Digital Radio - Technical

I think the existing commercial operators would make sure that never happens. See what happened in Perth.

3 Likes

I’m not really sure they could do anything about it if the government really wanted to introduce new commercial FM licences (mind you, I don’t think there’s any will to do that at the moment). The existing operators couldn’t stop the last round of new licences in the early 2000’s. But yes, the Perth situation was a complete joke and showed the lack of power from the so-called “regulator” ACMA.

1 Like

That’s true. They’re all about protecting the oligopoly that exists in Australian media.

This is a good example of why it appears the ABC has little to no desire to roll out DAB regionally.

Yes, a real head scratcher. Unless NE Tasmania had a local MP championing the cause, I really don’t understand why the ABC chose Launceston, as opposed to say Toowoomba.

1 Like

On the positive side, an oligopoly is better than a duopoly or a monopoly. And unlike America or NZ, Australia at least has 2 well-funded and relevant national broadcasters, as well as the best community radio industry in the world.

1 Like

It was just set up as an experiment into low powered/local DAB broadcasting, like they have in the UK. The office is in the middle of town. Maybe that helped make the decision. But unlike the UK where these local DAB muxes are being licensed more and more, nothing has come of it here.

2 Likes

I’ll bring this over here to avoid getting too much in the weeds, but Bunnings Tradio replaced RSN Xtra 2 in Melbourne

Station Bits EEP CU
RSN Racing&Sport 40kbps EEP 3-A 30
RSN Xtra 1 32kbps EEP 3-A 24
Bunnings Tradio 32kbps EEP 3-A 24
RSN Xtra 3 32kbps EEP 3-A 24
SEN 1116 32kbps EEP 3-A 24
SEN Fanatic 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
SENTrack 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
Vision Christian 64kbps EEP 3-B 36

So SEN’s using their 96CU - but RSN is inexplicably using less. They bought 32kbps at the capacity auction (so 24 CU in practice) but only use 104CU of it. One of SEN’s first changes after they took RSN ownership was dropping RSN from 64kbps down to 40kbps, and replacing TAB Lounge at 24kbps with RSN Xtra 3.

Could easily bump Bunnings up to 64kbps, I’d do something like this to maximise their bits.

Station Bits EEP CU
RSN Racing&Sport 40kbps EEP 3-A 30
RSN Xtra 1 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
RSN Xtra 2 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
SEN Sydney 24kbps EEP 4-A 12
Bunnings Tradio 64kbps EEP 3-B 36
SEN 1116 40kbps EEP 3-A 30
SEN Fanatic 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
SENTrack 32kbps EEP 3-B 18
Vision Christian 64kbps EEP 3-B 36
3 Likes

I’ve also noticed signal issues here in Melbourne on 9C.. don’t think it’s related to the LoRA repeater I installed a few days back though it would be good if they at least let people take out self help licenses..