I have some cheap DAB radios with shitty amplifiers, which have clipping. Not sure if that’s the right term, but on volumes above the 4th level the quality goes to shit (depending on the accoustic frequency). At the same time, I need more volume because I’m running a fan as summer heats up.

So I put two shitty DAB radios in the same room on the same channel at levels just below the clipping. I knew this would happen: they decode at different speeds so the speakers are out of sync. The device that has an auxillary input is the one with the crappiest speaker.

FM does not have this issue. So if you go to a Critical Mass demonstration where hundreds of cyclists converge and ride together, sometimes they are organised enough that one person broadcasts tracks on an unused FM channel and everyone else with speakers can tune in to that station. That would not work well after DAB replaces FM, and FM radios become obsoleted.

Bluetooth is not exactly up to the task. The consumer grade BT gear is very short ranged. And I think most consumer grade BT devices are 1-to-1 pairing. Not sure if the 1-to-many long-range bluetooth transmitters are affordable.

I wonder what is the rationale. Will be shitty if all FM radios become bricks because of some stupid push to obsolete them.

Or is there a smarter plan, like using the bandwidth for something more worthy than FM radio?

UPDATE

Some more FM advantages:

Fast channel changing.

Better reception. There is a station in my city that transmits both DAB and FM. Their DAB signal has chronic cut-outs but their FM station is good enough. And in general, weak FM signals are still useful while weak DAB signals are unusable. So a DAB-only policy marginalises people who live remote from the cities.

Broadcast TV has their shit together, at least in the US. You can setup MythTV to fetch TV schedules without Internet access. It can grab the schedules from the broadcast signals. You can also subscribe to Internet services that give TV scheduling far into the future, but that’s a non-gratis frill. The in-band scheduling info goes a few days out which is good enough.

Radio listeners are screwed on this. FM and DAB+ both have no scheduling info. And worse, there is no Internet service that produces an aggregated radio schedule. You must find websites hosted by each radio station individually and navigate in their shitty user interfaces. Sometimes the programs are too vague to be useful.

Apparently it was completely overlooked in the drafting of the DAB specs. In principle, a clever broadcaster could embed schedule info into the album art using stegonography, or stego on the audio content, but then no appliances would decode such hacks.

I have no idea if satellite radio is on the ball. I think satellite radio is a US-specific option as DAB is nearly non-existent in the US. Vice-versa in Europe.

As someone who has pulled the plug on the residential Internet, I cling to the radio more than most. If DAB would were to include metadata and if there were a DAB-capable PC card, it would be great to have a MythTV-like setup to record radio programs. As it stands, we are driven to do a lot of channel surfing, which is worse on DAB than on FM because of the 2½ second delay with each channel change to decode a chunk of data (so surfing 10 channels has 25 seconds of silent timewaste).

I’m sure radio broadcasters would get more market share if DARs (digital audio recorders) were a thing. That sort of utility might even enable more people to be willing to experiment with unplugging from the Internet.

And of course some of the people involved are also directors of North Norfolk Digital...

SUBJAM changed to 1047 SUBJAM [Herts Beds Bucks]

Capital UK removed from Herts Beds Bucks

HITS RADIO UK removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Shine 879 removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Grt Hits BBH removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Smooth 3Counties removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Smooth 3Counties added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Easy Listening)

Grt Hits BBH added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

Shine 879 added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 80 Kbps; Pop Music)

HITS RADIO UK added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

Capital UK added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Pop Music)

I just had a quick look at how album art on a per-track basis reaches tuners. In the US, analog FM radio gets it through a side-channel.. a separate signal called HD radio.

And apparently DAB+ incorporates album art into the signal. This seems to be the difference between DAB and DAB+. I guess the question is, does the HD radio side channel approach ever happen with DAB (non-plus)?

Virgin Anthems changed to Virgin Legends [SDL National ]

Mellow Magic St changed to Mellow Magic [SDL National ]

Absolute Rock St changed to Absolute Rock [SDL National ]

Absolute 90s St changed to Absolute 90s [SDL National ]

Planet Rock St changed to Planet Rock [SDL National ]

Absolute 80s St changed to Absolute 80s [SDL National ]

Jazz FM Stereo changed to Jazz FM [SDL National ]

Magic Radio changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 40 Kbps (DAB+) [D1 National ]

Grt Hits Rad 70s added to D1 National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

Grt Hits Rad 80s added to D1 National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

HITS RADIO 90s added to D1 National (DAB+ 40 Kbps; Pop Music)

KISSTORY changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 40 Kbps (DAB+) [D1 National ]

HITS RADIO 00s added to D1 National (DAB+ 40 Kbps; Pop Music)

KISS changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 40 Kbps (DAB+) [D1 National ]

Absolute Radio changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 40 Kbps (DAB+) [D1 National ]

SUBJAM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 64 Kbps; Other Music)

XS removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Magic changed to Magic Radio [D1 National ]

Magic Classical changed from 32 Kbps (DAB+) to 40 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

My DAB+ radio also has an FM function. It stores a favorite set of channels for DAB and a separate memory store for FM. When cycling through the DAB presets, there is a ~3 or so second delay for it to tune and decode. With the FM mode there is no delay. Is my particular model just slow with decoding the first sound byte or is this an inherent DAB shortcoming?

