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   station directory latest radio news air today feedback features  | |  Feedback archive An archived selection of comments and e-mails can be found below. Please be patient while the page loads. |
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 Caroline 279 Saturday 28th February 2004 I hear some people saying that a radio station from the Isle Of Man could be given the go ahead on LW. Is this true and what type of radio would it be and would we be able to pick it up in most parts of the UK? Darren It's going to be called Caroline 279 (its working title was MusicMann 279) as far as I know, based around the classic Radio Caroline. It should be heard in most parts of the UK, with similar coverage to the old Atlantic 252. Ed. I bought an Aria A-3000 personal DAB radio in December 2003 direct from Aria Digital. I received it on January 19th: great! On 29th January, the display failed; I have been unable to contact them via e-mail or telephone since. Anyone had any dealings? Stuart I've heard one or two problems like this. Prospective buyers might like to know that they can buy the Aria products via online suppliers, if they do not want to deal directly with Aria Digital. Ed. Am I not correct in believing the watershed is at 9:00 PM? That is the time when Westwood's show is broadcast on Radio 1 on Fridays and Saturdays. However, it can be heard at any time unedited online as part of the BBC's "Listen Again" feature. The purpose of the watershed is to protect children from foul and abusive, offensive content. If I had a ten year-old child and I was out working while he was at home, he could get access to this show and may be influenced negatively as a consequence. So, what's the point of a watershed if the BBC (which is supposed to be our public service broadcaster) is going to abuse it this way? Wayne I recently upgraded to DAB digital radio here in Belfast in Northern Ireland. I am really pleased by the quality of the sound and the clarity of it all. But there currently are not enough good stations broadcasting to Northern Ireland. We are part of the UK so it seems only fair that we should receive stations from further afield rather than be subjected to the few stations available. Are there any plans to bring more radio stations online for DAB in Belfast or are we to be forced to listen to the few we have? Tommy Digital one, the national commercial DAB operator would love to bring its services to Northern Ireland - it stated so in a recent consultation concerning DAB. Unfortunately, there isn't yet enough spare capacity in Northern Ireland, as space has already been reserved for services/multiplexes (yet to start) in the Republic of Ireland. Ed. What is digital radio? How does it transmit across the world? Matthew Funnily enough, we've probably answered your first question on our FAQs. DAB digital radio uses radio transmitters, just like ordinary analogue radio, for its means of transmission. The signal travel distance is comparable to that of FM radio (as opposed to shortwave or longwave, which can travel huge distances). For a quick overview of details of its transmission, I would look at this WorldDAB article on the Eureka 147 standard. Ed. Regarding Lee's comment on 16th February about TA on DAB. Its in the specification already. Some DAB car radios have the feature, too. However, I'm not aware of any broadcaster to start making use of the function... yet! Ash On my analogue radio I used to listen to French stations broadcast on LW. I can't get these channels with my new DAB digital radio. How, if at all, could I get foreign channels on DAB digital radio? Anon You'd have to investigate whether the country whose radio you're interested in is broadcasting DAB digital radio stations - and then move to that country, which admittedly is a bit extreme! WorldSpace radio may be an easier method - although I'm not sure of the exact split of languages and channels - a search on www.teoma.com will quickly bring up more information on this platform, that uses satellites for its transmission and carries a variety of programming in different languages. Ed. Today I made an error of judgement and purchased a Goodmans GSR80 (that will teach me a lesson, for not visiting this website more regularly). My Goodmans GPS280 has less sensitivity than my Evoke 1 and 2 radios but the GSR80 is far worse. It is, to say the least, somewhat challenged in DAB mode and FM performance isn't much better either. I have managed to extract a reasonable level of performance by ignoring the instructions to fully extend the telescopic aerial and resorting to basic radio principles, i.e. :- aerial length should correspond to frequency wavelength. For anyone struggling to extract a DAB signal from the ether with this radio - select the signal strength display and try the aerial at different lengths (remembering to let go of the aerial in between adjustments). I wanted to use this radio around the house and garden as it is less bulky than the Evoke 2. Alas, it looks as if it will end up permanently connected to my external DAB aerial. Also what possible use is that 4 hour 15 minute timer (an expensive kitchen timer and more complicated to use - a radio alarm clock feature with sleep function would have been handier). A nice looking radio - shame it doesn't perform as good as it looks. I decided to programme a number of FM stations into the GSR80 and found loud background noise on every station, fluctuating volume level, weak reception on normally strong stations and inaccurate frequency readings. The situation with this radio was worse than I had realised. I obtained a