. The latter is what I’ve been doing for anything approaching Kent/Sussex, but DAB is good all the way down, just a couple of “dark” seconds as I get near the coast, but otherwise AOK.

The DAB rollout doesn’t seem to have been thought through properly or implemented well at all. Indoors I’m Internet Radio all the way – don’t bother with DAB at all.

So far (with my windscreen aerial) I can’t tell a difference (from the loan car with a “proper” rooftop DAB aerial). My gym has an underground car park and with both you briefly lose DAB on the way in then it finds itself again. There is no AM reception down there at all. Be interesting to see how the windscreen aerial performs when I go further than 70 miles from London.

The daft thing is the AM reception on talk stations never bothered me at all till I heard DAB, no doubt I’ll get used to it (DAB) and forget that it is any better. Bloody technology.

[Bob Williams]

We live in a village at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where even analogue TV reception was hopeless. When we first moved, there was an aerial in the loft and reception was rubbish. A new aerial was fitted by a guy in the village who was just expanding his business. He advised us to have a high aerial with a strengthened roof mount, which we did: 4 wraps of steel wire around the capped chimney stack. When Digital TV arrived, no one in the Close could receive a good signal. due to a huge old Sycamore tree and the Wolds, between us and the Emley Moor transmitter. The tree was removed, and as in many other locations, the taxpayer had to stump up to meet the government deadline for digital reception, by upgrading the transmitter power.

All the roofs in our village have high-mounted aerials and they need to be strengthened for the high west winds that we often get. The Wolds are not mountanous, but they form a long ridge running roughly south to north, broken by the Humber and then becoming the East Yorkshire Wolds. They have a high chalk content and soak up rainwater as a result. In even moderately warm, dry weather, this evaporates from the sides of the Wolds and affects all signals. There is no Mobile coverage in our village, for example. The chalk can best be seen when the hills have been ploughed in dry weather.

This does seem to affect DAB radio: here in the car, stations like Magic, Gold and other stations beloved of Oldpharts like me, are unavailable, although there is no problem getting them on my superdooper new Pioneer WiFi HiFi, with more bells and whistles than I need. (It impresses the kids anyway!) Once I drive up on the Wolds or out of the Village of The DAB-Damned, I can get pretty much any station.

Edit: check out the zillions of DAB staions in the UK now. Type in your Postcode for your own area:

http://www.getdigitalradio.com/stations/index/?showall=1

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[blacklion1725]

Bob Williams wrote:

BL, I check all the alternatives of some product that I am looking to buy: in this case, a DAB audio head unit. As I find a “possible” I click the Pocket icon at top right of Firefox Toolbar. This looks like 4 small black vertical lines, the RHand one leaning against the others, as if they are books on a bookshelf. Or I click the Pocket icon at Rhand end of the address bar. This looks like a small black shield, with a white arrow, pointing down. It’s only present in the address bar if I have just used Pocket. If using the “bookshelf” icon, I log into Pocket via Google, or FFox accounts, then the Pocket icon opens in the address bar, if it’s not already been used and is open. Click on this icon when on a website page and “Save To Pocket” appears. Click that and the web page is saved in Pocket List. To view every thing saved in Pocket list at any time, go back to the “bookshelf” of 4 black lines, click it and click “View Pocket List”. 

Thanks Bob – that had passed me by I will have a play – sounds useful

Cheers.

[The Duke]

Sort of a side issue, (but related to dab) I listen to mainly talk sport in the car, every 15mins the cit to a song, but the put sport news on for the 2 mins or so, so you just catch the last 5 seconds of the song.

This doesn’t bother me at all, but it does make me wonder, who hears these songs? Do they not have a licence to play music over Dab?

If only there was a way to find this type of stuff out. Lol

Regarding TV, I live in the sun 5% category that got a downgrade in signal with the analog to digital switch over. We went unwatchable to nothing. Luckily we got fast Internet quite early to save me from sky’s grasp.

[blacklion1725]

Not noticed that Duke – an I listen to the same station for the most part. I get TalkSport and Talksport London (same content) – think I’m using London – but will keep an eye out for it. Next Long drive is Wednesday so should spot it then. Even on Medium wave I don’t remember them playing a full song though – just a bit of it?

