DAB in Ireland: RTE multiplex closed

lertsnim

dabfan wrote: »

The DB Digital Broadcast DAB/DAB+ trial should be on air in Cork city (from Churchfield) in the next couple of weeks.

Is there a website that lists the channels available on this trial?

The Cush

lertsnim wrote: »

Is there a website that lists the channels available on this trial?

Here, under Test Ensembles - http://www.wohnort.org/dab/ireland.html#National

SpaceTime

They should just move any new stuff to DAB+.
The older technology is really obsolete.

it would also make sense to issue a requirement that all sets sold support DAB+ at this stage.

Banjoxed

SpaceTime wrote: »

They should just move any new stuff to DAB+.
The older technology is really obsolete.

it would also make sense to issue a requirement that all sets sold support DAB+ at this stage.

OK, buy me a radio to replace my existing one then

No I'm joking. Thankfully my existing radio, which I use everyday in Donegal to listen to the Northern Ireland muxes, can receive DAB+. Can't see 2RN firing up DAB up here anytime soon though.

SpaceTime

Banjoxed wrote: »

OK, buy me a radio to replace my existing one then

happened with PAL and 405 line tv

Banjoxed

SpaceTime wrote: »

happened with PAL and 405 line tv

And look how long they lasted as legacy systems.

SpaceTime

Not all that long. PAL didn't even last 5 years alongside DVB-T (excluding tests and trials) in Ireland.

405 Line TV simulcasts were probably kept for far too long although the investment in televisions in the 1960s were much more significant. A DAB radio doesn't cost €10,000 where as a television in the late 50s early 60s was the price of a small car.

The uptake of DAB is also very very low. DAB+ makes it more of a viable proposal.

I don't think we should be holding up progress by being excessively protective of early adopters when their investment wasn't that huge (relative to the early days of TV) and DAB+ receivers aren't that expensive.

if you bought an 088 TACS mobile in the late 1990s your investment didn't last long when GSM arrived.

GSM will ultimately have it's 900MHz bandwidth handed over to 3G and 4G..

Transmission standards and compression protocols age and get replaced.

Clinging onto old DAB may actually just mean that it never sees mass adoption. we aren't in the UK situation where there's a sizable DAB uptake.

Btr

SpaceTime wrote: »

Not all that long. PAL didn't even last 5 years alongside DVB-T (excluding tests and trials) in Ireland.

405 Line TV simulcasts were probably kept for far too long although the investment in televisions in the 1960s were much more significant. A DAB radio doesn't cost €10,000 where as a television in the late 50s early 60s was the price of a small car.

The uptake of DAB is also very very low. DAB+ makes it more of a viable proposal.

I don't think we should be holding up progress by being excessively protective of early adopters when their investment wasn't that huge (relative to the early days of TV) and DAB+ receivers aren't that expensive.

if you bought an 088 TACS mobile in the late 1990s your investment didn't last long when GSM arrived.

GSM will ultimately have it's 900MHz bandwidth handed over to 3G and 4G..

Transmission standards and compression protocols age and get replaced.

Clinging onto old DAB may actually just mean that it never sees mass adoption. we aren't in the UK situation where there's a sizable DAB uptake.

I wouldn't think it will take over too soon in Ireland and mainly because most of those who bought DAB sets have ended up without DAB+. Which would like to be standard. More worryingly a serious player in the independent sector recently told me that he'd oppose it on grounds of cost.

In a small market like Ireland it raises another question as to whether you allow all to broadcast on a single multiplex or not. If you do , you throw fm franchise areas out and if you don't you'd have to creat several multiplexes which is likely uneconomic .

Johnboy1951

I have lots of tech devices, including reasonable hi-fi amp, tuners, etc etc as well as the usual radios & TVs.

If the FM transmissions are taken off line I doubt very much if I will bother with DAB (+ or not).

Presently I have FM (and sometimes AM) and also 'internet radio'.

With the demise of FM I expect I will just use 'int rad' more and integrate it more where I need it.

I won't change the radio in my car from FM ...... I won't replace any FM receivers I have here with DAB receivers.

I do not expect to ever use DAB ..... regardless what happens to FM.

...... makes me wonder how many more will be likely to do the same .......

Copyerselveson

I rather suspect Internet delivered radio will be the ultimate replacement for FM/AM broadcasting, it has already practically killed off SW radio - who wants to listen to a fading signal when you can have top sound quality? I regularly listen to BBC Radio 3 online through my amplifier as the online signal is far superior to DAB, and we have hissy FM reception where I live.