replacement unit and - guess what? - it was the same. If nothing else this product is consistent. I paid a third visit to the shop, obtained a refund and purchased a Bush TR2003. Ahh, bliss, this radio really works. DAB and FM sensitivity is excellent and the audio quality is good. There remains just one mystery - how was the Goodmans GSR80 ever allowed to reach the market place?. Low sensitivity on DAB was bad enough but if they can't get the FM right that's bad news. My sympathy to anyone who has had the misfortune to buy a GSR80. Andy Oh dear. The Bush TR2003 DAB set is a much better radio, with twin speakers too and a nice retro look. I'm glad you were able to exchange the Goodmans for something better. Ed. My favourite station is Virgin Radio, however on analogue 1215AM the reception is poor. I was wondering why Virgin do not broadcast on Freeview digital services? Any plans to do so? Gary Well, they are on DAB digital radio and have an internet stream, so perhaps Virgin are happy with that. I'm not sure what the prerequisite for appearing on Freeview is (apart from having the finances in place to launch on the platform, of course). Ed. I read Robert's comments (Sat 7th February) with interest about the Blaupunkt DAB 52 in car receiver . I live in the north east and have had excellent results from the radio. However, I did have a fault on the set which sounds similar to Robert's experience. I would urge him to have the installation checked out by whoever installed it and if needed by someone independent. For the record I have driven from the north east to London often - and even in Kent have had good reception there. My advice to Robert is to take the thing back and have it checked and checked again Jonathan Thanks, Jonathan. Ed. I saw a request for comments on the Roberts RD3 on your site. We have been using a Pure Evoke 1 in the kitchen and it gives good reception and excellent sound quality here in West Drayton. I was given an Roberts RD3 for Christmas, principally for listening in the bathroom. Even with the bass fully down and the treble fully up the sound is muffled. Positioning is much more critical for reception, which can be nonexistent on some days. The battery life I would estimate at about 10 hours for the RD3 - six alkaline "C" cells are not cheap. All in all it has been rather disappointing. Peter DAB sets are rather power-hungry, so it's not advisable to run them off batteries all the time, except of course in the situation above. Perhaps it's a wise move to use rechargeables with the RD3. I know rechargeables don't last as long. Has anyone tried this and what sort of usage can you get out of a set? Ed. My wife bought me an Intempo PG-01 for Christmas; I'm very impressed with it. However, after studying your information on aerials, I'm wanting to install one to improve things still further and receive even more stations. My question is - the aerials advertised on your website are directional, so how can I find out which way to point it to receive other multiplexes. Should I just point it at the city I'm hoping to pick up, e.g. Leeds, York etc, with the aid of a map and compass? I live in central Huddersfield. Exellent website, very informative. Dale I would certainly try the method you mention - pointing it roughly in the direction of the next nearest city with a multiplex. If you want to know where your nearest local transmitter is, a good site to try is DAB Ensembles Worldwide, to check where transmitters are located. It's more likely you'll want to mount the aerial out of the line of any trees or tall buildings. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Ed. Whatever happened to Talk Radio and my two favourite presenters Scott Chisholm and Tommy Boyd. I have been living abroad for a number of years, recently returning, and was disappointed that the station appears to have disappeared from the airwaves. D. Wellington Talk Radio became talkSPORT - a sports talk station (surprising that!) a good few years ago. Neither Tommy nor Scott are working in the radio industry at the moment as far as I'm aware. Ed. In your review of the Pure Pocket DAB 1000 you make reference to the fact that the unit struggles with the BBC's national DAB multiplex. I am assuming that the unit was tested in Central Bristol. If so, it may be worth pointing out to readers that the BBC reception in Central Bristol should improve considerably after the Pur Down transmitter is switched on, sometime in the next few months, and as such, this is not a design fault of the product itself. As with all of these DAB pocket devices, a strong signal is essential to their operation. Mark You make a good point; I've now clarified this in our review of the Pure PocketDAB. Ed. Is there any car radio "adaptor" for DAB. Having a new car with a security fitted radio, I can't easily put in a standard sized radio with DAB as the dash slot isn't the same size. Its only an idea, but while an adaptor might not give the same quality as a full DAB in-car system, I actually just want to listen to stations that aren't normally available e.g.: BBC7. ThePuss You can of course get head units from JVC, Pioneer and so on that are able to control a DAB box in the boot, but these too fit into the standard dash mount. Ford announced a while back that they would be fitting DAB hi-fi into some of their models, but whether this has yet happened I don't know. The only other thing you could do is buy a Perstel and connect it through the tape deck via a DAB coverter kit to your car. As the Perstel DR101 uses a telescopic aerial, I've read that good results can be achieved with it sitting under the windscreen, in strong signal areas. Avoid