Not sure if it's news to you, but 2017 is the end of FM radio in Norway... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 09:58:31 am
content: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/07/norway-will-become-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-switch-off-fm-radio/?postshare=6481483794895489&tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.0169d036d77fBasically, Norway is turning off all it's FM transmitters within the end of 2017, starting in about two weeks.As when we switched off the analog TV signals, the government claim better coverage, quality and service offers.The reality is not the same. There is much better coverage with FM. They claim otherwise, the only problem was that they only measured coverage vs STEREO FM range, not the mono signals. Mono FM offers much greater range.Also, quality wise, yes it is true that you get a lot more channels, and SOME send in high bit-rates, most channels however send in 16-80 kbps MP4... not exactly astounding?Just an FYI, DAB is transmitted in MP2 format, while DAB+ is in MP4.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 10:30:57 am
content: Yep, it's pretty stupid. Feels like it's done more to crow over how modern we are, than as a sound technical decision.Maintaining the FM transmitters costs money - supposedly around 200 million NOK/year. But retrofitting all cars - just the cars! - with DAB adapters or new radios will cost people 23billionNOK. But hey, a 100-fold increase is fine, as long as the gov't isn't paying!Incidentally I crammed a KT0803L-based FM transmitter into a cheap Sony DAB radio that I gave my mother, so she can keep using her old FM radios. Works a treat, and was substantially cheaper than buying an adapter.

author: joseph nicholas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 11:01:39 am
content: This whole story is hard to believe. Why and how can any gov in a democratic country try to limit free enterprise? Don't private individals own any radio stations in Norway?

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 11:07:00 am
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 08, 2017, 10:30:57 amHahhah, great job!

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 11:23:18 am
content: For anyone interestedHEREis more DAB/DAB+ country specific information from all around the globe.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 11:30:35 am
content: Quote from: joseph nicholas on January 08, 2017, 11:01:39 amActually, the FM shutdown only applies to the public broadcasting service (NRK). Small local stations may continue transmitting until (IIRC) 2021, at which point their licenses are up for renewal. Whether they'll be granted new FM licenses is unknown; if not, I expect many of them to disappear, as the cost of DAB gear is fairly prohibitive - up to 20 times higher than equivalent FM transmitters, or so I've heard.It should be pointed out that most of Norway is only covered by NRK; local radio stations don't have very good coverage.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 11:32:16 am
content: Quote from: joseph nicholas on January 08, 2017, 11:01:39 amThere are plenty of privately owned radio stations, Some broadcast via the NRK owned transmitters, these transmitters are paid for by the tax payers..some local radio stations have their own transmitters I believe, I guess they will continue sending via FM.But that's also some of the allure with DAB, it is much cheaper and simpler to broadcast nationally now as a small private station than via the FM system.

author: Bicurico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 12:49:04 pm
content: The same is due for all EU countries, just like the end of analogue TV broadcast. Norway just happens to be the first country to do so.The analogue shudown is officially justified with these arguements:- better coverage (not true - if you are even slightly outside coverage, you won't receive anything and DVB-T/T2 has effectively shown how difficult reception can be)- better quality (partially true - in therory the quality can be better, but in reality operators will use to a low bitrate on purpose to a) fit more channels and b) prevent people from recording music in CD quality)- greater choice (partially true - due to costs, smaller local radio stations tend to shut down business)The unspoken arguments are:- freeing up valuable frequency bands, which can be SOLD to mobile operators (for example LTE)- big bonus for industry, which will sell: receivers, antennas, multiplexer, transmitters, modulators, software, service...- more channels means more licenses...For the consumer:- Worse coverage, as digital signals require a reception above a threshold: it is all or nothing, while in analogue reception, there was a gradually worsening of reception quality - at least you could still receive.- Suddenly all receivers are obsolete: think on car radios alone! How to replace radios in modern cars? IMHO the transition should take at least 20 years!- For education/hobby: digital reception is so much more complex than analgue reception. This means you will not be able to build, learn or experiment with TV and radio anymore.- In case of catastrophic events, digital broadcast is much less immune and will fail quicker - on the other hand nobody will be able to hack together a radio from spare parts.- Less choice: only big operators will be able to afford digital broadcasting - local radios will often have to shut down business.My opinion:If the driving force is the frequency band reallocation to offer wireless internet based services, then why invent new digital broadcasting formats? Just make FREE WIRELESS INTERNET available through whole EU and every receiver just uses whatever internet streaming service, the manufacturer and customers want. This would be REAL INNOVATION.It just won't happen, because:a) there is no money in licenses to be madeb) the lobby has more power than the peoplec) the goverment wouldn't be able to control the contents for the populationCheers,Vitor

