Just recently, BBC Radio 4 and World Service on DAB has become problematic.I'm in NW London. I can get a signal, but the audio sounds "FM squelchy" as if its coming from a microphone in a windy location. However, BBC Radio 3 on DAB is fine.

 

Are they doing transmitter work and have turned the signal down ?

 

Or is this one of the hidden random effects of 4G mobile service expansion ?

 

 

Nick

I listen to Smooth as radio 2 has gone downhill somewhat and I've found that in certain locations that I lose DAB and it goes to a very poor FM with more hiss, snap, crackle & pop than anything.

 

Whilst I can appreciate that radio signals will always have problems in locations such as West St in Dorking, which is narrow & has high buildings, the signal should be far more resilient than that, unless of course it's to do with the aerial being in the rear windscreen.

yeah I get this on Radio Scotland. DAB reception inhouse is rubbish too. I just use FM and don't use the DAB radio in the car.

I suspect what you are seeing the increasingly dumbing down of the quality on DAB, I suspect BBC R4 and World both being mostly speech have had their bit rates cut to draconian levels In an attempt to squeeze more channels into the limited DAB Space.

 

DAB has gone from being really good quality 15 years ago, where it was difficult to tell CD from DAB as the stations all had very high bitrates but not many stations, today DAB has loads of channels some of which are in glorious 64kbps mono, just so the transponder owners can maximise their profits.

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586

I suspect what you are seeing the increasingly dumbing down of the quality on DAB, I suspect BBC R4 and World both being mostly speech have had their bit rates cut to draconian levels In an attempt to squeeze more channels into the limited DAB Space.

 

DAB has gone from being really good quality 15 years ago, where it was difficult to tell CD from DAB as the stations all had very high bitrates but not many stations, today DAB has loads of channels some of which are in glorious 64kbps mono, just so the transponder owners can maximise their profits.

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586

 

on the BBC at times it sounds like they are talking underwater, goes really quiet and faint and garbled and then comes back

 

 

to be hinest I first tried DAB about 10 years ago and it was pretty hit and miss back then. Good old FM works just fine

I suspect what you are seeing the increasingly dumbing down of the quality on DAB, I suspect BBC R4 and World both being mostly speech have had their bit rates cut to draconian levels In an attempt to squeeze more channels into the limited DAB Space.

 

DAB has gone from being really good quality 15 years ago, where it was difficult to tell CD from DAB as the stations all had very high bitrates but not many stations, today DAB has loads of channels some of which are in glorious 64kbps mono, just so the transponder owners can maximise their profits.

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586

 

 

As above, the HiFi mags were full of scorn when this was suggested years ago, and appaled when it started to go ahead; you are probably better off with AM these days, I CERTAINLY wont be buying a DAB reciever, and if the switch off FM, I will just stick to SD cards or bluetooth from a tablet or phone when I am in the car/at work.

Just recently, BBC Radio 4 and World Service on DAB has become problematic.I'm in NW London. I can get a signal, but the audio sounds "FM squelchy" as if its coming from a microphone in a windy location. However, BBC Radio 3 on DAB is fine.

 

Are they doing transmitter work and have turned the signal down ?

 

Or is this one of the hidden random effects of 4G mobile service expansion ?

 

 

Nick

 

You or your neighbours are not running powerline networking equipment are you?

Generally it affects most FM/DAB, but some models affect cetrain frequencies more than most.

 

To be honest we need to switch to DAB+ with the more efficient codecs.

You or your neighbours are not running powerline networking equipment are you?

Generally it affects most FM/DAB, but some models affect cetrain frequencies more than most.

To be honest we need to switch to DAB+ with the more efficient codecs.

It aint just sunshine with DAB+ either.

Here in Norway they cram so many stations in on the available bandwith, that many of the stations Sounds crap compared to the FM counterpart.

Yeah they've made a bit of a pigs ear of the whole DAB thing.

 

They were going to force everyone onto it so they could close down and sell off the fm spectrum but it was yelled out of parliament.

 

I'd expect that idea to come back now they've got a majority.

I don't unless they can get DAB up to a reasonable quality.

 

Also Radio 4 is used by so many politicos and others that they'll never let that go down.