the Perstel Bluenote, though, is my advice. Ed. Regarding the Roberts G6 mains hum, my RD6 has the same problem. Having contacted Roberts technical helpdesk they say it is down to the transformer affecting the amplifer, due to the high power needed for DAB. Roberts have the same problem with all their mains radios (of course when being powered by batteries none of them hum). I too am gutted as the radio looks and sounds (at higher volume) fantastic. I am not going to send it back, but I can't really use if for night-time listening as the hum does grate! Rob Not a very satisfactory ending; it's a shame DAB is so power-hungry and a shame the transformer isn't more gutsy! Thanks for the explanation, Rob. Ed. Hello there. I just bought a Cambridge Audio DAB500 tuner today. I've done a full auto tune a few times but I've found no trace of "The Mix" broadcasting on the Digital One multiplex. That was one of the reasons I bought a DAB tuner. Please could you tell me if it's temporarily absent from the multiplex? James The Mix isn't available on DAB, (thinks: thankfully), it's on Sky Digital, but Core - a similar station with chart music and the same parent company - is available. Sadly. Ed. Can't say I'm very excited about RTÉ's plan because it's just another outlet for existing service that's already available on Astra and the web. I suppose it's better than dead air, but it does seem rather a wasted opportunity. Much the same is true of British DAB where the principle seems to be that every BBC station must be on every platform, everywhere. So in my area BBC Radio 4 is on no fewer than seven platforms (FM, LW, MW, DAB, DTT, Astra and the Web) which helps to explain why other DAB stations often have low data rates, are in mono or can't afford DAB at all! Gerald Can't argue with that! Of course, the BBC's argument will be that they are a public service broadcaster, but still do they really need to be on every platform? Ed. I purchased a Ministry of Sound "walkman-like" DAB radio in February 2003. I was delighted with it for a whole 11-months of near-daily use. Then, lo and behold, at the beginning of Jan 2004; it sprang a defect. For some unknown reason the left earphone became silent. I took it back to Argos and I am pleased to say that after sending it back for repair (which I correctly guessed would not be possible), they issued me with a brand new one. I have mixed feelings about the whole experience. But in conclusion the new one seems fine - but for how long? David Well, if it breaks again within 12 months you can always take it back. I would say that your 11 months of near-daily use is probably the longest amount of prolonged testing the MoS radio is likely to have received. Unfortunately, things can go wrong with new technology - parts can and do fail occasionally and buttons do cease-up - DAB is no different to any other device in this respect. Spend your time listening, not contemplating what might happen! Ed. I was very shocked to read, belatedly, of the death last year of Ivanhoe Campbell. He worked with me when I was D.J./ Manager at The Night Owl in Cheltenham in the 1980s. He helped pull big crowds into our reggae/soul nights; we shared the console - he played reggae, I played soul. He was a lovely guy; I shall remember him fondly Gary Having problems with my Grundig Opus. The display is not working, which in turn is making the scroll buttons and the other buttons on the front malfunction, although the radio still plays. Therefore I can't tune into more DAB stations. Simon If it were a digital watch with the same problem I would take it back. Your best bet is to take the Grundig Opus back and get a replacement. Ed. I live in the Stoke-on-Trent area and I would like to know when Signal Radio and BBC Radio Stoke are going digital and are they going on the Sky Digital platform? Garry The information you require is almost all there within our Stoke and Staffordshire listings. There's even links to news items about this at the top of the page. I do try to set things as logically as possible. Signal and BBC Radio Stoke are unlikely to appear on Sky - they offer limited appeal to people outside of Stoke. Ed. When is Traffic information (TA,TP) coming to DAB? Lee Err, not in the too near future, I would think, but then again can this actually be catered for by DAB? Does anyone know? Ed. I've just had a Blaupunkt DAB 52 installed in my car. I'm a taxi driver and lives and work in Kent (Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells area). Before I purchased the radio I did a lot of research checking friends' postcodes. Lots of positive results as far as reception was concerned. Postcode checks don't mean a thing: 80 percent of the areas it said I was likely to receive a signal but all I received was "no programme" or "ensemble off". I have driven from Maidstone through Tunbridge Wells to Hastings - a journey of approximately 60 miles. The results: Maidstone - no signal, A20 to West Malling - signal for 5 miles, West Malling to Mayfield - no signal for 30 miles, Mayfield to Heathfield - signal for 5 miles, from the Heathfield transmitter to Eastbourne - no signal for 2 miles. Also from Maidstone to Lakeside 5 - miles of signal in a 30 mile journey! If this is what you're trying to sell people I would think the least you could do is get the coverage areas right. As far as I can see people will be better off with their FM radios for the next 5 years. Bet you don't print this as it will turn people off of spending their money on what at the moment is a completely useless product. Robert Well, this site has no connection with the DRDB (DigitalRadioNow), BBC, Digital One, etc - it being