6th Mar 2010, 8:38 pm | #81 |
Heptode
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
When you drive a car, you want a radio with a large display and conveniently placed controls (often on the steering wheel itself)
With an add-on DAB converter, you'll have to fiddle with the converter to tune in a station, as the original radio's tuning will only be needed to tune into the DAB converter's RF output. That's not much better than playing a portable CD or MP3 through your tape player with a cassette adaptor. I think most people are simply going to rip out the factory radio and replace it with a DAB one. |
6th Mar 2010, 8:53 pm | #82 | |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
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6th Mar 2010, 10:24 pm | #83 | ||
Hexode
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
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6th Mar 2010, 10:56 pm | #84 |
Dekatron
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Let's not make this into a moan against the politicians, because the mods will close what could be a useful thread.
I am watching to see if any manufacturer markets a set-top box. Probably this will be stereo FM - I can't really see a manufacturer making a MW AM one (although I wish they would, because if there were lots of these around, those of us who've made our own micropower short-range AM pantry transmitters would be even less likely to get picked up. For the moment, this IS the only way to go. The up side is, that with a decent pantry transmitter, we can get better AM quality from our old sets than we'll have heard for a long time from 'official' broadcast transmissions! |
7th Mar 2010, 12:14 pm | #85 |
Dekatron
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
That is indeed a very good point. I play a selection of 1920s-1940s music through mine, and they sound much better reproducing authentic music of the era rather than modern offerings.
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7th Mar 2010, 4:50 pm | #86 | |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Quote:
I'm still not convinced that this will happen, at least not anytime soon. The 2015 date which was mentioned is likely to be an election year. Can you imagine a politician saying "Vote for me and I will switch off all your existing radios!" |
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7th Mar 2010, 8:42 pm | #87 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Funny, I've heard 1920s-1940s music through contemporary hi-fi systems and it sounds better than modern offerings through this as well...
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7th Mar 2010, 9:17 pm | #88 |
Octode
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Like earlier poster Graeme I too live in an area which is not covered by set-top box type signals. I don't receive DAB signals. What will I do when current signals are switched off? Like most things being currently done, provided services are available where most of the votes are, that does the job.
TimR
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7th Mar 2010, 9:21 pm | #89 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Hopefully they wont be switching them off . I cant see how they can when the digital signal is so hit and miss . I find VHF a pain allot of the time at work or driving to get a decent signal ,and thats been around 55 years !
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7th Mar 2010, 9:26 pm | #90 | |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
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7th Mar 2010, 9:37 pm | #91 |
Nonode
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Using DAB to feed an AM low powered transmitter is fine but for FM I would use either a feed from Freeview, Satellite or cable where they use higher bit rates and so do sound closer in quality to FM broadcasts.
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8th Mar 2010, 2:45 pm | #92 | ||
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
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9th Mar 2010, 12:47 pm | #93 |
Dekatron
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Definitely! Although if your current FM radio has a non-linear discriminator, then it'll sound mediocre with current broadcasts anyway. If you use the same discriminator characteristic to derive the negative feedback signal, then this radio will sound better than it's ever done, and your flagship, hi-fi-supa-linear-de-luxe radio will sound terrible!
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14th Mar 2010, 2:02 am | #94 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Hi
The switch off will never happen on AM reason being too many stations.Think about all the third world countries who receive AM from a far ...who cannot afford local FM-AM transmitters etc. FM is limited in transmission range so SW and AM is here to stay maybe FM will die to DAB. but that's it. |
17th Mar 2010, 10:31 pm | #95 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Hello all,
I had a quick play with a cheapo ipod transmitter intended for use in a car, less than a tenner from one of the foreign supermarkets. At very short range it seemed to work reasonably well but I couldn't see anywhere inside it which lent itself to a bit of RF amplification. Thinking about it it a bit more, I wonder if it was put in a well-screened box with lots of decoupling, could a bit of an internal aerial be amplified by a transisxxx valve on the outside to provide a slightly greater signal on VHF/FM stereo? A nice use for an acorn valve perhaps... Regards Ant Last edited by Antlong; 17th Mar 2010 at 10:33 pm. Reason: A little more detail added. |
19th Mar 2010, 5:04 pm | #96 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
The audio quality of most of these is likely to be poor. Remember, they are sold on price mainly to youngsters who have never heard musicians play real instruments or real hi-fi - and may have been designed by such youngsters too!
A decent quality re-transmitter is likely to cost as much or more than a replacement radio, so is not a viable option even if the digital signal was good enough. |
19th Mar 2010, 8:20 pm | #97 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
An idea occurred to me regarding AM radios. If a suitable MW micropower transmitter were available, which could be tuned to the frequencies once used by Caroline, 'Big L', etc(which in many areas will be free of modern UK stations)this could be fed from a CD player, playing recordings of sixties 'Pirate' radio, thus the program content and station announcements would be correct-i.e. 'Caroline on 199' would BE on 199m. Wouldn't be so easy to do this with BBC or Luxembourg recordings, since the frequencies are mostly still used for today's High Power Stations(unless, of course, these are switched off in 5 years time)
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20th Mar 2010, 8:06 am | #98 |
Dekatron
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
I already do something very similar. My micropower transmitter uses a 12AS7 and I prefer to transmit dance band music from the 1930s, which sounds exactly like it would have been heard by the wireless listeners of that period.
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20th Mar 2010, 11:42 am | #99 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
Radio broadcasting in the traditional sense would seem to have a limited lifespan. Streaming audio/video over the internet and Cellular Networks is the future whether we like it or not. Distributed connectivity over optical fibre making local connection via WiFi or Cellular offers huge advantage with unlimited 'stations' and the oppportunity to charge for it. I can easily see a scenario where there is no 'free' radio service.
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20th Mar 2010, 12:13 pm | #100 |
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Re: Keeping radios working following analogue switch off.
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