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:02:20 pm
content: I think the quality part means that either you hear the station or you don't, in FM the quality gets really bad when not strong enough signal. In the digital world you either hear the broadcast or you don't, but when you hear it, it will be with full broadcasted quality.Correct me if you feel I'm wrong about this.

author: sync
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:04:19 pm
content: Quote from: Bicurico on January 08, 2017, 12:49:04 pmWho pays for that? It will cost billions.

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:06:30 pm
content: Quote from: sync on January 08, 2017, 01:04:19 pmYes, there is no such thing as "Something for nothing". Someone has to pay for it in one way or another.

author: slurry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:11:44 pm
content: Sweden was recently just about to turn off the analog transmitters i favour for the DAB, but in the last minute it was aborted.I'm not sure what the plan is now.

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:24:48 pm
content: In Finland we had DAB trials that ended 2005 and since then there has been no plans on returning back to the trials nor removing FM all together.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:38:19 pm
content: Quote from: slicendice on January 08, 2017, 01:02:20 pmYes and no. In my experience, if DAB reception is marginal some radios will try to make the most of it, resulting in a stuttering, "quacking" sound. Voices are still barely intelligible, but it's not suitable for listening to. FM degrades more gracefully.It does feel like DAB resyncs much faster - if DVB drops out, it takes a second or two to even come back, while DAB will glitch and stutter only to return to crystal clear sound 50ms later.(edit: FM, not DAB. Derp.)

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 02:11:01 pm
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 08, 2017, 01:38:19 pmYes the stuttering would be a problem, just as bad as overall bad audio quality in weak FM signal, if not even worse. In these cases I think the noisy FM station would be better than signal being lost just to return a few ms or even seconds later. At least one can make something out of the talk even if there's some noise.

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 03:40:31 pm
content: I would be very sad if FM broadcast went away for a selfish reason. In the 90s I was really into finding, repairing, collecting, some reselling (mostly to friends at work) high end stereo equipment that I would find at thrift stores and some on ebay before vintage hi-fi became too popular to find 'steals' anymore, they were mostly made in the 70s to early 80s.This was in many people's opinion the 'golden age' (not golden ear!) of consumer stereo equipment. There were limited consumer products a person with disposable income could spend on stuff like this, not like today and so could take advantage of a wonderful very competitive (most from Japan) very popular market. A firm like Pioneer or Sansui (and several others) offered a range of tuners/receivers that could span 10 or more models ranging from affordable to 'you must be rich to spend that amount on a stereo receiver'.The tech at that time had firmly made the transition from tube to solid state and there really was ongoing race to quality and high end specifications, especially for their higher end models. Anyway sometime in the 90s there was a wide acceptance of 5 channel audio systems and people were replacing there stereo systems and many were donating their older stuff in waves to thrift stores. I would find at least a couple of nice receivers/tuners/speakers/etc almost every week just with maybe a weekend search of 4-5 thrift stores. Of course thrift stores at the time really had no idea of the value and range of quality these older systems had so they would price them like they did any other older 'junk' stereo systems. $20-30 was a common price for a piece of equipment that sold for $500 or more just 20 years prior.Anyway a typical hi-end FM tuner or receiver at the time would have a 5 gang tuning capacitor so you can imagine the complexity (and costs) of the front end design. One Pioneer receiver I (still have, SX-1980) have outputs 270 watts per channel RMS (with then strong FTC regulations on published specifications, not like what exaggerated and misleading specifications now allowed). Not that anyone really needed that much power it did give an unbelievable 'head room'.Anyway the era had among the best FM tuners ever made for the general public and it would be a shame if I couldn't listen to an active station to enjoy now and then.