totally independent - so I assume you meant to voice your anger to one of these organisations! Alas, I don't have a DAB 52, but I do know DAB car hi-fis are supposed to be used with a proper DAB aerial - it may be worth checking if you had one fitted. As I understand it, some have a small receiver fitted at the base of the aerial. FM aerials do not work well for DAB reception - even Goodmans admitted last year that its car DAB setup may require a separate DAB aerial, even though it is supposed to work with a standard FM whip aerial. I know there are coverage problems around Eastbourne - indeed one correspondent recently wrote "I live in a part of Eastbourne that is served well by the Hastings transmitter for BBC, Digital One and the Sussex coast multiplexes, but there is a large part of the town that can get nothing from either Heathfield or Hastings and therefore has no DAB service at all and no provision for any in the near future.". The Sussex Coast transmitter for Eastbourne is due to be installed shortly. The BBC Heathfield transmitter was switched on in September 2003, so you ought to be getting a half-decent signal from this site. Is it worth going back to check everything has been connected properly? Ed. Has anyone else had a problem with their Roberts RD6 emitting a low level crackly buzz from its loudspeaker - even with the volume turned right down? I'm guessing this may be interference generated by the on-board mains transformer, as the noise is audible whether the set has DAB or FM selected. It's not so noticeable if you're playing the radio quite loud (in the kitchen, say), but when used as a bedside radio with the volume set low, it suddenly becomes intrusive, and rather undermines the whole point of 'silent' DAB. I've now listened to three RD6s, and they all appear to have the same problem. It's a pity this fault compromises an otherwise excellent-sounding set. Adrian Can anyone with an RD6 comment on this? Ed. Is the audio quality on a mono 80Kbps station (eg.BBC 7) the same as on a stereo 160Kbps station (e.g. Classic FM)? Why is a DAB station transmitted about one second behind its FM equivalent? Can they fix this in the future, e.g. for accurate Greenwich time signals? Adrian The audio quality of an 128Kbps station broadcasting in joint stereo is "equivalent" to that of a 96Kbps station broadcasting in mono and I would guess a 128Kbps bandwidth mono station is the "equivalent" of a 160Kbps bandwidth stereo station. A 96Kbps mono station needs only an extra 32Kbps of data for joint stereo reproduction - the extra data is required to carry left and right channel data. As I understand it, discrete stereo relies on totally separate data for the left and channels, whereas joint stereo data describes only the differences between that of the left and right channels, so consumes less bandwidth. It supposes that there are only minor differences in sound arriving at your left and right ears (!) and therefore stereo separation isn't as good as you would find with discrete (full) stereo (on a CD, say). Nevertheless, with the right broadcasting equipment, joint stereo can sound very good. The time delay on DAB is a result of the digital encoding process and, unless you listen to Radio 4, isn't worth being too worried about. Ed. Got given one as a Xmas present, but have seen critical reports in forums about its poor sensitivity. I get excellent reception of the BBC and Digital One multiplexes but suprisingly also good reception of the Leicester NOW and MXR West Midlands services, as well as variable reception of the CE Birmingham mux on the telescopic aerial in my bedroom where I use the set. It does help being on a high site, but I get an annoying problem in trying to get MXR. As soon as I switch to another multiplex, I have great difficulty in tuning it back in again, despite a decent signal level! I have to keep selecting it for up to ten minutes to get it, but if I switch off the receiver on an MXR service, then the set immediately does pick it up when I switch it on again, either after a minute or a day! Any ideas on solving this, besides getting an Evoke? Alex, in Derby I would think it's a firmware/software problem with the DAB module inside the Opus. Has anyone else had any problems like this with the Grundig Opus? Ed. I have now had 2 Goodmans GSR80 portable FM/DAB radios in the last 3 months - both of them switch themselves off. It only does this in DAB mode and seems linked to strength of signal. Very irritating in this techy age, but even more so when the dealer can't find anything wrong. Not really surprising, since they can't reproduce the digital conditions 100 miles apart! I am unimpressed by the whole concept. Of course, I cannot reject the radio on grounds that the 'broadcaster' is pants! Xtopher No, but you can reject goods on the grounds of them not being fit for the purpose. According to reviews, the Goodmans isn't very good at picking up a signal - which is a major minus point straight away. It sounds as if there is a bug in the firmware running in the Goodmans - it shouldn't really be switching itself off, unless this is specifically mentioned in the manual as a "feature". I would contact Goodmans for their advice before making the trip back to the store from where you purchased the radio, but 'phone the store to let them know why you're coming. Tell them you're rejecting the radio under the Sale of Goods Act - if you want your money back - or simply ask to exchange it for something decent like an Evoke - a much more sensitive radio. If the Goodmans GSR80 is your one and only experience of DAB digital radio, you will be pleasantly surprised by the mono Evoke 1. Ed. |