Digital Radio

And in the ongoing tales of LightChristmas - it’s now running a simulcast of FM, though is still called LightChristmas. Better than dead air.

Have been listening to zoo and 1sm since the glitch has been fixed and have noticed the same playlist, at the same time each day.

I pick my daughter up from school at 2.50 and have heard in the same order each day since last Monday:

Out of Reach:Gabriel
Budapest:George Ezra
You belong with me:Taylor Swift
(Some modern pop song i dont know the name of)
I believe:Kylie minogue
Your Beautiful:James Blunt

Very lazy way to run a radio station IMO

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Sampled both whilst in the Blue Mountains in January, from Mt Victoria east, no problem with receiving this station. Reception constant and no difference to other stations on the same ensemble, the other commercial ensemble or the ABC/SBS one. This was with a Sangean, a Bush and Terris.

So you didn’t noice any glitches then?

It is really strange as it is 4A error encoding. It should have issues being transmitted that far!

Commercial Radio Australia has released projections by PricewaterhouseCoopers that close to 4 million new vehicles (or nearly 60% of new vehicles) sold in Australia in 2021 will be fitted with a digital radio.

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That is good news. They need to get cracking on rollout of DAB+ to areas other than Gold Coast and Hobart though. Newcastle, Wollongong, Sunshine Coast and Central Coast NSW for example. What’s needed are the major east coast metro areas to have continuous coverage:

  • Sunshine Coast-Brisbane-Gold Coast-Tweed
  • Newcastle-Central Coast-Sydney-Wollongong
  • Melbourne-Geelong

If they achieve this in addition to the other capitals you’ve got a BIG chunk of the population covered. Probably over 70%. Then if you move to the next biggest regional centres like Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, Toowoomba, Albury, Bendigo, Ballarat and Launceston and you’d have close to 90% of population covered, if not land area.

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None, reception was stable, even in a moving car.

I do question those CRA digital car radio uptake figures.

They state that 862,426 vehicles in Australia have been sold new with a Digital Radio.

New car sales in total run a bit over 1 million per year, and DAB radios have only started to be fitted as standard in some makes / models over the last 2-3 years, in many cases only on the upper spec models, even now,.

It’s still not standard in the base Mazda 3, Corolla or i30, 3 of our biggest sellers.

Agreed, this will make a big difference.

How keen are the licensees to invest in DAB+ ? DMG were supportive of digital radio but clamouring for it for the Central Coast in their submission. Nor was the submission re Brisbane overlap from Mix/Sea FM.

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I think that figure sounds about right. Roughly 30% of new cars currently have DAB based on about 1 million a year over the last few years would be about 800k. Holden has jumped on the bandwagon at last with the new Astra and Trax.

The big laggards are VW, Hyundai and KIA of the major brands. And Toyota still haven’t put it in Corolla, although it’s in the mid and upper Camry.

The encouraging thing is it seems a lot like how FM found its way into cars in the 70s and 80s. Remember in the early to even mid 80s most base models were AM only. I remember my XD Falcon was AM only which meant I only listened to Radio 10, 4BK and 4SS in the car and FM104 only at home :slight_smile:

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Subaru is another brand that doesn’t have DAB+ on their new cars.

Yes true. I was expecting it in the “all new” Imprezza but I don’t even think that has it. Suzuki is another one. These fringe dwellers will have to get on board now there’s a critical mass. My bet is Hyundai next with the new i30 coming out.

The carmakers need to be encouraged to build digital radio into their new models over the next few years.

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SEN have tended to cover the Melbourne races in-between their sports talk on a Saturday afternoon, during the AFL off-season. Seems strange that they’d be overflowing the coverage to 1377 though - I guess we will wait to see if they keep doing that once the AFL comes into full swing this week.

Not really, when thy launched Classic Rock they made it very clear that they had chosen that format to complement the audience on SEN, so as much as horse racing sounds odd on a music station, using it as an overflow station does fit within that strategy.

The first DAB-only survey for 2017 has been released this morning, with much greater detail than ever before, in which the ABC stations are now included, as well as demographic & timeslot breakdowns: http://www.radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/GfK_DAB-Only-Summary-Report-National_Survey-1-2017.pdf

In Sydney, The Edge Digital is #1, followed by ABC Jazz, Triple J Unearthed, Coles Radio, Koffee, ABC Grandstand, OldSkool Radio & Double J, just to name a few.

In Melbourne, Double J is #1, followed by ABC Jazz, Aussie, Coles Radio & Easy Radio, whilst in Brisbane, Coles Radio is #1, followed by Double J & The 90s. In Adelaide, The 90s is #1, whilst in Perth, Smooth is #1. In Brisbane, Smooth & Easy are tied, whilst in Adelaide, Smooth is ahead of Easy.

It’s worth noting that Pacific Star’s Classic Rock Radio in Melbourne is not listed in the digital-only stations survey, unlike when it was MyMP/3MP, despite being also available on AM.

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It isn’t a DAB+ only survey. Confusingly the age demographics are listed as “DAB+ AND internet”.

Then the time zones are listed as “digital and internet”.

Different figures in each case for overall (10+) listening.

So what do they mean by “digital” in the second instance?

_

Description Central Coast DAB+ 8C 5KW Estimated Coverage

Tx Power 5KW Omindirectional

Weak signal field 54.0 dBμV/m
Strong signal field 66.0 dBμV/m

As promised I have done a DAB+ coverage map for the Central Coast for Digital radio on frequency block 8C.
I have done the prediction from the 2GO tower at Mount Penang at an antenna height of 70M just below the 2GO broadcast antenna and 5KW omnidirectional. Note
this information is from a coverage map generator only, so cannot guaranteed to be completely accurate.

Based on the coverage generator, If Dab+ was to be approved with the above specs the following areas would experience low signal strength 54dbuV/M
. Holgate
. Kincumber through to Avoca Beach as a result of shading from Kincumber Mountain
. The southern section of Lake Tuggerah, comprising of Berkeley Vale, Killarney Vale, Parts of Wamberal, Shelly Beach, Long Jetty, and Toowoon Bay
. Westfield Tuggerah, Mardi and Parts of Wyong.

DAB+ translators would be required to fill in the blackspots. Based on my coverage tool, Forresters Beach and Bouddi should eliminate most of them as they do with Digital TV on the coast.

For Dxing if there was no restrictions on the 5KW to the north and the south
areas outside the licence area that would achieve 66dbuV/M would include-
. Palm Beach
. Berowra
. Hornsby and parts of Wahroonga
. Parts of Dural and Galston
. Kurrajong Heights, and from Springwood up to Blackheath on the Great Western Highway
. Along the coastal fringe from Belmont up to Charlestown in Newcastle

My area of Sydney which covers the Richmond, Marsden Park, Kellyville, Stanhope Gardens and Rouse Hill would be in the 54dbuV/M coverage area.

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All those spots you mentioned with low signal strength, are all the same places that are affected with low signal FM too from the Somesby TX sites, (no surprise).

At 54dbuV you’d probably have lots of dropouts too & the reception would be unreliable, you’d ideally want that signal strength up & over 60dBuV for a solid reliable signal.

I’d say most, or all of the areas you’ve mentioned as low signal strength, would actually have no DAB+ reception, the community stations at 2kW on FM are pretty much non existent indoors & on portable radios in those areas, & the commercials at 16kW on FM are marginal in those areas, except for in car reception, which fares a little better.