author: BillyD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:07:37 pm
content: The bit that bugs me is that you can run an FM radio with moderate daily usage on batteries for weeks or even months on a set of alkaline batteries.Doing the same with a dab radio, you'd be lucky to get more than a few days out of it.It pretty much does away with portable radios.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:08:29 pm
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 08, 2017, 11:30:35 amThat's a bit of an assumption: the price of DAB equipment might have fallen considerably by then.

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:31:37 pm
content: The DK government considered to shut down the FM Broadcast.But the car owners and their organization complained loudly about missing traffic announcements etc.As retrofitting to a DAB radio would be very costly for the car owners.They have now postponed the decision, so we currently have both systems active.Btw: Remember to switch your TMC receiver on the GPS to a Digital version.At least the Garmin receivers can be replaced (Garmin GTM 70)https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00CTTHUYY/ref=pe_386171_38075861_TE_item/Bingo

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:33:56 pm
content: I'm a post man, delivering mail along 96 km of Norways border towards Russia.I have FM coverage just about 99% of the road, with a few holes right next to big hills and some valleys, it will cut for about 2 minutes at most.With DAB, it's much the same, except the last 30 km on my route furthest away from the transmitter has no coverage at all.

author: FlyingHacker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 05:00:22 pm
content: As a radio enthusiast I am very disappointed by this. I enjoy repairing old tube radios AM and FM.I have found a few stations where the analog signal sounds much better than the compressed digital one.I am getting sick of listening to Fourier Tranforms.https://xkcd.com/26/

author: Tom45
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 05:50:54 pm
content: Quote from: slicendice on January 08, 2017, 11:23:18 amThanks for that link.A few days ago when I first saw the Norway news story my reaction was huh? Having never heard of DAB I went to Amazon and found that there was pretty much nothing available for DAB.With the World DAB link, I see that DAB seems to be a non-entity in the Americas. So I don't feel so bad about never having heard of it.How did DAB start? Who is pushing it?Pretty much nothing in Africa, not a surprise. But nothing in Japan?

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 06:31:06 pm
content: Same story in Germany. The date for switching off FM was postponed two times already and DAB+ isn't so common. New cars still got FM only receivers. And in a few months DVB-T will be switched off, forcing all DVB-T viewers to buy a DVB-T2 HEVC tuner. The private TV stations want some extra fee for watching ads in HD, but I assume that this business idea will fail.

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 07:07:40 pm
content: For DVB-T part in Finland, the plan is that we will switch completely to DVB-T2 in 2020.

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 07:23:07 pm
content: Quote from: Tom45 on January 08, 2017, 05:50:54 pmIt was invented 1980 and has been officially under development since 1981 by Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH (Germany/Switzerland) . DVB-T was also invented by the same research center.Norway was the first to start their DAB broadcasts 1995 followed by Great Britain and Sweden later the same year.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:31:46 am
content: It's not broke, don't fix it.The EU normally has a pretty good reputation for having the better system. The power grid is arguably superior to the US, safety is boosted, and broadcasting standards tend to be improvements on our own.But this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard, it's not like with analog TV where usage has been declining, FM radio is the ONLY radio here in the US. We still use AM radio for news, talk, and sports shows. If you buy a car here, you get an FM/AM radio, and maybe some satellite rubbish you will never use. If we were to shutoff FM radio, there would be a sizable crowd ready to shove a few pitchforks up congressional rears.And to be brutally honest, I've never heard of DAB, we do not have ANY DAB broadcasting stations in North America. And I am quite happy to keep on using FM, which sounds completely fine and costs pennies to implement, until radio itself becomes totally obsolete.Honestly, I prefer my own recorded music in the car, or at many times, complete silence.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:38:56 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on January 09, 2017, 12:31:46 amThey are also going to switch off FM in the NL but perhaps I have fitted an MP3 player in my car long before that because the commercials really annoy me.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:41:14 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on January 09, 2017, 12:38:56 amI'm actually curious, do you use the MP3 wrapper, or something else?I tend to prefer AAC or M4A myself, FLAC if I have a lot of storage.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:44:19 am
content: Music is mostly non-random background noise to me so I have everything in MP3. The car makes noise as well so it doesn't really matter anyway.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:46:07 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on January 09, 2017, 12:44:19 amsorta the same here, although I can appreciate music when I do.

