It’s not just in the radio industry; the ‘do more for less relative pay’ thing is standard in the world of work, rightly or wrongly. That’s part of the evolution of capitalism. I am not going to get into the philosophic weeds here; suffice it to say that I’m not a Marxist! But you do need to treat people (‘human capital’) with greater respect than other forms of capital.
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Why isn’t there some kind of automation to prevent this happening? Surely there is radio playout software that can play music indefinitely without having to be constantly fed a set playlist?
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Does windows media player still have a repeat option?
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They should find an old version of Winamp.
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He should offer MS members to run them. Honestly, how great would that be? Zero cost for them, bit of fun for us, and no dead air.
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There are some other issues with the BOG DAB stations, don’t get me wrong, the music is very good, especially Gorilla, Dance and FUN (when it was on).
A few months ago the ZOO stream was playing on FUN whilst the other 3 stations were off air. The sound quality, though, was amazing. Probably the best sounding DAB station I’ve ever heard. Not sure why they compressed it that much, but it was great to listen to.
Also, currently the text on Gorilla is showing the ZOO log. The text on FUN (dead air) is showing the Gorilla log, and the text on ZOO (also dead air) until recently, was showing the FUN log.
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Don’t get a chance to get on here as often as I would like. ABC has been running DRM for the past Two years, 747Khz from Wangaratta running Radio National and occasionally Double J. 95.9 FM from Albury running Pure DRM and 3 services. This Week they finally put out a media release along with inviting key people from the broadcasting sectors stating that the DRM trials were a success. Now it’s a matter to see if they will roll out DRM on their MW stations and if the Government will give DRM the tick for for Digital Radio in Regional Australia. Lets hope so.
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Here in Perth south metro reception of Mandurah DAB+ is quite marginal (comes and goes). Since last night my radios signal quality meter as jumped from an 1-2 stars to a 4-5 stars with no dropouts. And I know why: Solar storm to hit Earth's magnetic field on July 21
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Is anyone in Western / NW Sydney experiencing issues with mobile dab+ reception?
I am experiencing constant weak reception with numerous dropouts when listening to dab+ in our work vehicles, it is at it’s worse when there is clear LOS to the Blue Mountains.
My guess is it is a timing issue with Winmalee and Artarmon which occurred a few years ago.
It was fixed by BAI resetting the GPS. If this is the problem it is not as bad as last time when pretty much all dab+ reception was blocked when the issue last occurred.
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I don’t believe there are any known DAB+ issues at the moment, I was talking with one of the TXA techs yesterday afternoon.
See how it goes & if it gets worse PM me & I’ll ring the tech’s.
I’ll be back working at TXA Sydney from 8th August, so if there’s still an issue then, I’ll look into it & fix.
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If it is still an issue, on the weekend i might take the kids to a park out there. I recall I had issues even around Castle Hill last time (LOS to BM).
Where i live now it was unaffected.
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There is definitely an issue as dab+ car coverage is generally pretty good in WNW Sydney. Signal level is down at least 50% or more around Rouse Hill which is normally a difficult area for dab+ reception.
Last time the timing issue occurred where the Winmalee translator got out of whack it pretty much blocked all reception with LOS to the Blue Mountains.
BAI had no idea there was a problem until I rang them. Resetting the GPS fixed the problem.
I have noticed the issue now for about two days. I suspect it is a similar problem to last time, but I could be wrong. @RFBurns I will monitor it and get you to investigate it further if things don’t improve.
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Do you mean with the SFN being out of sync?
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That’s correct.
What is interesting is the dab+ reception on the hifi through the yagi is not affected. Last time when the SFN was out of sync it affected that reception too.
I maybe completely wrong with what I think the problem is. I will continue to monitor the dab+ reception over the next week when out and about in the work vehicles.
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Couple of questions that might help me find the issue & direct the techs to look at first (before I get back to TXA to do it myself).
Do you ever drive around the South West where you might get reception from Mt Badgally (Gregory Hills)?
I ask that, because the Mt Badgally site is fed from Winmalee, the microwave link hops at Winmalee from Artarmon, it could be a timing issue on the microwave link, so therefore Mt Badgally might have an SFN timing issue also?
Is it low power on all multiplexes 9A, 9B & 9C or only one of them?
I’m guessing signal strength comes back when you get away from Winmalee coverage areas?
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I’ve had reception issues around Penrith. It could be an antenna issue but it should be fine considering I can get reception on the M1 in Berowra.
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Berowra will get reception from Artarmon, Penrith will get reception from Winmalee.
When/how long ago were you having reception issues around Penrith?
Won’t be a transmit antenna issue, there’s alarms on the antenna measurements & an issue there would be causing issues to the power amplifier, again bringing up alarms.
As for your receive antenna, yes unlikely issue with that at Penrith but not at Berowra.
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No with my work I normally travel around NW Sydney, and Northern Suburbs,
Woodcroft / Blacktown in the south, to Berowra in the north.
So unfortunately don’t get down to near the Campbelltown translator.
Today reception was so bad in Rouse Hill it was constantly dropping out or sounded garbled. Normally there is one dead spot between the Mean Fiddler and Rouse Hill Town Centre.
It was not until Parklea on a eastern slope with poor LOS to the west that the signal was stable again, hence my hunch that it is Winmalee.
It is not as bad as last time when the SFN issues practically blocked all signal to Seven Hills in the east.
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I was only listening to 9B stations today but I will try all multiplexes in my travels tomorrow. Hopefully I get up to Berowra so I can get an idea of reception over a greater area.
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Over the past few months I’d say. Last trip was 25th June.
Had similar issues around Marsden Park, which I went to on 17 July.
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