[kev]

Just thought i'd add some thoughts on Pocket DAB coverage in areas where FM reception is normally excellent.

Firstly...

Comparing MXR NorthWest with Galaxy 102 round Manchester

From Stockport to Bolton (on the train) the signal dropped out once, much better than FM which drops into static everytime an ant farts. DAB 1 vs FM 0 CE Manchester never showed up on an autotune.

Then from Bolton to Chorley (Smooth 100.4 vs MXR)

For most of this section of the journey I could see the Winter Hill transmitter, FM reception is normally constantly FM stereo (drops to mono under a bridge next to Winter Hill) On DAB for much of this leg the signal kept dropping out, even while I had a clear, unobstucted view of Winter Hill. All in all a poor show for DAB. Gave up and switched to 100.4 (no sign of CE Lancs either) DAB 1 vs FM 1

From Chorley to Preston (Smooth 100.4 vs MXR)
DAB was much better than before, but still suffered numerous drop outs where as FM would remain in stereo with just the occassinal hiss. DAB 1 vs FM 2 CE Lancs showed it's face.

Preston Railway station (Smooth 100.4 vs MXR)
FM Normally Hiss free
DAB kept dropping to bubbling mud but remained listanable.
DAB 1 vs FM 3

My parents (Smooth 100.4 vs MXR)
FM - Hiss Free Stereo (with RDS on my mobile)
DAB - "No Signal"
'nuff said DAB 1 vs FM 4

My parents (Rock FM vs EMAP CLANC)
FM - Hiss Free Stereo (with RDS on my mobile), but poor audio quality (far too loud and slight clipping)
DAB - Occassional drops outs, and absolutly crap audio quality (except XFM which sounds great)
DAB 1.5 vs FM 4.5

My parents (BBC Radio 1 98.2 vs BBC National DAB)

FM - Hiss Free Stereo (with RDS on my mobile),
DAB - Occassional bubbling mud
DAB 1.5 vs FM 5.5


My parents (Classic FM vs Digital One Network)

FM - Constant AF jumping between Morcambe Bay and Holme Moss, a bit hissy
DAB - Okay

DAB 2.5 vs FM 5.5

Sheffield Galaxy 105 vs MXR Yorkshire
Normally get a signal after passing through the last tunnel into Sheffield, and lose it about 30 seconds before passing through the first tunnel out of sheffield. Generally FM Stereo with some hiss
DAB - the same, but occassional mud

DAB 3 vs FM 6

Nottingham Station to Alfreton (BBC Notts vs NDEM)

FM normally solid FM stereo, with the occassional hiss

Started badly with bubbling mud all round Nottingham station.
Once you left the station was rock solid until you went over the M1 where it became "No Signal", never to be seen again (although NOW Leicester came in for a while_

DAB 3 vs FM 7.

In short, if you are travelling anywhere other than Central Manchester on the City link express between Manchester and Nottingham or Northern Rail between Preston and Manchester, leave your DAB set at home, it's useless.

What i want to know is how, dispite being able to clearly see the Winter Hill transmitter was DAB so shite, when FM is excellent, and how on earth is it proposed to allow the portable reception it's supposed to enable?

At both ends (parents in Preston and my house in Nottingham) when using a radio with telescopic aerial that's fully extended DAB works fine, and with less faffing than FM requires, so from that point of view DAB coverage is already sorted (although MXR NW can be hit and miss for tuning on the first attempt)

[Mr Pringle]

Originally Posted by kev

What i want to know is how, dispite being able to clearly see the Winter Hill transmitter was DAB so shite, when FM is excellent, and how on earth is it proposed to allow the portable reception it's supposed to enable?

Same as everywhere else, I suspect - the ERP is too piss-poor to get through cardboard. If they turned up the power levels, the DAB signals would at least penetrate a few more of the hard to reach places.