author: FlyingHacker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 02:05:20 am
content: In the US we have HD Radiohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radiowhich simulcasts digital and analog. Most cars made within the last five years can receive both, at least higher end cars.According to that Wikipedia article:"As of May 2009, there were more stations in the world on the air with HD Radio technology than any other digital radio technology. More than 1,700 stations covering approximately 84% of the United States are broadcasting with this technology, and more than 1,000 HD2 and HD3 multicast channels are on the air."And"The FCC has not indicated any intent to force off analog radio broadcasts as it has with analog television broadcasts, as it would not result in the recovery of any radio spectrum rights which could be sold. Thus, there is no deadline by which consumers must buy an HD Radio receiver. In addition, there are many more analog AM/FM radio receivers than there were analog televisions, and many of these are car stereos or portable units that cannot be upgraded."

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 02:29:47 am
content: The way that the WTO rules work (GATS Article I:3 (b)and(c)) once they allow a service to become commercialized to the end user then unless everything stays exactly the same and there is no movement in terms of regulation at all, a process may kick in in that will result in them bit by bit eventually having to stop allowing free or lower cost provision of that service pretty soon in favor of the forms of regulation that maximize profits. This applies to all "measures" which is a very broad term that includes all laws or policies of any kind.Thats what's happened with broadcast television in my area. I live almost within sight of the transmission towers for one of the largest TV markets in my country, just slightly in the Fresnel zone as they put it. You used to be able to receive at least 30 channels with a tiny antenna here. When they turned off the analog TV channels suddenly you can only receive around five channels via DTV and they are all mostly crap.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 09:44:56 am
content: Quote from: cdev on January 09, 2017, 02:29:47 amSame here. ATSC is useless where I live. You get 3 channels, if your lucky.

author: denverpilot
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 10:34:35 am
content: Quote from: FlyingHacker on January 09, 2017, 02:05:20 amOf course, what Wikipedia's article looking like it was written by an HD radio salesman, doesn't point out...Is that with mergers and acquisitions and the general trend toward nationally syndicated shows, or as few local radio personalities as possible, all pursuing weak advertising revenue because no one is tuning in... a true vicious cycle...... most of the HD subchannels are simply simulcasting something everyone can already get. Because more channels didn't equate to more content on broadcast radio, for the most part.An example here locally would be that we have one 50,000 Watt AM station that's a newstalk format, who's studio feed is also simulcast on not just one, but two HD FM stations.It didn't add to their coverage footprint at all, with a 50,000 watt monster signal available on AM.About all you get is a slightly higher quality bandwidth, and that is marred by digital dropouts in any kind of hilly or mountainous areas, while AM gets a little quieter if at all.So yeah, tons of FM (and even AM) "HD" radio, but with most channels just being simulcast, it appears to have generally been wholly unnecessary for stations owned by the same corporations to even buy it.AM station going from AM analog to Stereo/HD mode on my car decks, is the most interesting transition. Huge change in soundThere's one station locally who uses their HD sub carrier to do something awesome. They have a series of acoustic studio sessions with bands and single artists as they travel, and they dedicated one of their subcarriers to that music library, 24/7/365 without commercials. That's nice!