Internet radio also gives me mobile reception of RTE Radio 1, Lyric FM and Highland Radio here in the UK, unlike DAB.

With the advent of 4G and multicasting I would rather have the massive choice and better sound quality of Internet Radio over DAB's bubbly mud sound and restricted choice of stations.

TAFKAlawhec

Any potential switch-off of analogue broadcast radio bands in a switch to digital can't be simply compared to that for television.

The shutting down of the RTÉ 405 line service (where it existed) were dictated partially by government economics, partly by RTÉ2 being set up and also partly that a significant proportion of TV sets were rented allowing for an ease to upgrade to a 625 line set.

The switching off of the 625 line service saw very few people left behind, in the cheapest scenario available to most people a set top box allows people to watch DVB-T services on a set with only an analogue tuner.

FM & AM radio is a lot different. The principle idea of a "set-top-box" for DAB similar to that for TV is not the same giving the generally portable nature of radio. For that to work where a DAB receiver can output to a low-powered FM signal (like the Pure Highway that was launched a few years ago in the UK), it is only practical for either in-home or in-car use.

Think about the amount of analogue only radios that are in your home or in your car. Alarm clocks, on mobile phones, small portable receivers, mini/midi systems etc. The inevitable outcome would be a mass dumping of millions of otherwise perfectly good radios in the Irish Republic alone, a big environmental problem and likely to be a costly one for many people.

Internet radio is a great platform to extend the reach of stations and allow for niche stations, but in its current form can never replace broadcast radio - internet radio requires an ISP subscription, and the mobile phone network infrastructure would need a massive amount of infrastructure to equalise the coverage provided by FM radio. It also can't have emergency broadcasts put in place - if a major storm or catastrophic event happens which for example knocks out nearly everyone's power supplies and mobile networks go down then internet radio is effectively useless. On a personal level I'm thinking of communication issues when the Omagh bombing took place in 1998. I had no mobile phone at the time but I do know that the landline telephone exchange in the town was overloaded (which also affected "sister" and sub-exchanges connected through it) and if something similar were to happen it's likely the mobile networks would also collapse under strain, probably directed so that the networks would prioritise emergency service calls only (as was the case in the London 7/7 bombings) in the vicinity. So mobile internet would likely be shot, ADSL & VDSL broadband would also be affected - the only fallback you have is broadcast mediums. Broadcast radio and internet radio both have their strengths and weakness', and complement each other very well, but can't do everything that the other can.

There's also the case of what to do with empty LW, MW & VHF Band II broadcast bands in an eventual switch-off. They're not suitable for mobile phone use and there is little scope for governments to sell off these frequencies for windfall bonanzas as with 800MHz auctions for 4G mobile in much of Europe.

I'm sort of with watty on this one. I don't think that digital radio in itself is a pointless exercise - at least the digitisation of its broadcast - but DAB and DAB+ in their current forms just don't give a good solution. Fine for European PSBs with radio networks that can be handily carried on one DAB ensemble, but awkward for commercial & community broadcasters in having to share space in an ensemble rather than develop their own networks. Digital radio needs to be a progressive evolution, not a solution looking for a problem.

SpaceTime

I don't think FM is going to be switched off anytime soon (if ever in our lifetimes).

However, I think DAB will definitely be switched off at some stage. It's just obsolete technology. DAB+ has some hope, but I'm not sure where the content is going to come from except RTE as none of the commercial stations are going to want to increase the level of competition in their own market places or give up their independence and pay 2RN (RTE NL) rent for space on a DAB+ system.

DAB was developed in the late 80s / early 90s when the concept of streaming audio on demand even over a landline internet connection was science fiction stuff. Even downloading MP3s was technically impossible outside of a research lab scenario in those days as domestic broadband didn't exist never mind mobile broadband!

The world's changed since then and people can download vast quantities of music and audio to tiny devices and listen to it anywhere. Mobile streaming's also possible and despite bandwidth limitations will probably end up being more popular than DAB by a long shot.

I just think if they're going to insist on keeping DAB alive, they should at least bump it up to the DAB+ protocol for the sake of sound quality and more efficient use of spectrum.

FM ain't going anywhere though. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still on air in 2083 never mind 2020.

Look at how long AM broadcasting on MW and LW hung around! I don't think anyone would have expected that and the quality of the audio on those systems is dire in comparison to anything else. They're just simple, cheap and able to cover huge areas with a single transmitter.

