DAB Pirates/FM shutdown

OldskoolPirate · Post by **OldskoolPirate** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:11 pm

With the government looking to shutdown the FM and switchover to this crap digital thing they call dab, will pirates ever be able to get on it and broadcast like FM radio? Are there any builders who know how to build these ? And can a dipole still be used with shorter elements for the higher frequency ?

When nobody owns an FM radio anymore, will pirates still exist ?

McDonalds · Post by **McDonalds** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:48 pm

I have seen you can get them for not a bad price for DVB digital TV
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-Modulato ... SweW5VPk0k
if connection an RF amp to boast range you could have your own mux.
but do not see any for DAB radio though.

McDonalds · Post by **McDonalds** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:50 pm

apart from this
http://www.avateq.com/content/56/DAB/DA ... -Modulator
think you would have to be a station to get it though

teckniqs · Post by **teckniqs** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 3:14 pm

DAB stands for dead and buried. It's rubbish and in my opinion been a failure from the start, I don't see FM going off in this country for at least another few years if ever!

I hear there has been pirate tests via DAB already but only with a short range as far as I'm aware.
Being on a much higher frequency (220+MHz) and being a digital mode mulitplex carrier it requires MUCH more power to achieve the same results as analogue FM radio.

...Yes you can use dipoles and dipoles are mainly what are used for the DAB transmitters usually in stacks of 2 or 4, you can use dipoles for almost every frequency out there on the radio spectrum.

Hopefully if they did move all these BBC and Heart FM stations over to the DAB dials and left the band for community stations that would only mean one very good thing ....more pirates and a lot more listeners being able to hear further away.
If that is what would happen then I'm all on for the DAB switchover!!

Dennis99 · Post by **Dennis99** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 3:45 pm

How far will 10w get?

http://www.heimers.ch/de/vhfamp.html

Software: http://www.opendigitalradio.org/

thewisepranker · Post by **thewisepranker** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:00 pm

The problem isn't propagation or difficulty to build things at the slightly higher frequency as pirates that can build stuff on ~100 MHz can quite easily do it on 200-250 MHz - it's not really that much higher in frequency in the grand scheme of things.

The problem would be that DAB is designed to be more like a cellular arrangement than FM. It isn't supposed to be a load of large signals that "get out" like Band II signals do, they're designed to co-exist in multiple locations running on relatively low power. This optimises the small amount of bandwidth available.

Check this out: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binari ... _Jan15.pdf
Potentially six transmission sites to cover Birmingham with a total power of 6.4 kW.

I would imagine that in the future, if it ever happens, DAB might end up being hard to pirate due to there not being an available multiplex address - you'd have to wipe a legal one out.

I agree that it stands for dead and buried, by the way.

OldskoolPirate · Post by **OldskoolPirate** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:09 pm

It just seems to be getting closer and closer as the years go on and now they are fitting dab radios to cars. They seem to be winning as this was the only last thing FM had. Everyone I know is either too lazy to fit a small piece of wire to the back of their stereo or they plug their stupid phone in and don't care for the radio at all. Are people really still listening out there ? That's my only concern.

yellowbeard · Post by **yellowbeard** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:07 pm

This got posted here in another thread, but it is worth the read again:

Code: Select all

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/open_source_hacks_dab_to_the_masses/

When you think about it, there are probably a zillion cheap well engineered aerials available on the web and the amplification can be done with a modern ultra linear amplifier driven at about 5% of its capacity. Wish I had more money and computer savvy, I'd love to bodge up a DAB rig.

Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 3:08 am

There's this ongoing conversation on DS with a link to an ofcom project.
Interesting reading as it explains what equipment is required to build a cheap mux.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1867443

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TekMcr · Post by **TekMcr** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:12 am

If the move does happen, it's not like they can 'turn off' fm haha it's just frequencies end of the day. The main thing would be people keeping hold of fm receivers . Then again I'm imagining a world with no fm legals after the 'switch off' , London would be a free for all massacre. Either way radio can carry on forever technically.

biggiedan · Post by **biggiedan** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:46 am

It won't be a switch off it will be a sell off. They will shot the FM to the highest bidder like they did with the L Band back in 2008.