[mattyk100]

using my potable Bush DAB radio, recption is patchy in clacton to say the least. in my house recption is very veriable, i can have near full signal, and move very slightly and have nothing.

does anybody have any idea when they will start using a mixed polarised signal because the vertical polorisation is fine for fixed DAB sets, but when your moving about and sitting down, its not allways possible to have your headphone lead in a vetical possition.

overall recpetion needs to be improved, i recieve my DAB signal from maningtree, where i also recieve standard BBC radio from. take radio 1 for example, its is transmitted at 4kw on analogue, yet DAB is transmitted at 5kw with the the arials located at the top of the mast, i would expect the DAB coverage therefore to be the same as the old system but this dosent seem the case!

[kev]

Originally Posted by Mr Pringle

Same as everywhere else, I suspect - the ERP is too piss-poor to get through cardboard. If they turned up the power levels, the DAB signals would at least penetrate a few more of the hard to reach places.

So just having air and a piece of glass between you makes you hard to reach?

For some comparision
Winter Hill DAB is operating at 10kW
BBC National FMers are 2kW, while the regionals are 4kW.

As for the mixed polarisation suggestion, that might actually be a good idea - i noticed how much easier Saga 106.6 was to recive after it switched from Vertical to Horizontal when moving about.

My dad has the same pocket DAB set and as he gets onto lower ground, heading further away from transmitter it's fine (and BBC Lancs is much better than 103.9/104.5)

[Mr Pringle]

Originally Posted by kev

So just having air and a piece of glass between you makes you hard to reach?

So it would seem!

They need to do something - two things being moving to mixed polarisation and turning up the power until more TXs are installed. Whenever that'll really happen outside of the M25.

[FVRT100user]

My Ministry of sound DAB broke after I have had it for about 1 and half years. (in its fault - I droped it big time!)

But I replaced it with a Pure digital poket 1000 - and it that was nowhere near is good at keeping reception! I ;ive in Bromsgrove which has a DAB transmitter & with old radio could go pretty much anyway with no probs. But with the 1 I brought it terrible. I am going to replace it, but which one should i get since i can no longer get? cant get Minisgty of sound 1 from Argos anymore!

"mattyk100"would u recomend the Bush portable DAB for a good signal area such as Bromsgrove?

[mikeydb]

I think somehow we need to get a few of these radios in the same distant location and run a radio shoot out, to test how they perform in poor signal areas, and then compare battery life and overall sound quality (difficult with the bitrates we've got). I don't think it'll happen though.

[FVRT100user]

it seems a bit of a lottery to buy a portable DAB that works well. I thought that the pure digital one I got would do well, but it was pooer than the cheper bush 1 from Argos. Its seems there are no set out stardards that all the portables have to meet.

[FVRT100user]

I still have my pure digital portable DAB because today the signal was fine! I can onlt presum it was signal on reduced power od the aphespher of te last few days. But my singnal level is 100% where ever I go today where is yesterday it never got higher than 85% and got lower than 45% quiet a bit!

Confused? I am!

[FVRT100user]

it now turns out there is some kind of bug with my Pure digital pocket DAB where as soon as I turn it on it never reaches a 100% in an area where the signal is good. However if I take my headphones out for a few seconds and then put them back in - it goes to 100% - this is driving crazy - why would this happen?

[mattyk100]

Originally Posted by FVRT100user

My Ministry of sound DAB broke after I have had it for about 1 and half years. (in its fault - I droped it big time!)

But I replaced it with a Pure digital poket 1000 - and it that was nowhere near is good at keeping reception! I ;ive in Bromsgrove which has a DAB transmitter & with old radio could go pretty much anyway with no probs. But with the 1 I brought it terrible. I am going to replace it, but which one should i get since i can no longer get? cant get Minisgty of sound 1 from Argos anymore!