[The Duke]

What can that be about though? As last night on my travel home, the ‘trans European express’ was on with Danny Kelly, and every tine they went to news, when it come back in, he wold be banging on about how the producer is really pulling the snow related songs out.

For years now I’ve just thought in Internet rad or maybe FM (though I don’t think TS is on FM), played the music through. As the news you get is identical every 15mins. So I thought they just rerun the news to cover the song.

If I wasn’t so hung over I’d look it up. What is it with age and hangovers that last for more than a day! I felt better yesterday than I do atm. ?

I shouldn’t  pretend to be in early 20s and be boozing all day Saturday untill 5am! Something that only ever happens when I go back home so see old friends.

Today is a write off already I can feel it. I’m already contemplating going back to bed. However I’ve got a deadline for today /tomorrow morning! I reckon I can fit a few hours kip in And work tonight.

Hate beer.

[blacklion1725]

Very odd Duke – your right, TS is on MW, DAB and internet – no FM. I get News and Sports News every 30 minutes (on the hour news is longer than the half hour) and traffic at quarter past and quarter to the hour. I hear bits of songs, but when they talk about them it always makes sense what they are referring to.

I’ll be doing a couple of long stints Wednesday (morning and evening) so will pay attention to what happens with news and songs. I don’t think I get your symptoms on MW or DAB though.

[The Duke]

I had a Google before, however it’s a hard one to pick the right terms so got nowhere. So I emailed TS via thier contact page.

Though I’m not expecting much, as I didnt even get a conformation email, which you usually get when you contact via these type of systems.

You know the “thanks for your enquiry, well aim to get back to you with 48hours” etc…

[JayCeeDee]

I Googled ” which wavebands for TalkSport ” and got THIS page.

[blacklion1725]

Cheers for that – this podcast link is a good addition to that lot – each link takes you in to an archive of all the shows – which are refreshingly advert free.

The soundcloud link is a new one so I have bookmarked that – ta!

[The Duke]

I have the TS app ony phone, but rarely use it, preferring tune in radio app.

If I got to the TS website and hit check if I can get TS in my area via dab it comes back as no. I can assure them I can lol.

Still not heard back from then re the music question.

[blacklion1725]

Duke I’ve found playing the stream directly in MX or BS player to be better (for me) than the TS or Tunein apps – works much better with satnav/speed camera apps as the radio sound doesn’t cut out when there is a voice instruction or speed warning (you hear both). MX and BS also have the advantage that with the SW encoder and pre-amp selected you can get the radio station volume much higher relative to the satnav (Google I don’t think lets you switch the voice off completely just soft.loud/normal).

In BS player you can just use http://radio.talksport.com/stream

and in MX player it needs the longer URL http://radio.talksport.com/stream?aisGetOriginalStream=true

(the urls work in any android/desktop browser too. Just change “/stream” to “/stream2” for Talksport 2.

I use the url with website shortcut to launch the url instantly from the home screen.

 

[The Duke]

I don’t speed so I don’t have that issue ?

Well, truth be told, no matter how much Clarkson banged on about the orthodox Wales traffic police etc… We have 2 cameras that i can think of Rhyl front and Towyn front. Both placed to catch tourists. Other than that that we just don’t have them.

The speed vans only sits in 3 spots too. It’s not like memorise this stuff, as like I said I don’t speed.

Sunday night bad weather loads of snow, no one on the motorway and it was fully gritted, never got home so fast. Sadly the last few miles off the motorway wasn’t so quick. Council don’t salt County lanes. Have a torquie car, I had to be real genital with it. Especially as it’s an auto, and evey mow and then it would drop a gear, thinking It needed to, and the wheels would slide sidewards. Ended up putting it im manual mode and locking it in a higher gear.

It’s rare I actully listen to TS on my phone. It’s just when in the car I’ll put the radio on. We don’t own a radio in the house.

 

[Bob Williams]

I just got the worst mental picture of my life from this:

”  Have a torquie car, I had to be real genital with it.  ”

Please say you meant gentle, Steve, otherwise I will not sleep tonight, and it’s bad enough already with this damned bug, coughing and sneezing. ? ? ?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Lol bob.  I reckon someome is editing my posts.

[Bob Williams]

That’s a relief Steve. It was giving me a headache. ??

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Tippon]

It was the needy vans that got me. Pretty apt description ?

[Author]

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