FreeDAB

[TechnicalRacoon]

Yes it's a short term license, think it generally runs for a year.

OK. Do you know how much it is for a trial licence Down there (in the rebublic) is roughly

[dancemusicdj]

I'm unsure. I believe for individual stations to receive their license to broadcast on a mux the costs are apparently ridiculous, apparently they have to pay a big sum up front and their license is for 5 years dispite no guarantee the actual mux license will be extended passed the trial.
All designed to implement high barriers and insure failure to protect the existing stations at any cost, i'm sure.

[TechnicalRacoon]

I'm unsure. I believe for individual stations to receive their license to broadcast on a mux the costs are apparently ridiculous, apparently they have to pay a big sum up front and their license is for 5 years dispite no guarantee the actual mux license will be extended passed the trial.
All designed to implement high barriers and insure failure to protect the existing stations at any cost, i'm sure.

God do they hate good radio stations or is it to free up freqs for emergency services but if its the second one couldn't they use am for it

[dancemusicdj]

The emergency services and mobile networks ETC already have their own spectrum. The DAB spectrum isn't really any good for anything else so would have no commercial or other value.

[teckniqs]

The emergency services haven't radio-communicated anywhere near any broadbands since 1986, they used to be on VHF (FM) around 98 to 102MHz until then.

....As dance says the DAB band is purely allocated to the Digital Audio Broadcasting.

[TechnicalRacoon]

The emergency services haven't radio-communicated anywhere near any broadbands since 1986, they used to be on VHF (FM) around 98 to 102MHz until then.

....As dance says the DAB band is purely allocated to the Digital Audio Broadcasting.

The emergency services and mobile networks ETC already have their own spectrum. The DAB spectrum isn't really any good for anything else so would have no commercial or other value.

Ah right tbh not sure what way they do it, new to radio and hope to learn a few things

[ronald001]

I remember seeing that video about a year ago but unfortunately there's still no follow-up video into the antenna.

Meanwhile i have build the antenna, and have bought several band III amplifiers.
Unfortunately the signal is not yet OK, and therefore the range is still very limited

[mpx]

The reflector on the 2 element yagi is very close to the mast, you may get some interaction with it, a longer boom would be better.

[Persona Non Grata]

The emergency services haven't radio-communicated anywhere near any broadbands since 1986, they used to be on VHF (FM) around 98 to 102MHz until then.

The UK Emergency services (stupidly) used 98-102 until around 1990 with utility companies (Gas board, British Rail etc) using frequencies above 105 as late as 1995.

I don't know if any of the Emergency services in the Republic of Ireland ever used broadcast band frequencies. I don't believe they ever did. However the UK authorities would sometimes complain to their Irish counterparts about some of the more powerful Dublin pirates interfering with Police and PMR traffic in Wales. Back in the 1980's most of the Dublin pirates avoided top end FM frequencies for that reason.

[TechnicalRacoon]

The emergency services haven't radio-communicated anywhere near any broadbands since 1986, they used to be on VHF (FM) around 98 to 102MHz until then.

The UK Emergency services (stupidly) used 98-102 until around 1990 with utility companies (Gas board, British Rail etc) using frequencies above 105 as late as 1995.

I don't know if any of the Emergency services in the Republic of Ireland ever used broadcast band frequencies. I don't believe they ever did. However the UK authorities would sometimes complain to their Irish counterparts about some of the more powerful Dublin pirates interfering with Police and PMR traffic in Wales. Back in the 1980's most of the Dublin pirates avoided top end FM frequencies for that reason.

Nice to know that bit of info, I think they now use tetra for digital encoding (not sure of band, most likely uhf)

[Clutter Free]

From other forums, I see that FreeDAB is back on in Dublin, Dundalk, and as far north as Newry in County Down.

Decent selection of stations on it too.

[109MHz]

Interesting mix of stations. Wonder what stations are paying to be on the service, if they are paying?
It's an interesting experiment by all accounts, what is the legality of something like FreeDAB though I wonder? I've seen people make the argument that there is no legal framework through which to apply to start a DAB multiplex or whatever, but I would've thought that laws surrounding unauthorised use of the radio spectrum would've made FreeDAB illegal regardless? From my research it seems they also have a limited company.
I picked up what I believe to be both the Cork and Waterford muxes the other day, I'll post the results of my scan below. To be fair, the stations are carried in fairly decent audio quality, it has to be said.
Bear in mind that some of these stations are licensed to broadcast on trial or full-time DAB muxes in the UK, and one of them even has a community FM license. I've seen at least one of these stations which hold DAB licenses in the UK publically promote their FreeDAB presence. If they are not being relayed by FreeDAB and are actually paying to be carried on the service, is it because they don't believe FreeDAB to be illegal (if it is), or because they quite frankly don't care?
As I say, I don't fully understand the legal side of this, but the experiment is rather fascinating. I don't think it will cause Comreg or the BAI to take any action-firstly because of the fact that the Irish people are most likely unaware of these multiplexes, because most have no knowledge of DAB in general.
Regardless, here's what I picked up broadcasting in DAB+ in an area between counties Cork and Waterford last weekend:

From Cork (with no audio due to distance):

