Digital Radio - Technical

[TelevisionAU]

@ElCapitanCranky

No, what they probably will do is take Classic FM off and sell the frequencies to a commercial operator

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

[Brianc68]

@TelevisionAU

@ElCapitanCranky

No, what they probably will do is take Classic FM off and sell the frequencies to a commercial operator

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

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.

[ElCapitanCranky]

@TelevisionAU

I think the existing commercial operators would make sure that never happens.

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

[Global]

@Moe

Launceston isn’t really a launch - it’s a very low power service barely covering the CBD, not a full power site with coverage not much more than those on channel repeaters in metro areas.

Given it was a trial site for how the ABC could do digital radio cost effectively that it hasn’t rolled out further is not a good sign for the ABC’s interest and the likelihood of them even just expanding it to be high power for North East Tasmania, let alone other regional areas.

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

[Global]

@Brianc68

Does anyone know why ABC chose Launceston? Seems pretty random. Places like Townsville, Albury, Ballarat and Toowoomba are much, much larger. In fact Launceston comes in as only the 21st biggest city in the country

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.

[Global]

@ElCapitanCranky

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

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.

[Vidiot]

@Brianc68

Does anyone know why ABC chose Launceston?

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.

[Moe]

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

[melbournefan]

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..