“The 80s”’ in Sydney has no audio at the moment.
“Now playing” is still showing song info though.
“The 90s” is OK though.
2 Likes
Looking at the Dab+ coverage map I generated for Hawkesbury Heights Dab+ translator. The areas that have Urban coverage 74dbuV is from Agnes Banks to Cranebrook. Penrith and Richmond have Suburban grade coverage 66dbuV with pockets of rural grade coverage 54dbuV. This would explain the pockets of poor reception you received in Richmond.
If the dab+ translators were installed at Kurrajong Heights. Richmond would have excellent reception but Penrith would have rural grade coverage at best. This is why Hawkesbury Heights was selected as it best services both Penrith and Richmond.
To really cover both centres well you would need 1kw ERP from Hawesbury Heights based on my coverage map.
2 Likes
That reminds me of a newspaper article I read in the early to mid 2000s about digital radio.
It stated that 1kw would be enough to cover ALL of Sydney. Yet now here we are with DAB+ running at 50kw on the main TX and several translators, there are STILL reception issues.
Sounds a bit like digital TV, doesn’t it?
3 Likes
1KW would be fine in capital cities if DAb+ was for inner city listeners only.
1 Like
Though there’s a repeater for the Sydney CBD as well?
Reminds me of a HiFi salesman that told me in a very matter of fact manner that “digital radio was only available within a 26km radius of Sydney”. He had no comeback when I told him I could get it all the time 105km away 
5 Likes
Speaking of which I went to centrepoint tower today. Town hall station has amazing reception. It does have issues inside Westfields.
Went to the rotating restaurant at centerpoint (expensive but great view). Unfortunately could not DX too much.
3 Likes
Lol!
And I’d reckon there’d be too much overload up there anyhow.
I remember DXing on the 74th floor of World Tower some years ago and the best I could get was Wollongong, and even that was noisy.
2 Likes
I did get Wollongong and central coast. But nothing special.
2 Likes
“The 80’s” still broken for me on DAB, but working online.
2 Likes
Yep deadsville still in Melbourne as well. So much for monitoring / alarms. Or care factor zero at ARN.
2 Likes
Nothing in Brisbane either 
2 Likes
No great loss.
The service was only 32kbps in Sydney & in melancholy mono (and no slideshow jpg either).
I don’t understand ARN when it comes to their thought processes re DAB+ content & bit rates.
Let’s push the maximum number of stations at minimum bit rates with magnificent mono with minimum money out to the masses.
Even their high rating FM stations such as KIIS & WSFM as carried on DAB+ are only 48kbps & mono.
How are they going to get their listeners to transition to DAB+ when they push out crap audio quality (low bit rate) on DAB+?
To answer in part my own question, I’ve heard rumours that ARN don’t wish to have their listeners migrate from FM to DAB because DAB survey ratings don’t get added to the AM/FM listener surveys & any migration of their listeners from FM to DAB would weaken their prime (FM) ratings & thus income from the radio surveys. Is this true?
2MFM recently upgraded from 32 to 48kbps.
In case any radio station owners/managers are reading this - I refuse to listen to any DAB+ transmission under 64kbps.
2 Likes
ARN’s DAB+ “strategy” is a mystery but it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t want their listeners to migrate to DAB+. They barely promote the fact that their AM music stations are on digital which is insane. If they truly wanted DAB+ to succeed they’d have Pure Gold on DAB+ in Brisbane and Adelaide, and Classic Hits on DAB+ in Sydney and Melbourne to complement each other. Instead “their” listeners will be sampling MMM Greatest Hits and Classic Rock. The 80s and The 90s are ok, but is that all they’ve got? Seems a bit of a token gesture to me sometimes. The fact The 80s has been off air all weekend in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne (and probably everywhere else) is a testament to how invested they are - they’re probably annoyed anyone noticed :
5 Likes
I find that difficult to believe. Surely the reported ratings are a total of broadcast analogue, DAB+ and on-line streaming.
3 Likes
In the past, there have been disclaimers on the regional radio ratings which say that the results include listening via streaming and DAB+ in Canberra, so I’d be very surprised if GfK’s radio ratings surveys for metropolitan markets weren’t taking listening of the listed stations through DAB+ and online streaming into the equation alongside traditional AM/FM radio broadcasts.
Of course no ratings survey is perfect (especially those done through diaries), but in this day and age it makes sense to include all forms of radio listening into the equation so the results are as representative of each market as possible.
5 Likes
I’ve noticed a new DAB+ station in Brisbane this morning - Bris Youth Radio. Seems to be a community station but I’m not sure who?
Ah thanks
The latest ACMA database has digital radio repeaters added.
1 Like
I don’t think 9c is on. Interesting they list it as on.