Christmas Hope is back on air in Sydney.
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What theā¦?
Havenāt we just gotten over Easter?!
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For the community stations, almost all of them have an Optimod PC card in the Factum Encoder. Iām not sure whatās going to happen now that the CBAA are replacing the old Windows XP 2RU Factumās with 1RU encoders (Running Enmuxa, I think - I could be wrong). I doubt the Optimod cards would fit.
Thereās actually a program stream (complete with Christmas music) running too!
Now Iāve heard of Christmas in July before, but in Early/Mid-May this is ridiculousā¦
The community radio DAB projects are mostly government funded. I hear Territory FM will be experimentingā¦
Hobart is a big work in progress. At the moment, the line up is Ultra106Five, Hobart FM and 7RPH. The encoding equipment was supposed to be installed last month, but still hasnāt been. The fiber backhaul has been in for a few months now, though. Remember, 9A in Hobart was originally expected to come on in September last year, and only came on in April this yearā¦
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I just purchased the DAB/FM/Bluetooth radio from Aldi. Having a fiddle with it, but unlikely to become my main radio for my apartment. Would go into my schoolās workshop to be honest.
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OK, finished having a fiddle, currently going through a backload of Barshens podcasts on the Bluetooth mode.
Found all 62 (as of today) Sydney DAB stations, and actually has 20 DAB presets! Used at least 15 of them. Sounds OK, but not earth shattering. Switching between the stations is similar to the Kmart and Bush models I have - press Prev or Next to find them.
FM is similar, only added 5 as presets. Bluetooth works fine. Again not earth shattering in terms of sound quality.
Charging is done using the supplied charger, will take it in on Monday to try it if the kids donāt act like little shits.
It isnāt bad, but it is a little over priced for what it is, missing AUX in for stuff like my iPod nano.
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Does it display stations alphanumerically or by ensemble?
Alphanumerically.
Some Adelaide DAB observations.
There are 46 stations in total.
I was a little surprised that when I did a full rescan that the first station that appears is ABC Adelaide.
I was expecting it to be 5AA or 5EBI, as my Sangean sorts alphabetically, numbers first. Those two stations are listed as FIVEaa and EBI World.
Smooth FM is sounding very good at 88 kbps.
Cruise 1323 is only 48 kbps, but being run by ARN, Iām not surprised.
Vision Australia has both RPH Adelaide and iris stations, but I think they might be the same stream??
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With the possible exception of Perth, Vision Australia discontinued opt-out programming on the IRIS channels a few years back
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Managed to scan in the Canberra DAB stations about 10 kms south of Crookwell (on the Goulburn Road) where it has a good line of sight to the south.
Was listenable in car for the next 10 kms or so except where behind a hill, dropped out after that as I descended down into Goulburn.
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Thereās a lookout along that road for a wind turbine that I recall receiving Canberra DAB+ whilst getting the camera out.
They are in an unlucky position, Iād have to live on a hill outside of town for decent fortuitous reception. Would be good if an Airbnb in such a location.
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I was nearly going to stop there!
In hindsight, I probably should have, as I went up to the War Memorial Lookout in Goulburn instead only to find the mess created by Eagle FM with mixing everywhere on the dial. It was worse than I thought! Will post about that in the DX thread.
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2GB have finally restored their rotating slideshow of images after several weeks.
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Itās a pity that 2GB doesnāt do much with their DAB+ slideshow though.
Sure, being a talkback station they donāt play enough music for a āNow Playingā function to be worthwhile. But even adding headlines from Macquarie National News & the weather would be good.
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Totally agree. ABC Sydney DAB has news headlines within their info display which I read on my DAB+ bedside radio, canāt see a reason why 2GB canāt do the same.
Iām also a bit puzzled why they also donāt promote via their slideshow their more popular weekend hosts or programs. You would have thought the popular George & Paul show would get a slideshow image (promo).
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Yeah, itās great how the ABC includes news headlines/weather in their scrolling text (or whatever the correct terminology is) but theyāre perhaps even worse than 2GB when it comes to slideshow images - just the logo!
Not too sure if the ABC & MRN have the capability to do something like this (but perhaps refine the concept so things donāt look overly busy/compressed):
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Went for a drive around Canberra today, mostly south side.
Tested out DAB coverage in the car, there were only two spots that I went that had dropouts - Athllon Dr, Kambah and Tharwa Dr, Calwell (just behind Calwell Hill).
Also spotted SNOW FM on the DAB station list, but there was no sound, which was interesting.
Reception north side on the way in yesterday was flawless from the top of the hill at the southern end of Lake George on the Federal Hwy all the way into town.
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when will be know if places like ballarat or bendigo will get digital radio???
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