"mattyk100"would u recomend the Bush portable DAB for a good signal area such as Bromsgrove?

hi FVRT100 user

after being out and about abit more and testing my BUSH pocket DAB radio in different locations, i have seen some very good results.

on a recent trip to woodbridge in suffolk, i found that reception in the car was very poor, outside coverage was better, breaking up every 10 or so seconds, ok this might sound bad but considering, using a post code checker, i should not be able to recieve the digital 1 mulitiplex, i was pleased with the results.

on another trip to southend, well i got as far as chelmsford, lol we turned round due to and accident, i aqain tested coverage, from just outside clacton all the way to just past colchester on the A 12, reception was very impressive, with no break ups at all, from then on reception was very gd with only a few break ups with less breakups as we got closer to chelmsford. on the way back i tested coverage of the local mulitiplex NOW S & C and again i was very impressed, there were very few break ups until i got all the way to weeley, where i lost the signal completely.

overall it seems that the BUSH PSDAB2004 is very impressive at holding on to the signal even in weak signal areas.

i would therefore recomend this pocket radio, and i would like to completely disagree with the person on another forum who said the tuners in the BUSH radios are crap!

[FVRT100user]

Hi mattyk 100 I have now replace my pure digital radio with the Bush one from Argos. I am very haapy and since it looks as if it from similar people to ministry of sound it looks like it has sane tuner & works the same as mistry of sound did till I broke it!

Thanks for your advice. i am now listening to Five Live Sports Extra and the US Open Tennis. Roll on the 5th Ashes Test on Thursday

[FVRT100user]

Hi, It turns out I have the BUSH PSDAB2003 the only difference from Argos. The only difference I can see is 2003 is dark blue and 2004 is white. Very VERY happy with it.

[mattyk100]

hi

im glad ur happy with your PSDAB2003. i also got mine from argos, despite being advertised as the PSDAB2003 in the argos book, i receieved the PSDAB2004. like you said, the only obveouse differenece is the colour, im not sure if there are any other differences.

[FVRT100user]

My friend has the white model which is PSDAB2004. The blue one 1 got is PSDAB2003. I will see him in a few days and we try and see any differences.

Are you into cricket?

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by FVRT100user

it now turns out there is some kind of bug with my Pure digital pocket DAB where as soon as I turn it on it never reaches a 100% in an area where the signal is good.

Something I've noticed is that the battery strength display on the Pure PocketDAB changes up and down as you change stations. On the train yesterday, when Xfm became too gurgly to listen, switched to 5 Live and the battery display changed immediately, then switching to another station it changed again. Is this because the radio needs more juice to hunt for stations or because stereo stations use more processor power than mono... or what?

[FVRT100user]

no, its prob cuz its using the LCD backlight. which uwont see in the day, but it will still be on.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by FVRT100user

no, its prob cuz its using the LCD backlight. which uwont see in the day, but it will still be on.

Should have thought of that!

[FVRT100user]

the back light comes on every time u press a button. They may be an option to change this - I am sure if there is.

[mikeydb]

Yes, on the pure DAB 1000 you can have the LCD backlight ON, OFF and a selection of time-out times, it always defaults to a three second time out, so every time you use it you might want to get in the habit of turning the LCD backlight off if you're using batteries during the day.

[mikeydb]

Originally Posted by FVRT100user

it now turns out there is some kind of bug with my Pure digital pocket DAB where as soon as I turn it on it never reaches a 100% in an area where the signal is good. However if I take my headphones out for a few seconds and then put them back in - it goes to 100% - this is driving crazy - why would this happen?

I have found a problem when listening at my girlfriends house, it starts off working okay, full signal, but after three minutes the signal strength goes down and the signal starts breaking up. If I turn it off and back on again, it works okay for three minutes, this affects all mux's. Performing a scan doesn't help either. I've only have this problem at my girlfriends house so maybe there's an interference problem causing the radio to be dragged off frequency causing it to fail. I've listened to it for hours outdoors, in the car and at home and have never experienced a similar problem.

[bwfcol]

my pocket DAB hardly drops out anywhere
although i only really use 5 live (footie/606/cricket) and radio one (Chris moyles)

[pauljaymes]

I would echo the sentiment that the quality of reception has as much to do with your receiver as it does with the transmission. Some receivers don't even do multipath reception, or do it badly, which will certainly not help if you're in the middle of an SFN.