FM's cheap, simple, robust and it seems to have quite a long future ahead of it yet.

watty

Read the comments after the article!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/16/minister_kicks_dab_can_miles_down_the_road/

also

ANY digital radio is flawed compared to Analogue. It's not the same as Digital Vs Analogue for TV.

Even AM isn't past the Sell By date. DRM simply isn't a viable replacement on LW, MW and SW. I thought DRM was a good solution for SW, but it's a dead duck.

DAB+ and DRM+ are red herrings. Only ways to fit more in. Same user experience, same quality, same inherent problems.

Comparing Analogue to Digital TV and Digital Radio vs Analogue Radio, you see it that Digital Radio INHERENTLY doesn't really work no matter WHICH digital system it is! Digital TV DOES Work.


Feature: Digital TV vs Analogue [ALL Digital Radio vs AM/FM]

• Waveband: Unchanged [x2 frequency, more dead spots]
• Mobility: Not important [Vital]
• Digital Dividend: Yes [none]
• Ease of use: Preset channels, Similar [ONLY preset channels (terrible for Radio)]
• Features: Enhanced faster "text" [Less than RDS on FM!]
• Other on set: Selection of National "Radio" added to TV [Often DAB only, or perhaps with FM no RDS, AM? SW? Non-local Radio? Travel?, less]
• Sound: Option Multich for movies [different sets in different rooms out of sync]
• Power Consumption: Similar, Dominated by Screen size [Typically x25 higher]
• User Interface: Enhanced [Very very poor]
• Coverage: Similar, better or Satellite [UK: 6% worse than FM, only AM is 100%, Satellite isn't portable, Ireland will be much worse]
• Fringe Reception: Better, or fit new aerial [More dramatic drop outs when mobile / portable]
• Channel Change: Slower, tolerable [Much slower, intolerable when mobile, esp if new mux. SFN limited in size]
• Quality: WS & HD option, wide range models [Virtually no quality models, no Audio quality increase, all poorer than 1965 radios]

Cost and amount of coverage is too high for single town FM Radio Stations. Favours State broadcaster and multichannel National Broadcasters to the eventual destruction of local Radio.

The Real Agenda in UK is BBC Dominance and here is RTE Dominance.

Digital TV makes sense. Digital Radio doesn't which is why most countries have no plans at all!

Gerry Wicklow

I regularly travel through the more mountainous parts of Wicklow where FM is fairly dodgy in parts. There is absolutely no way, to my knowledge, that DAB or internet could improve on that. Satellite is the only other possibility I can think of for cars.

watty

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I regularly travel through the more mountainous parts of Wicklow where FM is fairly dodgy in parts. There is absolutely no way, to my knowledge, that DAB or internet could improve on that. Satellite is the only other possibility I can think of for cars.

Or AM. Not Satellite. Sat coverage is terrible with Sirius XM and to be enhanced with terrestrial fill in!

You need AM for the National Stations. At least there is still LW RTE1, but it was purely a financial decision to close the MW.

Even the BBC has admitted they need R4 LW coverage as FM and DAB isn't "good enough" for important stuff (like cricket!).

In 1930s Ireland had THREE regions / channels: Cork, Athlone & Dublin. Ireland should have 4 or 5 MW channels (12 or 15 transmitters, each channel a SFN of 3 to have 1/6th transmitter power). RTE LW shoud be a SFN of 2 TX sites at 1/4 power.

FM coverage of national stations should be improved.

Ditch all the extra RTE Radio on DAB and overpaid "presenter"/"Personalities" (€70,000 cap, instead of up to €500,000 for less than a days work). Have better content on RTE1 & 2FM Radio. No music on RTE1 and no mainstream / Commercial pop on 2FM . They are a PSB!

If RTE keeps going in current direction DAB vs FM will be irrelevant. No-one will be listening to RTE, or much to Radio.

Mearings

And improve lyricfm stereo coverage.

Antenna

watty wrote: »

At least there is still LW RTE1

Though there has been a huge trend by car manufacturers to leave out coverage of LW on their recent car radios. This seems to have been going hand in hand with the trend to using a radio aerial printed with the demister on the rear window, rather than any type of whip.
LW is potentially more of use for mobile rather than in homes but what use is it if your new car radio does not have it ?
As old cars and radios get scrapped and the percentage of cars which actually have it diminishes it is going to be more difficult to justify keeping 252kHz going - unless there is a reversal of the above trend?

SpaceTime

The biggest issue with LW in cars is that it can tend to pick up the spark plugs and ignition system.