Angel Vintage (UK)
JuiceRadio.net (UK)
Kream (UK)
UnityDAB (UK)
LoveLife (UK)
Fresh (Cork)
Global (Cork)
Black Culture Radio (UK)
Traveller FM (???)
BKLR (Ballina Killaloe Local Radio [Tipperary/Clare?])
London Music Radio (UK)
Wild Country (Louth?)
Flex UK (UK)
Tomorrow Radio (Dublin)
Groove (???)
Sami Swoi Radio (UK)
Saor Radio (Ireland???)
Scotland's Castle (UK)
THC Radio (UK)
Release Radio (UK)
KissDAB (Dublin)
Ambition Radio (UK)

Waterford Mux

Angel Vintage (UK)
Kream (UK)
LoveLife (UK)
JuiceRadio.net (UK)
UnityDAB (UK)
ClubDAB (Dublin)
Fresh (Cork)
Traveller FM (???)
London Music Radio (UK)
Black Culture Radio (UK)
BKLR (Ballina Killaloe Local Radio [Tipperary/Clare?])
Wild Country (Louth???)
Flex UK (UK)
Saor Radio (Ireland???)
Tomorrow Radio (Dublin)
Sami Swoi Radio (UK)
Scotland's Castle (UK)
KissDAB (Dublin)
Ambition Radio (UK)
Release Radio (UK)

Also, here's an interesting read:
https://radiotoday.ie/2021/09/english-l ... n-ireland/

[dancemusicdj]

The legality situation is a bit complicated to be honest. As it stands, any mux which would want to operate legally in ireland can only apply for a trial license from comreg, which lasts about a year i believe with no guarantee of further trial licenses once the year is up. The stations who broadcast would need to apply for i think it's a section 71 license but i can't remember the exact section number. It costs a fortune anyway as you pay for 5 years up front apparently even though you may only get a year because the mux may not be on any more then the year of it's trial. When people talk about a legal framework what they mean is that there is no permanent ability to operate a mux and thus no permanent ability to operate a station meaning there is no certainty. So freedab is technically illegal, but unfortunately there is just no other option as the regulator in ireland, the broadcasting authority of ireland have no intention of implementing any permanent legal framework for the platform as the existing FMERS don't want to be involved, and therefore that means that because they don't want that nobody else can have it.
Comreg have already taken action against the service, the dublin mux was raided back in 2020.

[109MHz]

The legality situation is a bit complicated to be honest. As it stands, any mux which would want to operate legally in ireland can only apply for a trial license from comreg, which lasts about a year i believe with no guarantee of further trial licenses once the year is up. The stations who broadcast would need to apply for i think it's a section 71 license but i can't remember the exact section number. It costs a fortune anyway as you pay for 5 years up front apparently even though you may only get a year because the mux may not be on any more then the year of it's trial. When people talk about a legal framework what they mean is that there is no permanent ability to operate a mux and thus no permanent ability to operate a station meaning there is no certainty. So freedab is technically illegal, but unfortunately there is just no other option as the regulator in ireland, the broadcasting authority of ireland have no intention of implementing any permanent legal framework for the platform as the existing FMERS don't want to be involved, and therefore that means that because they don't want that nobody else can have it.
Comreg have already taken action against the service, the dublin mux was raided back in 2020.

Thanks for the clarification on the legal side.

[Persona Non Grata]

Driving along the Middle Road in Carrickfergus https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Mid ... 77515,17z/
today I was able to intermittently receive the Free DAB multiplex.

RTE when it was on was receivable in spots at the same location.

Most of the actual town is either too low down or screened by nearby hills unfortunately.

[Clutter Free]

FreeDAB took a Comreg hit on a border site today.

Busy boys lately Comreg.

[ChazAnthony1982]

What happened to FreeDAB? are they still operating?

[radionortheast]

They never should of got rid of dab over there, it does offer more choice than fm, when theres nothing else, I do think its quite mad setting up a pirate dab network, the only way for it to work is for people to know about it, then if people know about it gets shut down!, they should of kept dab, allowed stations to go on that couldn't go on fm, this would be a happy ending.

[dancemusicdj]

The problem with DAB in ireland is that the existing broadcasters decided they didn't want it. Therefore the regulator decided that because the existing fmers didn't want it nobody else could have it. The stance in ireland is that we must keep the fm transmitters on air at any and all costs even though large scale consolidation and networking is on it's way, a case of when not if. But dispite that, no competition from any other more modern terrestrial platforms, or even on fm itself, will be allowed and DAB will bypass ireland.
Then you have RTE who couldn't afford to do a full national roll out thanks to the irish recession and they only managed to get to the cities, but never really promoted their services. Then when it came to having to do cuts, DAB was low hanging fruit and the mux was closed in was it 2021 or 22 i can't remember exactly.
For the poster who asked, freedab is gone i believe.

[radionortheast]

It does sort of seem that the RTE have got a monopoly there, mp3 players will have to good enough for most folks, I don't use mobiles much i've heard hard to get them going. Even thought I don't like RTE that much (I find it quite poor compared to when I used to get Energy coming across) I wouldn't want it to be forced to stay on fm just for sake of it, if its going to cost money, just think what happened to some medium wave station I heard about a while ago were that happened.