It’s obviously not ideal but shouldn’t be any different in theory than switching between AM and FM and listeners seem to manage that.
It could be argued that simulcasting stations on DAB+ which are available on FM is a total waste of bandwidth even in the capital cities and that the band should probably be reserved for AM, digital-only stations and new entrants, but that’s another matter altogether.
I’m not sure about everyone else, but I personally think that it’s perhaps a bit pointless (although really no less pointless than TV stations broadcasting in SD and HD) for radio networks who have stations on FM to simulcast them on DAB+. Don’t virtually all radios which can get DAB+ also have an FM tuner?
The reason I said state-wide instead of national was specifically because of the SEQ area. Given that Queensland doesn’t adhere to daylight saving, they would have to have a separate mux - unless they’re happy to just transmit it live with NSW time.
With metro areas taking up 9A, 9B and 9C, there’s still 5 other frequencies left (8A, 8B, 8C, 8D and 9D). It will be interesting to see how ACMA allocates those 5 different frequencies when they plan the regional rollout.
Absolutely. The ABC could broadcast JJ on the Gold Coast with a high bitrate. In my humble opinion, the bitrate is unsatisfactory on the Brisbane mux compared to the on-line stream. I can’t even remember the last time I listened to JJ via DAB+ because of this!
Consider that 91.7 Coast FM has always provided different programming on a Saturday night (e.g. DiG from 10pm - 2am) compared to (for example) 612 ABC Brisbane & 90.3/95.3 ABC Coast FM, which both seem to carry Saturday Night Country. Offering a digital/online only station on the Gold Coast such as JJ or ABC Country at a higher or equivalent bitrate to the Coast FM simulcast would be ideal.
Precisely. And if one receives a DAB+ signal doesn’t one generally receive an RDS-level FM signal from the same site which will sound superior to the DAB+ simulcast? There are of course the odd exceptions, such as AM community stations like Switch 1197 in Brisbane.
It’s probably even more pointless than SD simulcasts of HD channels because of course not all televisions or set top boxes can decode the new MP4 HD services. Conversely, all DAB+ radios can receive FM as far as I know due to the design of the chipsets used in the receivers. So unless a simulcast of the FM broadcast is enshrined in Commonwealth legislation (mandatory) why should it be necessary? Does the audience want it? Need it? In most instances, I would prefer say a 32kbps simulcast of the main FM broadcast. In my ideal world, Modern Rock or Classic Rock should be available on DAB+ at a higher bitrate (ideally, the highest available) than the FM simulcast of Triple M in every city.
On the bright side, in the Gold Coast market the community stations such as 105.7 Radio Metro (dance: young demo), 107.3 Juice FM (christian demo) & 94.1 FM (gold & country: older demo) I think provide poorer coverage than the rest (exacerbated by the fact these broadcasts also suffer co-channel interference from inland just outside the license area). There may be a potential opportunity to improve the coverage of these ones if DAB+ commenced, although even that potential benefit may open to debate.
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I am probably in the minority here by stating that I think the main analogue FM programming of the metro wide stations SHOULD be on DAB+
There are problematic FM reception areas in inner metros which suffer from multipathing and DAB+ in those locations makes it easier to get a clear signal (even though sound quality isn’t as good, which won’t really be an issue for 95% of listeners). I know that from my experiences in staying in hotels in the CBDs.
It is much easier to use DAB+ to fix outer metro blackspots too since it can operate on an SFN, and this has been done in Sydney in the northern beaches and Campbelltown as far as I know. I think digital radio will replace FM eventually, though we are looking at probably 20 years, maybe more when that happens.
it’s also kind of like telling TV viewers that you have to go back to analogue to watch 7, 9 and 10 but you can still watch 7two, 9Go or One on digital.
People won’t update to DAB+ without the main stations being on there too, they won’t update just for the extra stations, that is one selling point of DAB+, you get all of the stations you have now PLUS the new digital ones.
Digital radio is the way of the future, but yes, spectrum issues do need to be addressed.
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My 2 cents, digital tv is better picture than analog tv. Dab sound quality is often average. I would rather if each just had one a well thought out extra channel to ensure it has decent quality.
On the question if they should relay fm radio. I am on the fence. Though, the extra stations should have min of 64 k or more. For me I have a dab radio in my car, mostly listen to am stations on dab. When I listen to the extra dab music stations I always find myself moving back to the ipod due to sound quality. So quality is better than quantity.
