FreeDAB

[NDLS]

I'm surprised there is no discussion here of the DAB pirates here in Ireland. It started in Cork with the a couple of months ago, and a relay of it is now on in Dublin. Carrying mostly dance pirates but there is a country station, an easy listening one and a classic rock also. using 5B running a few 100 watts in Cork, Dublin is lower power as they are still testing. Interesting development though Google 'FreeDAB'

[drumandbasshead010]

Picked it up yesterday in Cork, 10 stations on it. Very suffisticated.

[Albert H]

Excellent! The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Chappies) has developed some Open Source DAB solutions, and the hardware is relatively simple and cheap. I have had my own 100mW DAB multiplex "broadcasting" to my neighbourhood, with half-a-dozen Raspberry Pi SBCs as internet "receivers" for the stations that I want to put on DAB for the last three years. It's based on the Hack RF One and a modulator board sold by an engineer from Switzerland. It's a complete lash-up, and lives in a desk drawer! The aerial is a quarter-wave vertical with groundplane (outdoors), and the useable range is about ¾km.

[NDLS]

Only problem with the HackRF one I'm told is the 'shoulders' are a bit wide, i.e. its not that linear. Fine for very low power but you wouldn't want to feed it into an amp, so I am told by one who tried! The boards available from Sergiy in Ukraine are clean though, apparently. http://wiki.opendigitalradio.org/DAB_hardware. I experimented with ths CRC MMB-DAB DAB using a USRP1 back in 2009, and it was also clean. We used MMB-DAB for the Total Broadcast DAB trial from 2010 - 2014 in Ireland, putting in a lot of interactitive work with the Canadians to get it stable

[Albert H]

Funnily enough, I'm waiting for one of Sergiy's boards at the moment!

The Hack RF One solution is OK to amplify, but needs a fairly tight roofing filter to clean up the shape of the transmission. Just for amusement, I knocked up a little Band III linear amplifier that did about a Watt when driven by a filtered Hack RF One. My little DAB "bouquet" could be heard over most of the town!

[biggiedan]

Is it really a pirate MUX?

[dancemusicdj]

Is it really a pirate MUX?

Yes

[biggiedan]

Why do they give away their location and have a direct phone number to get in contact with them. Seems very usual to be so open and transparent if your trying to fly under the radar.

[dancemusicdj]

Why do they give away their location and have a direct phone number to get in contact with them. Seems very usual to be so open and transparent if your trying to fly under the radar.

Which location are they giving away? Their broadcast locations or where the operator lives?
If the later, i don't know why they are doing that or giving out a phone number. It seems strange alright.
If the former, then everyone including the authorities know their broadcast areas anyway as they are being discussed on other websites.

[dancemusicdj]

I just checked their website, and it's the unit location they are based out of.
I am not sure why they are giving that location, however giving base locations isn't a new thing in ireland. The 80s pirates did it as well, but that was a different time.

[NDLS]

It’s a mobile number

[drumandbasshead010]

If I were to set up a station with, say, Radionomy, but had no skills in software/web development etc, could I just get a stream and send the link onto FreeDAB and just broadcast through that?

[mixfm]

need this in birmingham, asap,

[Dennis99]

If I were to set up a station with, say, Radionomy, but had no skills in software/web development etc, could I just get a stream and send the link onto FreeDAB and just broadcast through that?

Yes, you can relatively easily take any web feed and broadcast it.

[NOYB]

Why do they give away their location and have a direct phone number to get in contact with them. Seems very usual to be so open and transparent if your trying to fly under the radar.

Maybe because they are unaware that some rougue is relaying their entirely legal webstream on DAB!

[NOYB]

Only problem with the HackRF one I'm told is the 'shoulders' are a bit wide, i.e. its not that linear. Fine for very low power but you wouldn't want to feed it into an amp, so I am told by one who tried! T

I found the same - could only get about 38dB skirts, whereas the spec is 50 odd dB. Need a decent mask filter as Albert suggests, or a betetr SDR. Also need to be Linux proficient - bloody nightmare getting it working!

[NOYB]

need this in birmingham, asap,

Find a Linux expert and do it! Could do it for £500 at a push - not entirely technically compliant!

https://www.opendigitalradio.org/mmbtools

[biggiedan]

Why do they give away their location and have a direct phone number to get in contact with them. Seems very unusual to be so open and transparent if your trying to fly under the radar.

Maybe because they are unaware that some rougue is relaying their entirely legal webstream on DAB!

They are the said rouges

I've just revisited their website and it looks like they have updated their site a bit. They now even have a rate card for their mux explaining about what capacity is available, the areas that they broadcast in and their expected predicted coverage plus pricing.

Here is what it will cost to get on DAB in Ireland with FreeDAB

Code: Select all

Location / Bitrate | 128K  | 112K  | 64K
Cork               | €250  | €200  | €150
Dublin             | €250  | €200  | €150
Both locations     | €400  | €350  | €250

[mixfm]

how about the u.k,

[mixfm]

how about in england,,