There are plans to replace all AM broadcasts with FM & DAB by 2015 (with DAB seemingly likely to get most of the stations). But Skoda (unlike VW) do not offer a DAB tuner to fit their car radios. Do we have to rely on secondary add-on units? Or replace the Skoda head units with tuners that don't display information from the parking sensors, external temp gauge etc?

Shouldn't we be able to just add a Skoda DAB tuner to our existing radios??

Chris

I wouldnt expect things to change to much and FM to continue as is. Even if FM were to reduce, it would open up more frequencies for the pirates to move in. Euroland is adopting a different system to what we use in the UK, the exception being Belgium which uses the same system as ours. The dual band radios that would be needed to work in both places are not yet available.

And welcome back Radio Caroline for the 21st century

You can buy stand alone Dab units that receive DAB and transmit it to your Radio, like a set top box. There is one made by Pure.

There is a new version of DAB coming out in Europe called DAB+. Unfortunately DAB+ is not backwards-compatible ordinary DAB. See also Digital Audio Broadcasting - Wikipedia

DAB is awful, low sound bit rate vs FM stereo not too mention it cuts out all the time and that's just in my house!

Internet radio streamed over 3G is the answer, I've got a app on my iphone plugged-in to aux on the car and it's really good.

Don't waste your cash on a DAB set-up, wait to UK gets (if?) DAB+ or 3G radio stream on a smart phone etc. I seem to remember a tech show in Jan this year that said one of the after market radio makers is coming out with a radio with a 3G sim in it for this very reason.

James.

DAB is awful, low sound bit rate vs FM stereo not too mention it cuts out all the time and that's just in my house!

I have DAB radio in my truck and I have to say its fantastic for what we use it for.

We listen to talksport and radio 5 live most of the time and as you may know these are both AM broadcasting stations and AM most of the time is whistly, crackly and generally just poor, DAB cures these problems. Yes the sound Bit rate is not as good as FM and if you like your system to be loud then you just wont get that warm sound, DAB is a bit cold and clinical sounding.

You must be using a very poor aerial as the signal only drops out in 1 or 2 places around the country on our system and these places are very and I mean very remote areas.

The only problem we have with DAB is the fact we have been through about 4 aerials in the trucks life, due to the size of the cab the aerial is forever being bashed by trees and after a while I think it breaks up the mast.

Oh and another thing we use a dual amplified aerial so both FM and DAB have power to them to amplify the signal

DAB is awful, low sound bit rate vs FM stereo not too mention it cuts out all the time and that's just in my house!

Internet radio streamed over 3G is the answer, I've got a app on my iphone plugged-in to aux on the car and it's really good.

Don't waste your cash on a DAB set-up, wait to UK gets (if?) DAB+ or 3G radio stream on a smart phone etc. I seem to remember a tech show in Jan this year that said one of the after market radio makers is coming out with a radio with a 3G sim in it for this very reason.

James.

got a dab unit in my car and it works perfectly. the sound bit rate is top quality (on all except a minor number which i dont listen to anyway). one thing to bear in mind with dab is that its the quality of ur aerial that counts. mine was a 50 quid magnetic roof top one but trust me makes a world of difference compared with on glass ones. hook said HU up to 4 reasonable aftermarket speakers and a sub and ur away BOOM!

I listen to DAB at home, and with a good aerial, the best stations sound as good as FM. The problems start when stations over-compress their sgnals into a small bandwidth.

But re-reading the Digital Britain proposals, by 2015 all national radio stations will only be on DAB, with FM relegated to carrying local radio. So it doesn't matter whether we like it or not, it's probably coming unless there's an unprecedented revolution.

With the number of DAB radio sets sold in the UK, it's not going to be possible to upgrade the transmitters to DAB+ and carry the existing listeners with them. But dual standard radios may well be the answer for car radios (presumably Blaupunkt radios already work in the UK and mainland Europe?

Chris