Unloved and dying transmission infrastructure seems to be the norm now everywhere - are the ABC responsible for DAB+ transmitters anywhere such as Artarmon?? I did get the impression that DAB+ transmitters were on TxA sites and BA had the maintenance contract but that may be incorrect?
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You’re correct, ABC DAB+ transmitters are at TXA sites (except Mt Dandenong, where the ABC DAB+ is at the BAI site & the commercials DAB+ at TXA site), no the ABC don’t look after any transmitters, BAI look after all Nationals DAB+, AM/FM & TV under maintenance contract.
BAI want to replace but ABC won’t allow/give funding to do it.
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So finally got the ABC’s changed service config in Melbourne today.
Good to see generally lowered amounts of slideshow data. Previously I posted a screenshot of Double J - where because of the huge amount of slideshow data they had 46kbps of audio in the nominal 80kbps. Now Double J has a nominal 72kbps, but the net audio rate is 56kbps.
ABC Classic should genuinely sound better than FM at the new bitrate, being at 104kbps net - which is fantastic.
Also gone in the rearrange is the 8kbps of EPG data. I never could find a program to decode that so dunno if much of value was lost to anyone.
All round, good changes - while some stations had nominal reductions, the audio improved on every station.
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Its interesting that they just improved the dab related equipment in the studio. It seems the department looking after the funds of the transmitters is different to the people looking after the dab equipment. They should have a meeting 
.
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As I recall ABC and SBS transmission is a triangular arrangement where the Commonwealth pays BAI but the ABC and SBS get the service - that may no longer be the case though?
BAI are actually owned by the Canadian Teachers Pension Fund.
A lot of broadcasters are now just a series of contracts as a TV big wig once observed. Transmission, captioning and playout is contracted out as is a lot(or even all) of the program production.
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In these excerpts from the ABC Budget Statement, the target is to have digital radio available 100% in the capital cities. I hope that is always the case, as they get funding for that purpose.
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I heard some interesting news today regarding the Gold Coast DAB+.
Grant Broadcasters are going to build & maintain the site at Mt Tambourine, ABC/SBS will not be on DAB+ from there for now, the provision for them to join will be built in to the site, but they may never be added?
I don’t know what the timeline is for build & for the commercial stations to be on air yet.
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Any update on Mandurah? Am I right in thinking the ABC/SBS SFN hasn’t gone to air yet?
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I’ve noticed that by listening on a portal DAB device, in Sydney, the sound of some of the ABC stations is distorted and there are dropouts from the audio, since the upgrade. It applies to Double J, Triple J, Triple J Unearthed and some of the other ABC stations. However it doesn’t apply to ABC Classic or ABC Jazz, which have higher bitrates.
All the stations sound excellent in the car or on a HiFi system, it’s only listening on a portal DAB device where this issue is occurring. It would be putting off a lot of listeners. Hopefully they will be able to fix it.
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Like ABC Jazz - ABC Sport and NewsRadio are also HE-AACv1, you should have the same lack of distortion/dropouts on those stations specifically, with all other ABC stations except Jazz/Classic having the problem.
If that is the pattern, then it’s an issue with the receiver struggling with decoding the specific compression of the ABC’s other stations (HE-AACv2) on that device, perhaps combined with marginal signal nature of many portables.
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Maybe try a full rescan or even a reset and that might help?
What brand & model the radio?
Yes, it affects ABC Sport, ABC Sydney, Double J, Triple J and Triple J Unearthed, but it doesn’t affect the other stations.
It is a similar problem to what happened with 2CH 1170 (distortion/dropouts) before it was sold to SEN and switched with 2UE 954.
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I’ve done that but it’s still there.
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It’s an iRiver S100.
All other stations are fine except the 5 ABC stations since the DAB+ upgrade.
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yeah I have an old iriver,I use to have lots of issues with 2ch. Tried to update firmware, no luck. Its a pity I really liked it, but the dab reception sucked even with other stations. The Sangeans I tend to buy these days.
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Its probably the only decent quality DAB radio still available in the pocket form factor.
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Interesting. What is a good model Sangean pocket DAB+ radio that you would recommend? Ideally it would have FM as well.
The iRiver S100 is a fantastic device as you can record live FM and DAB+ as well as store up to 8 GB of MP3s, using different playlists.
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The Pure Move R3 Portable DAB+ / FM radio looks good too.
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I got the same one. Yeah the dab always had some issues. The rest is great. When I find the charger cable I will try the ABC.
My favourite Sangean is the DPR-39 as you can change batteries. Uses AAs. But it does suck batteries, good to buy rechargeable batteries to use. I bought a refurbished one on eBay to save money.
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