DAB section?

[Polecat]

Interesting discussions on Pirate DAB in Ireland and a DAB build in the Netherlands are amongst other topics. Wondered if DAB deserves it's own section?

[g33ky]

Does pirate DAB exist in the Netherlands? Pretty sure it's all legal there, other than possibly some sproadic tests.

[teckniqs]

There's been about 3 threads related to it in the last 5 and a half years!

....So in a word, no.

[SD-E1102]

It's a good question, however it's a no from me.

The radio subsections are all regional and already cover all bands - apart from the internet radio section so adding a sole DAB section might cause some confusion.

[Polecat]

Does pirate DAB exist in the Netherlands? Pretty sure it's all legal there, other than possibly some sproadic tests.

According to the Dutch poster, his rig is set outside the legal freq band so yes.

[Polecat]

There's been about 3 threads related to it in the last 5 and a half years!

....So in a word, no.

2 in the last few weeks so it's become vastly more popular over that time lol

[Polecat]

It's a good question, however it's a no from me.

The radio subsections are all regional and already cover all bands - apart from the internet radio section so adding a sole DAB section might cause some confusion.

Thanks, makes sense. I didn't consider the regional structure of the board and DAB is just like FM in that respect.

[drumandbasshead010]

Absolutely think there should be a section for DAB radio generally. Perhaps have a layout like this for the list of main forums:
London pirate radio
UK Pirate Radio
Irish Pirate Radio
Legal FM Radio
DAB radio
and all the forums below (international etc) remain as they are.

[Albert H]

According to the Dutch poster, his rig is set outside the legal freq band so yes.
[/quote]

No - what they've done (and I've got running at a few milliwatts here) is to put on an extra "bouquet" of stations. DAB has six "bouquets", each about 6 MHz wide. Each of these is crammed with stations. Most cities use four out of the possible six, so pirates put on an extra bouquet, to "fill in the gap". They're using "legal" frequencies (a DAB radio will only tune to the limited band of discrete centre frequencies for the bouquets) - putting a bouquet adjacent to the "legal" stations might work with some receivers, but it's unlikely.

The other huge problem with DAB is getting people to re-tune their receivers to find the "extra" signals. It's not like spinning the dial on FM and hearing an extra station between the legitimate ones.

[Polecat]

Thanks for explaining that Albert.

I'm not familiar with the licencing rules. Are you saying that makes it a legal station?

[duncanorak]

There are more than 6 ensembles (bouquets) available. There are 7 transmitting in London alone
3 x London 11B, 12A, 12C
2 x National 11A, 11D,
1x BBC 12B
1x London small scale trial 9A
and from my location in North London I can also hear the Herts/Bed/Bucks, 10D so making 8 ensembles.
A pirate in London could easily use channel 7D which is currently being used by the small scale trial DABs in Cambridge and Portsmouth, without causing interference unless they are going to run kilowatts.
The London small scale DAB currently uses 2 sites each with 800w transmitters to cover an area inside the M25. The coverage of the 800w transmitter is probably similar to that of a 100w FM transmitter, which seems not very cost effective until you realise you can run 20 or more stations on the one 800w transmitter.

[Albert H]

When I started working on DAB, there were only 6 bouquet frequencies available. I suppose they've added more now.

[djdavis526]

Yes i think there should be a part for DAB!

[teckniqs]

There isn't even a section just for "FM" and DAB is still very new when it comes to pirate, no point in putting a whole column for DAB when it's only spoken about once in a blue moon.