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Off the top of my head, in Brisbane there are 2 community stations on digital that is a simulcast of their analogue service - 4AAA Country and RPH. ZZZ, Family, EBI, Switch and even MBS are all different programs on Digital.
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In Melbourne, 3CR, 3RRR, PBS and 3ZZZ all simulcast. RPH, as stated by @Moe, has two channels, while SYN and Light run different streams on DAB+: SYN Nation and LightDigital respectively
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Here in Sydney, 2MFM, 2OOO, 2RPH, 2SER, Fine Music and Koori Radio have all simulcasted for years, certainly since at least Christmas 2011 when I got my first DAB+ receiver.
As we’ve covered before, FBi Radio previously simulcasted it’s main station on DAB+ but has since axed that in favour of providing an alternative station in FBi Click. Hope Media has run digital-only station Inspire Digital and seasonal pop-up Christmas Hope for years, but has only recently started to trial a simulcast of Hope 103.2.
Dickies at Macquarie Centre has a large number of Bush Personal DAB units on clearout at $44.99 -
Does anyone have any experience with one of these units? At that price it is very tempting as a throw around unit…
A.
Better off just going to Target or Kmart - they’ll have DAB radios in stock cheaper than that if you just want to try out the format - 30% off the Dick Smith pricing still doesn’t make those units that attractive.
I got the handheld radio and it is pretty good. Nice and light. No background noise at lower volumes like some sangeans have. Pretty good battery life.
My only issue is the volume control, volume 1 is still a bit loud.
New show on MMM Classic Rock.Starts tonight 10pm “Hard and Heavy”
John Davidson has reviewed the LG Stylus DAB+ phone in the Australian Financial Review:
The Stylus DAB+ is a 5.7-inch Android 6 phone that, setting aside the DAB+ element for a moment, is LG’s version of the marvellous Samsung Galaxy Note 5, one of our favourite phones ever.
I’ve been listening to the Stylus DAB+ on my commute to and from work, and while I can’t tune in to my preferred ABC stations at home (where there is no DAB+ ABC reception, despite there being excellent AM and FM reception), and while I also can’t tune in to it at work without it breaking up, it works very well for the actual commute between those two locations.
In order to activate DAB+, you need to plug in a pair of headphones, that act as an antenna.
It doesn’t hold a candle to the Galaxy Note 5. The screen is terrible and performance is very very poor. It’s only a smidge better than a Lumia 530 - a phone you can buy right now for $130 outright.
You can currently buy a cheapy DAB+ tuner and hook it up to your phone via USB OTG for a total cost of around $50 (including $17.90 for a tuner app), so really I don’t expect the phone to sell very well.
In relation to my post in the “RDS” thread, I have now purchased a HD radio whilst over here in Hawaii.
First impressions are somewhat underwhelming compared to DAB+ in Oz.
- Only about 6 out of 20 odd stations seem to use HD Radio
- Only the HD enabled stations seem to use RDBS (RDS) on FM (this could be an illusion).
- At least the HD only stations don’t seem to be compressed to buggery like DAB+ is back home. That could be that here, stations generally only have 1 or 2 HD only stations.
The model I have (the only one I could find at Best Buys, kind of a JB Hi-fi equivalent), is an Insignia one as per link below
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-hd-radio-tabletop-radio-black/4635744.p?id=1218505477073
Another oddity is how FM only goes up in 0.2 MHz steps (ie from 88.1 to 88.3 but can’t tune in 88.2, but the radio in a hire car I had here did that too, so must be an American thing).
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Well I guess it’s a good thing that the majority (as far as I know anyway) of FM stations in Australia use odd numbered FM frequencies so if one wanted to, an American radio that only goes up in 0.2MHz steps (rather than the 0.1MHz or even 00.5MHz of most radios in Australia) could still be used back in Australia.
But in general, I found that post quite fascinating Radiohead! 
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Thanks!
I’ll certainly be trying out this radio when I get back home too, but yes, won’t be much good for listening to Hope Sydney or Rebel/Breeze in some parts of SEQLD then!
Next stop Chicago, will be interesting to see if that changes my impressions of HD Radio much.
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Is there a reason why 103.2 can’t be on 103.3?
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