Re: BBC FM networks borked

charles wrote:
In article <REee7G1mBdvGFwou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
SpamTrapSeeSig <no-one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't live in a marginal area. I live on top of a hill in a good
suburban coverage area. I have one DAB portable, which I bought as an
experiment. I use its 1/4 wave telescopic aerial, and even in the
attic its reception is very poor. It is plagued with both
coding/bitrate and reception artefacts, and to my ear sounds quite
nasty, to the extent I cannot tolerate it for normal use, even
whilst doing DIY.

If it has those problems, then I can quite understand that you
wouldn't want to listen to it. However, in my case, I only get
those problems when I collapse the aerial down to its 'stow away'
position.

This suggest one of two things: either you have a faulty radio. [The
first vhf portable I bought (in Goldhawk Road) gave appalling quality
- so I took it back. It turned out to be a complete dud batch]; or
there is some serious screening in your building. What is the house
made of? and what is reception like outdoors?


Charles, he said that he has both problems with audio quality and reception
quality, so are you saying that the audio quality problems are also due to
having a faulty radio? How unfortunate.

And Charles, are you aware that DAB uses pathetically weak error correction
coding? You may not be aware of this if you live in an area with a strong
signal, as you seem to, but on one of the multiplexes I can receive I get
bubbling mud on the signal despite the fact that I live 5 miles away from
the transmitter for that multiplex (the other 3 multiplexes are fine), and I
can assure you that shitloads of people are complaining about DAB's crap
reception quality, and the most likely answer is not that the radio is
faulty, I'm afraid.


It is impractical to run it on batteries, and I have yet to find a
DAB receiver that can be thus used.


At least one, I haven't researched very hard since it doesn't concern
me, is available with a rechargeable battery.


Does using rechargeable batteries increase the battery life?

BTW, I thought you said you weren't a DAB apologist?


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info


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