Westflex · Post by **Westflex** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 2:37 am

Haha o hang on how many times have we heard this same old story swear 1st time i hears that bullshit was well over 10 years ago DAB will be ready for switchover by 2009, was it ? NO then 2012 i think, another bullshit idea never gonna happen by the governement. Like 1 guy stated its not like they can switch the fm band off Lol so no Fm will never die and yes loads still tune in via fm, amount of people i know that drive and not 1 use DAB, DAB died before it even started complete flop i agree Dead And Buried

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:07 am

Tbf I'm sure that you can do an awful lot with the fm band with regards to digital data bandwidth.

I reckon it'll end up like the mw or lw band in about 20 years time.
The car radio manufacturers aren't going to remove the analogue bands in a hurry.

In theory it'd be a godsend if the boring stations moved over to digital.

OT I read a thread about how the main station bodies have cranked the processing up so high that the listeners can only stand a few minutes of them.
Then a few people commented on how a few pirates have managed to get things right.

In general the legals are really screwing up British broadcasting and the Pirates with their heads screwed on are actually putting these guys to shame.

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Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:07 am

Tbf I'm unsure that you can do an awful lot with the fm band with regards to digital data bandwidth.

I reckon it'll end up like the mw or lw band in about 20 years time.
The car radio manufacturers aren't going to remove the analogue bands in a hurry.

In theory it'd be a godsend if the boring stations moved over to digital.

OT I read a thread about how the main station bodies have cranked the processing up so high that the listeners can only stand a few minutes of them.
Then a few people commented on how a few pirates have managed to get things right.

In general the legals are really screwing up British broadcasting and the Pirates with their heads screwed on are actually putting these guys to shame.

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OldskoolPirate · Post by **OldskoolPirate** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:48 pm

I was thinking it might end up like mw and lw but then again they sound like shit for music where as FM sounds nice.

MiXiN · Post by **MiXiN** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:36 pm

Westflex wrote:Haha o hang on how many times have we heard this same old story swear 1st time i hears that bullsh** was well over 10 years ago DAB will be ready for switchover by 2009, was it ? NO then 2012 i think, another bullsh** idea never gonna happen by the governement. Like 1 guy stated its not like they can switch the fm band off Lol so no Fm will never die and yes loads still tune in via fm, amount of people i know that drive and not 1 use DAB, DAB died before it even started complete flop i agree Dead And Buried

My thoughts as well.

I'll never buy a DAB Radio, and I've never even listened to any station on one to be honest.

I'm not interested, never have been, never will be, as there's nothing wrong with Analogue apart from the plethora of shite commercial stations and the British Bullshit (BBC) stations.

shuffy · Post by **shuffy** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 11:05 pm

TekMcr wrote:If the move does happen, it's not like they can 'turn off' fm haha it's just frequencies end of the day. The main thing would be people keeping hold of fm receivers . Then again I'm imagining a world with no fm legals after the 'switch off' , London would be a free for all massacre. Either way radio can carry on forever technically.

AFAIK the FM band will still be used by community stations. I'm sure I've banged on about this on other threads but I can't wait for the big commercials and the BBC to move off - there are hardly any free frequencies in the north west any more. They are all clogged up with shit - even the community stations (most of them anyway) don't seem to be arsed anymore and are just pointless now.

TekMcr · Post by **TekMcr** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 1:14 pm

shuffy wrote: there are hardly any free frequencies in the north west any more. They are all clogged up with s*** - even the community stations (most of them anyway) don't seem to be arsed anymore and are just pointless now.

Exactly, it's absolutely rammed. There's a few dials that would work but except 87.5 - 87.9 there's nothing solid clear to run on now that lovenrg have got 100.7 running. Not heard any rsls for a long while. Getting bored of these heart relays haha

bristolpirates · Post by **bristolpirates** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:53 pm

Maximus wrote: OT I read a thread about how the main station bodies have cranked the processing up so high that the listeners can only stand a few minutes of them.

Kiss being a prime example. It's all boosted top end. Sounds like a hiss over the top of everything, almost like poor reception. Part of this is also modern dance production being very top end driven, maybe because kids listen on phones these days??

dancemusicdj · Post by **dancemusicdj** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 5:38 pm

Capital is louder again, or at least it was.