Personal DAB Radios

Steph Peters <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Second, reception is highly and quickly variable. Within 5 miles it can move from unavailable, to
unintelligible, to great and all the way back again. And this is with the aerial fully extended.

I use mine at home, with its aerial firmly attached to another aerial to boost the signal. Without
this boost the signal breaks up - and I'm in Manchester which is supposed to have as good a signal
as is available. I persevere with the pesky thing because I do find lots that appeals to me to
listen to, being more of a radio person than a TV person. But on the whole I'd advise anyone who
wants digital radio to buy a set top freeview box, not a DAB.

Indeed. The people who advertise DAB even have the cheek to call it "CD Quality" which is a
downright lie. At my location, which is only 25 miles from the tallest TX in the UK at Belmont,
reception from a kitchen located DAB with fully extended whip antenna varies from OK to
unintelligible, depending on the multiplex. I just hope that AM analogue is not turned off until
the whole problem of DAB propagation is sorted out. Simon

In article <[email hidden]>, Simon Mason <[email hidden]>
writes [snip]

Quoted message said:

Indeed. The people who advertise DAB even have the cheek to call it "CD Quality" which is a
downright lie. At my location, which is only 25 miles from the tallest TX in the UK at Belmont,
reception from a kitchen located DAB with fully extended whip antenna varies from OK to
unintelligible, depending on the multiplex. I just hope that AM analogue is not turned off until
the whole problem of DAB propagation is sorted out.

It just shows how much reception varies. In Boston, also almost exactly 25 miles from the same
transmitter, indoor DAB reception on a whip antenna is absolutely superb, with a zero error rate.

However, the practicality and effectiveness of using a whip antenna when cycling is questionable.
Perhaps mounted on a helmet, lined with aluminium foil to provide a ground plane? ;-)

--
Roger Barker [email hidden] Boston, UK

Roger Barker of Peak Systems said:

However, the practicality and effectiveness of using a whip antenna when cycling is questionable.
Perhaps mounted on a helmet, lined with aluminium foil to provide a ground plane? ;-)

Back in the 70s DH used to cycle from university in Salford home to Winchester, 200 miles in 24
hours, fuelled by 6 Mars bars and a couple of packets of Victory Vs. This was pre-walkman days, so
for entertainment he rigged up a transistor radio with a long lead to a small speaker tucked inside
his balaclava. The trannie went in a pannier (preserved from damage by a term's dirty washing as
padding) with the aerial sticking out the back. In those days radio stopped for several hours during
the night, during which this setup would emit beeps, as he didn't stop to turn it off. Well not
until the time passing through Birmingham in the early hours of the morning and doing the minimum 3
circuits of the Bull Ring trying to find the way out, just after the pub bombings, when the police
pulled him over.
--
Treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a
disaster. Quentin Crisp Steph Peters delete invalid from [email hidden]
Tatting, lace & stitching page <sandbenders.demon.co.ukindex.htmOpen ↗

Simon Brooke said:

My partner, who listens to the radio while riding her bike, uses ear pieces and rides with just one
in so as to have one ear 'free' to listen to traffic.

Doesn't she end up going round in circles?

Pete.

"Steph Peters" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Back in the 70s DH used to cycle from university in Salford home to Winchester, 200 miles in 24
hours, fuelled by 6 Mars bars and a couple of packets of Victory Vs. This was pre-walkman days, so
for entertainment he rigged up a transistor radio with a long lead to a small speaker tucked
inside his balaclava.

I had the same rig on my motorbike. I put the radio in the top box and had two old speakers in
my helmet.

The trannie went in a pannier (preserved from damage

Quoted message said:

by a term's dirty washing as padding) with the aerial sticking out the

back.

Quoted message said:

In those days radio stopped for several hours during the night, during

which

Quoted message said:

this setup would emit beeps, as he didn't stop to turn it off.

He could have listened to the BBC Worldservice which continued all night. Simon