Is It Just Me, Or Does DAB Seem a Bit Pointless?

[Mr Tidy]

Not really related to my Z4 as it has the DSP stereo so I doubt I could find a DAB head unit compatible with it, and I prefer the S54 sound-track anyway.

But my 3 Series daily has has a DAB head unit fitted and I get no signal until I'm within a mile or two of the M25.

My sister just bought a new car with DAB and went from Sutton (where she lives) to Guildford last week and lost the signal soon after she got outside the M25 on the A3.

So if there is no signal in suburban Surrey or Berkshire, is there any chance of getting a signal in less densely populated places?

My home stereo has DAB, but even that can't get Absolute Classic Rock, although thankfully I can use my laptop and Planetradio!

[Pbondar]

It’s just you

DAB is great in being able to offer a lot more choice of channels within a service area..it seems that the poorer quality units like BMWs are deaf…

My Volvo XC70 version here in the Scottish Borders which I think most people would regard as a lower population density hangs on almost as well as normal FM…

[rdm05z4]

Ok being from over the pond as I read post here I get an education on UK terms, and slang. (for example UK "backbox" what we in the US call Muffler. In reading this post I believe when discussing DAB you are referring to SAT radio? If not can someone educate me please.

[Mr Tidy]

Thanks for that.

I've lived here 10 years now and never got a decent TV signal from an aerial, so I bought a FreeSat box that uses a Sky dish which works fine!

My mobile often loses signal at home too.

I sometimes wonder if being less than a mile from Sandhurst Military Academy has a bearing?

FWIW my sister has a Fiat!

[mmm-five]

Ok being from over the pond as I read post here I get an education on UK terms, and slang. (for example UK "backbox" what we in the US call Muffler. In reading this post I believe when discussing DAB you are referring to SAT radio? If not can someone educate me please.

It’s not satellite radio like Sirius…it’s just the digital terrestrial version of the analogue terrestrial radio stations we’d normally get on AM/FM, but as it’s digital they can fit many more stations into the same bandwidth as there’s less interference/overlap than with AM/FM.

It also means that some local stations can broadcast to a wider area…but it can have issues in built up areas where the signal gets bounced off lots of buildings and overwhelms the receiver.

I have no problem with DAB in general, and it means I don’t have to retune the radio to the same station on a different frequency as I drive around the country…however, the signal is no stronger than FM, so if the FM signal is non-existent, then the digital signal will also be non-existent.

The downside of digital over analogue is that there doesn’t need to be a huge loss of signal strength for you to lose the station as without enough data it can’t decode the signal…whereas analogue just gets less clear bit by bit until it stops. So a 50% strength analogue signal will provide sound (even if it’s of lesser quality) whereas the same strength digital will either be silent or on/off.

Parts of Wales, Scotland, Lake District and Peak District in the UK are useless for both analogue & digital, so I always have a huge library of music on my iPhone to connect to the head unit…unless I’m in the Z4M in which case I just open the windows

[Pondrew]

Not really related to my Z4 as it has the DSP stereo so I doubt I could find a DAB head unit compatible with it, and I prefer the S54 sound-track anyway.

But my 3 Series daily has has a DAB head unit fitted and I get no signal until I'm within a mile or two of the M25.

My sister just bought a new car with DAB and went from Sutton (where she lives) to Guildford last week and lost the signal soon after she got outside the M25 on the A3.

So if there is no signal in suburban Surrey or Berkshire, is there any chance of getting a signal in less densely populated places?

My home stereo has DAB, but even that can't get Absolute Classic Rock, although thankfully I can use my laptop and Planetradio!

It's not you Mr T (or your sister); it seems to be the quality of the DAB used by individual car manufacturers.
My experience of DAB reception in vehicles (living in the same area using the same stations BTW)
Merc E250 (2013 car) sh*t reception anywhere except near London (M25 ish)
Mazda 6 (2016 car) reception everywhere and I mean everywhere
BMW Z4 (2013 car) forget it, never had a DAB reception anywhere
Volvo V90 bus (2019 car) OK reception in most places but dropped out in the sticks
Ford Focus (2020 car) not had a DAB reception so far in 6 months.
Skoda Octavia (2019 car) don't know it's the wife's D/D

So, the Mazda wins. Only problem with that car was that the sat nav would randomly revert to Latvian just when you were lost (did you know that the Russian language has far fewer letters than ours? I do now). So, swings and roundabouts!

[markplant]

2010 VW golf good DAB reception
2017 vauxhall van good DAB reception
I travel all over the UK, was in in Shetland early this year an no issues

[Rockhopper]

I’ve got a Pure Highway 600 I think it is in my Z4. It works perfectly for the stations I want to listen to (BBC mostly) but other stations such as Planet Rock are not so good. I also have a small portable DAB receiver that I take with me when I go walking. Again the BBC works perfectly everywhere I’ve been with it.
I should know how DAB works as I’m a radio ham….it seems that not all stations broadcast with the same amount of power so giving less reliable coverage.

[mmm-five]

Not really related to my Z4 as it has the DSP stereo so I doubt I could find a DAB head unit compatible with it, and I prefer the S54 sound-track anyway.

But my 3 Series daily has has a DAB head unit fitted and I get no signal until I'm within a mile or two of the M25.

