Keith G said...

I do not dislike DAB and will happily listen to it all day long on my little
cheapo DAB tuner and AFAIAC it makes sense in a car,

I've been listening to DAB quite a lot lately, Radio's 4 & 7 when in
bed and at low volume and it's good for that.
I got an Alba TRDAB2821 DAB/FM portable at a jumble sale for a fiver a
few months ago.
Ergonomically and operationally it's dreadful and the transformer hums
madly.
Using the rod aerial and adjusting it minutely for angle and length it
is possible to get good DAB reception but switch to FM and zilch. and
vice versa, it's one or t'other. Even under favourable conditions with
an external aerial FM reception is very, very poor.

I think it cost about £40 quid when new and if I'd paid that I'd be
pretty disappointed with it.

Luckily the rod aerial screws into a standard F socket allowing the use
of an external aerial, and it is quite happy in the bedroom with a home
made dipole giving full signal strength and no audible errors or
burbles from the Peterborough DAB transmitter.

I've compared the reception with my Acoustic Solutions tuner by
connecting them in turn to the outside aerial and doing a full reset
and scan.

The Alba gets 2 muxes and 16 stations
D1 & Beeb from Peterborough with no audible errors.

The AS get 5 muxes and 50 stations.
D1 & BBC from Peterborough and NowCambridge perfect at zero error rate.
NowNottingham and Leicester at an error rate is 20-35.
Anything above an error rate of 15 results in occasional bubbling and
once above 25 it's unlistenable.

A pretty poor result for the Alba's reception performance especially on
FM. But I'm surprised that it can't even see never mind decode the
Notts, Leics & Cambs DAB transmitters.

I've often wondered why people complain about DAB reception as I've
used the AS Tuner at three different locations here in Corby (one a
basement flat) and been able to get very good results with a bit of wet
string.

If I'd only had experience of the Alba I'd be moaning with the best of
them.
--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

In article , UnsteadyKen
scribeth thus
Keith G said...

I do not dislike DAB and will happily listen to it all day long on my little
cheapo DAB tuner and AFAIAC it makes sense in a car,

I've been listening to DAB quite a lot lately, Radio's 4 & 7 when in
bed and at low volume and it's good for that.
I got an Alba TRDAB2821 DAB/FM portable at a jumble sale for a fiver a
few months ago.
Ergonomically and operationally it's dreadful and the transformer hums
madly.
Using the rod aerial and adjusting it minutely for angle and length it
is possible to get good DAB reception but switch to FM and zilch. and
vice versa, it's one or t'other. Even under favourable conditions with
an external aerial FM reception is very, very poor.

I think it cost about £40 quid when new and if I'd paid that I'd be
pretty disappointed with it.

Luckily the rod aerial screws into a standard F socket allowing the use
of an external aerial, and it is quite happy in the bedroom with a home
made dipole giving full signal strength and no audible errors or
burbles from the Peterborough DAB transmitter.

I've compared the reception with my Acoustic Solutions tuner by
connecting them in turn to the outside aerial and doing a full reset
and scan.

The Alba gets 2 muxes and 16 stations
D1 & Beeb from Peterborough with no audible errors.

The AS get 5 muxes and 50 stations.
D1 & BBC from Peterborough and NowCambridge perfect at zero error rate.
NowNottingham and Leicester at an error rate is 20-35.
Anything above an error rate of 15 results in occasional bubbling and
once above 25 it's unlistenable.

A pretty poor result for the Alba's reception performance especially on
FM. But I'm surprised that it can't even see never mind decode the
Notts, Leics & Cambs DAB transmitters.

I've heard of quite a few people comment that the FM on their DAB set
is nowhere near as good as an FM only radio...

I've often wondered why people complain about DAB reception as I've
used the AS Tuner at three different locations here in Corby

Might that be theres a DAB TX closer than the FM one?..

(one a
basement flat) and been able to get very good results with a bit of wet
string.

If I'd only had experience of the Alba I'd be moaning with the best of
them.

--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer said...

Might that be theres a DAB TX closer than the FM one?..

Nope. Both from Peterborough.
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/peterborough/index.php

I only listen to DAB in bed and occasionally use FM for BBC Northampton
and our local community station, Corby Radio which started broadcasting
this year. http://www.corbyradio.com/

Nearly all my listening is now Freeview or online via Tapin Radio.
http://tapinradio.com/wp/








--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

In article , UnsteadyKen
scribeth thus
tony sayer said...

Might that be theres a DAB TX closer than the FM one?..

Nope. Both from Peterborough.
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/peterborough/index.php

I only listen to DAB in bed and occasionally use FM for BBC Northampton
and our local community station, Corby Radio which started broadcasting
this year. http://www.corbyradio.com/

Nearly all my listening is now Freeview or online via Tapin Radio.
http://tapinradio.com/wp/


Odd that, would have thought that the levels should be quite usable.
Here in Cambridge an indoor portable decodes Stereo OK from P'boro with
just a slight bit of noise but from the Cambridge relay its fine.

Mind you since the mast collapse and re build Classic FM on VHF/FM
hasn't be anywhere near as good....


--
Tony Sayer