author: VK5RC
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 11:30:53 am
content: Rather interestingly in Australia, with summer and the bushfire season approaching, in the last few years the Government agencies have been encouraging people to have a 'bushfire action plan' and a 'kit' of basic gear- water, first aid, radio, spare batteries etc . Power and phone services often are one of the first to go in a bushfire area. The official station to listen to for fire updates is thelocal AM station, much better propagation esp if lot of smoke and dust etc. FM and DAB+ services also available here.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 11:51:42 am
content: Quote from: FlyingHacker on January 09, 2017, 02:05:20 amI guess it would be too much to ask for a single worldwide standard in 2017

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:06:03 pm
content: I do not listen to FM, except on the occasion I travel outside the big City of Melbourne. I have used DAB+ in the car and home for about 8 years with about 40 or more stations to choose from. Plus several thousand stations from the Internet. FM is antiquated and an inferior technology to DAB+ if you have a good signal.I remember about 20 years ago a station called 2CO in Cobram was planning to move from AM to FM. A farmer phoned up and angrily yelled something like, "Whats this FM stuff? Me tractor only has an AM radio. If you move to FM, you have lost this customer for good. You know where you can stick your fangled technology!" and promptly hung up.About 30 years ago, I heard an old ham radio operator on air saying "These transceivers with digital displays are not real radio and should be banned. You have to have valves and a plate to tune to be real radio."I ran a TV antenna business many years ago as most of the VHF signals were moving to UHF. One know-it-all farmer from Milawa bought a new antenna but refused to pay $60 for installation saying it was a ripoff, and he refused to listen to any advice, as being a farmer he knew what he was doing. He said he didn't need coax because coax is a ripoff. He later told me the antenna was crap and he wanted his money back. I discovered he was using a singlebarbedfencing wire as the feed line from the antenna, through an open window, into the screw connection on the balun; and the antenna was pointing to the ground..Peoples' adoption to new and better technology is like a bell curve. I don't think society should be spending time and money catering for those at one sigma who just don't get it.

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 02:18:04 pm
content: New tech is always welcome as long as it brings some advantages and more convenience over the old.I don't think analog radio tech will ever be completely abandoned, because it's cheap , simple, quite easy to implement from scrap parts and is quite reliable too.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 03:40:43 am
content: Quote from: FlyingHacker on January 09, 2017, 02:05:20 amMy auto has a radio that defaults to HD Radio, but I always defeat it. I found that when I was in motion, the signal would often drop out or repeat roughly one word, which is very annoying. Defeating HD gets me back to FM which never does the repeat thing.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 12:47:31 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on January 09, 2017, 12:06:03 pmThe thing is, DVB was a massive improvement on analog TV. DAB isn't a massive improvement on FM, and the coverage is an especially big part of it - you don't cry over not being able to get TV signals in your car, but a lot of people like having the radio available. And I'd rather take fewer channels that are usable than more channels which aren't.Also, it annoys me that you can't even buy the parts to build a DAB radio.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 02:57:11 pm
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 10, 2017, 12:47:31 pmYes, we can-http://www.silabs.com/products/audio/digital-radio/Pages/default.aspx-http://www.digikey.com/products/en/rf-if-and-rfid/rf-receivers/870?k=Si4684What bothers me is why only a few car multimedia systems include DAB/DAB+. DAB is around for several years and politicians have made clear that FM will be shut down. It's known for some time. But car manufacturers ignored that, still selling cars with AM/FM only. If you got an older car with a nice DIN mount you can simply replace the old radio. But with an expensive and fixed multimedia system you have to get some ugly DAB adapter.Another point is emercency broadcasting. It's easy and inexpensive to set up a small FM station for a region. DAB makes it more expensive. AM (MF) is nearly dead, because huge antennas and high power transmitters are expensive in operation. Governments told people for years to have a radio for emergencies. All those radios have to be replaced.

