If any members can access this, could they please post screenshots? Multiple devices and various internet connections returns “user denied geolocation”
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The site really dislikes deep-links, need to navigate via the home page https://app.dablist.org/
The 500W references a Springbrook translator site’s power, not the main site, which it doesn’t list a value for. I don’t know where the site gets that data from, as I don’t believe the multiplex carries that kind of information directly, which is the source of the other data on that site.
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If the translator is only at 500W then the main transmitter at Mount Tamborine could be at 10 or 25 KW.
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Mt Tamborine DAB is 25kw.
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That’s good for DAB coverage on the Gold Coast.
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I haven’t read all of that, but yes the HD radio experience in the USA can be of use in regional Australia, as in take note, that’s not how to do it, unless you want to destroy regional radio.
Plenty of stations in the USA have turned HD Radio off & gone back to AM/FM only as the HD signals create too much interference to the analogue adjacent frequencies, plenty of techs hate it & plenty of listeners hate it even more.
It’s not like AM/FM where you can just put some audio in & transmit it, it’s actually quite technical & hard to set up & if you get it wrong, it sounds really bad & can cause endless headaches for reliable reception & coverage.
The only up side to HD Radio, if there’s really any, is turning off all AM/FM analogue & going full digital only, as some of the AM stations in the USA have now done, FM that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
I’m not surprised CRA has hooked onto HD Radio, I’m still not convinced they know what they’re doing when it comes to moving radio forward & having their own members best interests at heart, let alone the listeners.
There’s good reasons why HD Radio is pretty much non-existent outside North America, the Americans always pick the inferior transmission form, they did it with NTSC (not what it stands for, but known as Never The Same Colour) analogue TV & then again when they converted to Digital TV, & repeated it with HD Radio.
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That’s only true for AM stations where the interference issues are bad, and set up is complex. That is not true for FM where few, if any stations have turned off HD. If an FM station drops HD it’s probably to do with licensing costs. I don’t know of any FM stations that have turned off HD.
HD radio is now in use in Canada after they decided not to proceed with Eureka (DAB)
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That’s hilarious, AM stations need what digital provides in terms of quality not FM!
OK I found the mediaspy “namesake” thread comparing HD with DAB back in 2009:
And for comparisons on the technical differences between DAB+, HD-radio and DRM this is a light read: Digital Radio FM Insider: Q&A - Digital or FM
From that it seems a no-brainer to deploy DRM rather than HD-radio for individual broadcasters.
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I’ve said before that I think HD Radio should have been chosen back when launching DAB+. Larger existing receiver base, better spectrum usage and individual stations able to make their own choices - regional areas would have had HD a decade ago, not still be waiting.
Right now though - DRM is the only choice for a supplemental tech for DAB. HD’s advantages just don’t exist once compared to DRM+, which wasn’t a viable choice at the time DAB+ was chosen.
DRM+ can be “HD Radio” just without royalties, running in a parallel mode along side an FM transmission, or can run in fully digital mode either on the FM spectrum, or unlike HD radio, in much of the bands around either side, utilising the bandwidth freed by turning off low band TV.
I assume a CRA discussion of HD Radio is the typical self serving approach - accepting that DAB+ cannot achieve a regional rollout and thus a supplemental technology, and therefore picking the one that’s the most encumbered and provides the biggest barriers to new entrants - a tie to existing on band AM/FM allocation.
I believe NZ trialled HD for a while as well as trying DAB, but I think their consensus is they delivered choice on FM/AM rather than needing any digital radio.
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It was trialled in Auckland on 98.2 MHz; believe it or not I decoded it via tropo from Sydney. The HD radiotext was ‘RBA FM’ (Radio Broadcast Association) and the subchannel (HD-2) could be tuned in, but there was no audio. This was about 2009 or 2010 from memory.
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It was more likely due to cost and preventing new entrants onto digital in the major markets. Basically self-interest and greed from the MediaWorks and NZME.
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I was in the M4 East tunnel today and the control room took over. I was listening to ABC Sydney and it seems like it just changed the DLS to “Attention! Announcement”.
Not sure if ABC is the designated station or anything but I noticed there is a 5 second no signal gap between the broadcast and announcement.
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I’ve had something similar happen maybe 5 or 6 years ago in the Melba/Mullum Mullum Tunnel in Melbourne on FM. Didn’t change the channel as far as I remember.
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The tunnels have a leaky feeder RF system in them and the radio gets in there via a “Comb” transmitter - it basically rebroadcasts the local FM and AM as per what you hear outside the tunnel. When tunnel control want to announce something the Comb transmitters put up a carrier on each channel right across the band so anyone with a radio on hears it.
My favourite though is the GPS rebroadcast - Your moving maps GPS acts like it can see the GPS satellites. A company known as Comsyst which also did broadcast work ended up specialising in tunnel systems.
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But how does it work with DAB?
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To work on DAB+ it would have to do it at the MUX level as well as putting up a carrier on each DAB+ channel. I vaguely recall the analog Comb transmitters were Powerwave’s so perhaps see if their website gives any clues about the tunnel DAB+.
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I have always wondered how those tunnel rebroadcasts work; thanks for the info. I wonder if the odd bit of hijinks is played, especially on April 1.
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I believe it still is only a trial - Transurban were installing Waze beacons in their tunnels as well
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ABC Request for Information on DAB+ in Mandurah (and FM services in Perth).
Looks like they’ve confused themselves with this bit:
Additional information is sought for the provision of a potential single frequency FM network and DAB+ services in Mandurah.
https://www.tenders.gov.au/Atm/Show/6e7fff86-e883-4bfc-8f8f-a7de92b9bf93
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