My sister just bought a new car with DAB and went from Sutton (where she lives) to Guildford last week and lost the signal soon after she got outside the M25 on the A3.

So if there is no signal in suburban Surrey or Berkshire, is there any chance of getting a signal in less densely populated places?

My home stereo has DAB, but even that can't get Absolute Classic Rock, although thankfully I can use my laptop and Planetradio!

It's not you Mr T (or your sister); it seems to be the quality of the DAB used by individual car manufacturers.
My experience of DAB reception in vehicles (living in the same area using the same stations BTW)
Merc E250 (2013 car) sh*t reception anywhere except near London (M25 ish)
Mazda 6 (2016 car) reception everywhere and I mean everywhere
BMW Z4 (2013 car) forget it, never had a DAB reception anywhere
Volvo V90 bus (2019 car) OK reception in most places but dropped out in the sticks
Ford Focus (2020 car) not had a DAB reception so far in 6 months.
Skoda Octavia (2019 car) don't know it's the wife's D/D

So, the Mazda wins. Only problem with that car was that the sat nav would randomly revert to Latvian just when you were lost (did you know that the Russian language has far fewer letters than ours? I do now). So, swings and roundabouts!

Russian/Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters (as does the Latvian one - although it uses characters similar to the English alphabet but with diacritics), so unless you're using a different English alphabet than the rest of us, I think you're just mistaking some letters for others (like a Ш for a Щ)

Нет я не говорю по русски

[Pbondar]

I’ve got a Pure Highway 600 I think it is in my Z4. It works perfectly for the stations I want to listen to (BBC mostly) but other stations such as Planet Rock are not so good. I also have a small portable DAB receiver that I take with me when I go walking. Again the BBC works perfectly everywhere I’ve been with it.
I should know how DAB works as I’m a radio ham….it seems that not all stations broadcast with the same amount of power so giving less reliable coverage.

Slight diversion..I'm G6-FTE although not very active at the moment..are you still 'practising'?

[Rockhopper]

I’ve got a Pure Highway 600 I think it is in my Z4. It works perfectly for the stations I want to listen to (BBC mostly) but other stations such as Planet Rock are not so good. I also have a small portable DAB receiver that I take with me when I go walking. Again the BBC works perfectly everywhere I’ve been with it.
I should know how DAB works as I’m a radio ham….it seems that not all stations broadcast with the same amount of power so giving less reliable coverage.

Slight diversion..I'm G6-FTE although not very active at the moment..are you still 'practising'?

G0UKL, haven’t played for many years but I’ve just bought an IC7400 with the aim of getting back into it!

[Pbondar]

I’ve got a Pure Highway 600 I think it is in my Z4. It works perfectly for the stations I want to listen to (BBC mostly) but other stations such as Planet Rock are not so good. I also have a small portable DAB receiver that I take with me when I go walking. Again the BBC works perfectly everywhere I’ve been with it.
I should know how DAB works as I’m a radio ham….it seems that not all stations broadcast with the same amount of power so giving less reliable coverage.

Slight diversion..I'm G6-FTE although not very active at the moment..are you still 'practising'?

G0UKL, haven’t played for many years but I’ve just bought an IC7400 with the aim of getting back into it!

Nice I had a few ICOM rigs in the past when I was ‘practising’…got a couple of ‘who flung dung’ Chinese 2m/70cm mobile and handie…

Where we live now it’s pretty dead on the VHF bands..my next door neighbour is a rabid RTTY / WSJT QRP fan…small world

[Chris_D]

DAB?

You only need one station:
http://www.bassdrive.com/

bd_hoodie_back_sm-22.png (266.7 KiB) Viewed 348 times

[nick_l]

I’m an Absolute classic rocker too! I just use the app on my phone.

[Stevo1987]

Not really related to my Z4 as it has the DSP stereo so I doubt I could find a DAB head unit compatible with it, and I prefer the S54 sound-track anyway.

But my 3 Series daily has has a DAB head unit fitted and I get no signal until I'm within a mile or two of the M25.

My sister just bought a new car with DAB and went from Sutton (where she lives) to Guildford last week and lost the signal soon after she got outside the M25 on the A3.

So if there is no signal in suburban Surrey or Berkshire, is there any chance of getting a signal in less densely populated places?

My home stereo has DAB, but even that can't get Absolute Classic Rock, although thankfully I can use my laptop and Planetradio!

It's not you Mr T (or your sister); it seems to be the quality of the DAB used by individual car manufacturers.
My experience of DAB reception in vehicles (living in the same area using the same stations BTW)
Merc E250 (2013 car) sh*t reception anywhere except near London (M25 ish)
Mazda 6 (2016 car) reception everywhere and I mean everywhere
BMW Z4 (2013 car) forget it, never had a DAB reception anywhere
Volvo V90 bus (2019 car) OK reception in most places but dropped out in the sticks
Ford Focus (2020 car) not had a DAB reception so far in 6 months.
Skoda Octavia (2019 car) don't know it's the wife's D/D

So, the Mazda wins. Only problem with that car was that the sat nav would randomly revert to Latvian just when you were lost (did you know that the Russian language has far fewer letters than ours? I do now). So, swings and roundabouts!

Isn't Latvian your local language?