I can't see any of the ILRs wanting a situation to develop where they're dependent on RTE for transmission facilities though. The big strength of independent radio here tends to be that it's completely independent.

watty

My LW is only affected by heater fan, and only if signal is weak and fan turned up past 2.

RTE doesn't do 252 for anyone in Cars or In Ireland. It's their "external service".

I get SIX LW stations here in Limerick during daylight in Car and on most of my radios in house.

During Daytime on MW BBC Wales is marginally better than Spirit Radio from Cavan. The only other daytime MW is Five Live. Many of my MW sets get nothing on MW during daylight.

Limerick City is bad for R4 LW and I lose it between Galway and Castlebar. DX LW fades around dawn and dusk for about 15min, but R4 still usable.

Only Europe & North Africa uses LW. Radio sets for North American market never have LW.

coylemj

watty wrote: »

Only Europe & North Africa uses LW. Radio sets for North American market never have LW.

And Asia? My mother brought me a pocket radio from Singapore in the early 1980s but I lost interest when I saw it had FM and LW only, no AM. We were down the country so FM gave you RTE1 & 2 only, you needed AM for everything else.

TAFKAlawhec

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

I regularly travel through the more mountainous parts of Wicklow where FM is fairly dodgy in parts. There is absolutely no way, to my knowledge, that DAB or internet could improve on that. Satellite is the only other possibility I can think of for cars.

One of the reasons both Norway and Switzerland have been making pushes themselves for DAB(+) is ironically that one of the few advantages it has over FM is in places like hilly/mountainous terrain. DAB signals can bounce off hillsides to receivers which most FM audio would be badly degraded by, coupling that with using low-powered SFN networks means it isn't too hard to fill in coverage blackspots without using additional local spectrum and getting listeners without RDS AF in use from having to constantly retune.

IMHO, the main problem with the digitalisation of broadcast radio has been that at best it's been looking to solve problems in one areas while ignoring others. As already mentioned DAB ensembles are fine for national PSB broadcasters where they can combine all their national stations on to one frequency for equal platform coverage, but this is problematic for large-scale (national/regional) stations who would have to share transmission infrastructure likely through a third-party, and for smaller commercial & community stations it is unlikely that they would want to share transmission infrastructure (especially if they already do it themselves), nor would they want the more extensive coverage area that would almost certainly be provided and the expense that comes with it. DRM sort-of got around this by being inherently restricted in terms of available bit rates corresponding to audio quality along with a maximum of four stations being permitted, but it never got beyond the testing phase into public conscious.

For a digital terrestrial radio platform to work, the thinking has to take a step back especially concerning how the listener receives the stations. Technologies like DAB & DRM allow for transmission configurations to tailor coverage, but ideally there should be a hierarchy element to reception similar to that in FM radio where for example car radios will automatically switch between stereo and mono depending on reception conditions without most listeners immediately noticing as opposed to the "bubbling" that affects DAB. In TV both DVB-T and ISDB-T can run hierarchy modes although there aren't any in-service public transmissions that I know of. Such a radio equivalent could scale down so that the lower audio frequencies at around an AM equivalent (a sampling rate of around 10kHz) would be in the most rugged part of the transmission, then scaling up to 21kHz SR for a slightly less rugged mode, then 32kHz SR (FM quality) and then finally up into CD & Surround Sound quality levels, meaning the highest quality will be offered to those in the core coverage areas while those struggling on the fringes can still get the station albeit with reduced sound quality.

Another idea - any new terrestrial radio platform (or even an existing FM one) should be either be in-band with FM or on a sub-100MHz frequency band. From personal experience listening to a DAB station in a portable, moving manner is very difficult. OK if you're using a portable on a bench with its whip extended, but listening using the headphone cord as the aerial is too troublesome. DAB radios really need an effective ground plane to get steady reception unless you're in a really strong reception area, fine on a properly installed aerial on a car roof or a pair of rabbit ears in an attic but not so otherwise. One option would be to try and extend the current VHF Band II broadcast band downwards from 87.6MHz - many of the users just below these frequencies have now moved on to other transmissions and bands like TETRA, GSM or PMR while the few that remain could be moved over time into the Band I frequencies now being vacated all over Europe with DSO. Some AM broadcasters in the USA have been sounding out the idea of converting TV channels 5 & 6 (76 to 88MHz) to an extended FM radio band. It isn't the worst of suggestions - very few TV stations over there now use these frequencies for digital TV and radios that can cover both the Japan & CCIR FM bands would have straight access.