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 04:17:31 pm
content: Now you know how Armstrong felt.

author: Delta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 04:21:03 pm
content: AM / MediumWave is alive and well in the UK. TalkSPORT and BBC Radio 5 Live have millions of listeners on good ol' AM. Long may AM reign!

author: sync
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 05:23:36 pm
content: Quote from: madires on January 10, 2017, 02:57:11 pm... and the DAB receivers in Germany are useless now, because DAB is shut down (while FM is still alive). You need now DAB+. Maybe in 5-10 years you need DAB++ which would be also incompatible with DAB+. That's one of the problems.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 06:22:11 pm
content: Quote from: sync on January 10, 2017, 05:23:36 pmWhen the FM net starts it's shutdown in Norway tomorrow, all transmissions will go from DAB to DAB+, so all DAB radios are null & void... lol

author: MT
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 08:23:24 pm
content: Quote from: SantaClaw on January 08, 2017, 04:33:56 pmFor years and years Sweeds used to be able to hear NRK bordcasts on the other side of caledonian mountain range and Norwegians used to hear SR bordcasts, this was very useful if you where located in this border region, i doubth this will be possible anymore even if Sweeds buys DAB+ radiosto much terrain blockade.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 09:26:24 pm
content: Quote from: MT on January 10, 2017, 08:23:24 pmYou can listen to all the public radios in Norway from here I believe:https://radio.nrk.no/

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 08:19:44 am
content: What do they do with the unused spectrum? 100Mhz has great line of sight reception in buildings and obstacles.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 10:14:25 am
content: Quote from: raspberrypi on January 11, 2017, 08:19:44 amFor now? Nothing, as there will still be privately-owned stations operating. Also, the whole spectrum will forevermore be plagued by tiny FM transmitters.Incidentally, first batch of transmitters are now down.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 11:12:04 am
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 11, 2017, 10:14:25 amWait, I thought this was the end of ALL FM radio transmissions. So it's just NRK transmissions? I mean at that rate you've become the United States. We don't really have a single national broadcaster like the BBC or NRK. We have NBC, CBS, Turner, ABC, FOX, Disney, Discovery, and a few others. The closest we have to the BBC or NRK is maybe PBS? We also have CSpan which covers government related broadcasts, and CNN which is a national news network.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 11:44:03 am
content: Quote from: ovnr on January 10, 2017, 12:47:31 pmIn Australia, very few cars have it basically because the feature eats into the car manufacturers profits when most consumers here are ignorant of digital radio, despite the extensive advertising in the radio industry. You sell 100,000 cars a year. Add an extra $20 per car manufacturing cost means a $2,000,000 hit. In my case, I would not even consider buying a car that does not have DAB+ as standard. One with Internet access would be a bonus, but except for Tesla, car manufacturers and consumers are too technically retarded to consider such a feature. Not surprisingly, in Australia house purchasers almost always buy the house and THEN consider internet access and start whinging about crappy or no internet.I remember the days when many wealthier Australians spent big on a Hi-Fi stereo VHS video recorder thinking it was better, but most of them just played the sound through their crappy TV. They were the type of consumer who left the advertising stickers or plastic film on their precious video recorder. They did not know why they left the stickers on, they just did it. Many went to VHS rather than Beta because retailers were given great incentives by VHS companies like Panasonic to push their products. Beta was a slightly superior format with video quality and much superior mechanically. The dumb consumer didn't know any better, he just walked away thinking he got a good deal.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 01:54:54 pm
content: They sell $10-15 (RTL2832/R820T) USB dongles that can receive DAB, FM, and anything else that fits in up to a (approximately) 3 MHz wide slice via software, and anybody with a fairly recent computer can likely use one of them to build a DAB radio.The one I am listening to now also receives FM very very well, - comparable to the excellent tuner in my 90s NAD hifi receiver. Its the one with the big IEC/PAL connector, white case and curved row of holes.

author: wkb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2017, 08:48:27 pm
content: Quote from: sync on January 10, 2017, 05:23:36 pmTime to use SDR (assuming firmware upgrades etc etc)