I imagine a well designed DAB radio could theoretically tune the next 2 or 3 presets in sequence simultaneously in parallel so you could avoid the channel changing delay. Has anything like that been implemented?

What about a device that pairs FM to DAB? Some radio stations have both an FM and a DAB transmission. So in principle I would want the device to be aware of the dupes. From there, I should be able to flip through the FM stations and once I settle on a station push a single button to switch over to the DAB signal. It could even deliberately play the FM signal for 4 sec. longer and quickly cross-fade in the DAB signal. Any hardware on the market doing this sort of thing?

Absolute 80s St changed from 40 Kbps (DAB+) to 32 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

Absolute 90s St changed from 40 Kbps (DAB+) to 32 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

Planet Rock St changed from 40 Kbps (DAB+) to 32 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

Scala Radio St changed to Magic Classical [SDL National ]

Magic Classical changed from 40 Kbps (DAB+) to 32 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

KISSTORY R&B added to SDL National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

Grt Hits Rad 60s added to SDL National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

Magic Chilled changed to HITS RADIO__CHIL [SDL National ]

HEAT RADIO removed from SDL National

Capital Anthems added to SDL National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

Smooth 80s added to SDL National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Easy Listening)

Capital Chill removed from SDL National

Gold UK changed to Gold Radio UK [D1 National ]

JUST TESTING PLEASE IGNORE changed to Capital UK [Herts Beds Bucks]

HITS RADIO UK added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

Apologies, seems the receiver/bot is not getting good reception of the HBB mux, hence the repeated "this has been added, oh actually it's gone, oh no it hasn't".

When I can get to the antenna I'll reposition it, or put some mitigations in to stop it happening.

HITS RADIO UK removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Cap Taylors Vers removed from SDL National

Capital UK removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Shine 879 removed from Herts Beds Bucks

BBC 3CR removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Heart 4 Counties removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

Shine 879 added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 80 Kbps; Pop Music)

BBC 3CR added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Talk)

Capital UK added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Pop Music)

Heart 4 Counties added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Pop Music)

HITS RADIO UK removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Grt Hits BBH removed from Herts Beds Bucks

XS removed from Herts Beds Bucks

HITS RADIO UK added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

Grt Hits BBH added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

XS added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 64 Kbps; Pop Music)

Shine 879 added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 80 Kbps; Pop Music)

XS removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

XS added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 64 Kbps; Pop Music)

Heart 4 Counties removed from Herts Beds Bucks

BBC 3CR removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Heart 4 Counties added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Pop Music)

BBC 3CR added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 128 Kbps; Talk)

MKFM removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; none)

Grt Hits BBH removed from Herts Beds Bucks

Grt Hits BBH added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

MKFM removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

MKFM removed from Herts Beds Bucks

MKFM added to Herts Beds Bucks (DAB 112 Kbps; Pop Music)

HITS RADIO UK changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 112 Kbps (DAB) [Herts Beds Bucks]

Grt Hits BBH changed from 80 Kbps (DAB) to 112 Kbps (DAB) [Herts Beds Bucks]

TalkRadio-TalkTV changed to Talk [SDL National ]

CapXTRA Reloaded changed from 40 Kbps (DAB+) to 32 Kbps (DAB+) [SDL National ]

Cap Taylors Vers added to SDL National (DAB+ 32 Kbps; Pop Music)

BBC Radio 3 changed to BBC Radio3 [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 4 changed to BBC Radio4 [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 1 changed to BBC Radio1 [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 2 changed to BBC Radio2 [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 5 Live changed to BBC Radio5Live [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 6Music changed to BBC Radio6Music [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 4Extra changed to BBC Radio4Extra [BBC National DAB]

BBC Radio 1Xtra changed to BBC Radio1Xtra [BBC National DAB]

Sometimes DAB radio stations are playing music that skips like a CD, repeating a short segment like a broken record. It often goes on for quite some time, which is a bit puzzling because surely there is nothing about digital radio tech that would cause this. The skipping never happens during talk radio, only with music.

Are radio stations actually playing CDs? If yes, are these CDs also playing on autopilot with no one at the helm to quickly swap out the disc? Or is it just bad timing.. the CD happened to go to shit while the DJ is literally taking a shit and away from the controls?

The skipping was extremely rare, if ever, on analog radio. So I wonder if DAB has also somehow open things up to very low budget stations with robotic DJs, perhaps due to increased sharable bandwidth or something. Switching from analog FM to DAB tripled the number of stations I can receive.

Why don’t they rip their CDs to FLAC files, then listen to the FLAC files for defects to ensure skipping never happens?