Dabgate… Dieselgate Mk 2 perhaps.
3 Likes
Presumably it’s so they can upsell people on a stereo upgrade. A Skoda buyer’s probably much less likely to be filling up an options list, so they don’t try?
1 Like
Yes! 
3 Likes
But they don’t even offer it with the premium sound upgrades. It’s crazy.
4 Likes
I am getting dead air on 3aw, SEN 1116, Magic 1278 and 3MP on DAB+ in Melbourne at 5:43am? is that the same for anyone else?
Their live streams via their sites are also down as well
2CH, 2UE and 2GB live streams appear to be down as well
I think there is a major techicical problem here that needs to be looked into
3 Likes
5 Likes
I thought DAB and DAB+ have the same transmission parameters – with the only difference being that it uses the AAC+ audio codec instead of MP2 (in which case, it’d just be a firmware issue).
Even before digital radio, cars meant for Australia had radio differences. For example, the Holden Astra has a Blaupunkt CD30 head unit. In Astras for European market, this same head unit has RDS, but its RDS capabilities were removed for Australia. I wonder how much they even saved from not including the RDS chip from a radio designed to have RDS in the first place. Sometimes when I tried to manual seek, it would go into RDS search mode and with the RDS chip missing it would crash the radio and I would need to take the fuse out to reset the radio.
4 Likes
There’s a significant difference in error correction coding as well as just the different codec.
I’m not fully across the differences, but the effect of it as far as I understand is that DAB+ is overall more robust, but has a stronger cliff edge for signal, while standard DAB will break down and at some signal strengths it will “burble” sounding like a really low bitrate signal and then drop off entirely a bit later.
The UK is surprisingly quickly moving to DAB+, quite a number of stations are now using it, not just the trial ones. That said, bitrates are horrific. 24kbps music anyone?
7 Likes
With DAB and DAB+ stations being able to co-exist on the same multiplex, would the error correction differences (UEP vs ECC) also be a software matter?
3 Likes
Yep, though you’d need strong enough hardware to do that decoding.
I’d be surprised if there were still any new devices being made that were DAB but not DAB+ compatible on a hardware level though, so a software lock to avoid royalites would be the most likely case I’d guess.
4 Likes
ewwww… That’s not even really music, 32 kbps sounds hollow and tinny enough as it is.
5 Likes
The ABC has a licence for a DRM+ trial on 95.9 MHz, broadcasting from Mt Baranduda, south of Albury-Wodonga. EIRP is 10 kW. Effective from 1 September 2020 until 31 August 2021.
Here:
https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/licence_search.licence_lookup?pLICENCE_NO=11004867/1
13 Likes
Excellent.
2 Likes
That’s interesting…l always thought DRM was designed for AM to take advantage of better coverage afforded by AM in regional areas,.
Though I note at the link below that DRM on FM is being looked into, hence this trial I imagine.
3 Likes
Just did a Google search for DRM FM radios. Seems there are next to none out there. Would have been interesting to hear what it was like. Found one for the Indian market that’s mainly for DRM on the AM band. $720 on eBay.
4 Likes
They exist at far more reasonable wholesale prices - This product is no longer available. - has an perfectly capable receiver that is a reasonable price, just I assume the demand just means no one’s really ordering them.
Obviously annoying you need to buy in such high quantities, I don’t really have a use for 500 DRM+ receivers.
5 Likes
Imagine the ‘surround sound’ effect with 500 radios all on the one station!
3 Likes
Chinese electronics manufacturer Gospell displayed a full range at a DRM trade show earlier this year. But they are not for sale as yet. They are all “DRM+ Ready”.
http://m.goscas.com/buy-Drm.html
Sydney company AV-Comm/Tecsun Radios has a DRM radio available, but the DRM function only appears to work for SW.
https://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/product/tecsun-drm-radio/
3 Likes
So DRM over FM may be used outside of metro areas? Is it likely that head units in the future will use both?
Is DRM like HDRadio in the US where it goes on top of an existing station or does the frequency need to be open?
Does DRM use similar channel scanning/listing to DAB+ (allowing for easily finding all services) or would stations have to advertise to tune in to certain frequencies?
3 Likes
The trial will be DRM+ on FM only, with no regular FM program underneath, it seems.
3 Likes