The UK government's announcement earlier this week is disappointing mainly because it's quite clearly creating a fudge to keep the main broadcasters there happy (by artificially restricting new competition) by pushing a future radio solution that was already dated over a decade ago. The transmission costs for stations are too much and this is easily visible on the Digital 1 ensemble with the amount of 64kbps mono stations on it (a flaw in the Register article - the D1 ensemble is technically full, there's no real spare capacity). No one seems to have the balls to say "all right, it's not working. Set a date for switch off of DAB in its current form and get all interested parties involved to decide what to do next to increase choice, quality and availability to listeners". Unfortunately Ofcom has never really sought to ensure that listeners and viewers are high up in the chain on their decision making. I don't believe the old IBA and even Radio Authority would allow the current technical standards to be as low as they currently are.

watty wrote: »

Only Europe & North Africa uses LW. Radio sets for North American market never have LW.

Strictly speaking Mongolia and the Asian part of Russia also use LW though even the Russians are closing down some of their LW facilities. There's also LW allocations for several Middle East countries but there are none currently active.

Capt'n Midnight

SpaceTime wrote: »

Not all that long. PAL didn't even last 5 years alongside DVB-T (excluding tests and trials) in Ireland.
...
The uptake of DAB is also very very low. DAB+ makes it more of a viable proposal.
...
if you bought an 088 TACS mobile in the late 1990s your investment didn't last long when GSM arrived.

088 wasn't encrypted , huge step up moving to digital.

GSM will ultimately have it's 900MHz bandwidth handed over to 3G and 4G..

Transmission standards and compression protocols age and get replaced.

Clinging onto old DAB may actually just mean that it never sees mass adoption. we aren't in the UK situation where there's a sizable DAB uptake.

I don't care what happens to DAB/DAB+

As long as they leave FM alone. DAB+ is not a replacement for the ease of use of FM. DAB+ won't mean I have to buy a new radio. It will mean I'll have to buy a new car radio AND a new pocket radio AND a new kitchen radio all so that a small sub-set of the market can have access to some stations outside of their normal geographic coverage. And it's not as if DAB+ will give me BBC radio 4 either. Just because N% of the population have a DAB+ radio doesn't mean it's usable except when they are at home in the same room as it.

I have a DAB radio , pita when it retunes , it's not portable because of size and power consumption so I can only use at home where I can get internet and satellite radio.


Until DAB+ is in every smartphone and car radio then replacing FM with it is just another stealth tax whereby the goverment will try and rake in the VAT and a subsidy to the foreign manufacturers.

JNLR survey. - is there anything in that that says DAB isn't niche ?
http://www.bai.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/201310_PressRelease-October_PK.pdf

Capt'n Midnight

TAFKAlawhec wrote: »

The shutting down of the RTÉ 405 line service (where it existed) were dictated partially by government economics, partly by RTÉ2 being set up and also partly that a significant proportion of TV sets were rented allowing for an ease to upgrade to a 625 line set.

And that the wheel fell off the big machine that did the conversions so by the end they were pointing a 405 camera at a 625 screen to do the conversion.

watty

TAFKAlawhec wrote: »

IMHO, the main problem with the digitalisation of broadcast radio has been that at best it's been looking to solve problems in one areas while ignoring others.
...
Unfortunately Ofcom has never really sought to ensure that listeners and viewers are high up in the chain on their decision making. I don't believe the old IBA and even Radio Authority would allow the current technical standards to be as low as they currently are.
...

Strictly speaking Mongolia and the Asian part of Russia also use LW though even the Russians are closing down some of their LW facilities. There's also LW allocations for several Middle East countries but there are none currently active.

Good post. Yes, I was simplifying the LW situation!
I need to update
http://www.techtir.ie/radio/afterdark
http://www.techtir.ie/radio/LW_stations_2011

But I think no matter WHAT you do, all the problems of digital can't be solved. I think now it should be DVB-T or DVB-T2 based as that is likely in a phone (Nokia demoed DVB-h phone long ago and far lower power than DAB) and can have hierarchical modulation. But NEVER ever as a replacement of AM & FM, only a complementary addition, I'm convinced that overall comparing ALL aspects, no digital system can ever compete on channel change speed/Tuning, reception power and cost for user. Some of the other aspects are difficult but not impossible with a graphics touch screen like a phone has and DVB-T or DVB-T. Forget the stupid mostly text or one/two line mono LCD on most DAB sets. Also better buttons & controls. A real volume control. Up down buttons are bad, a rotary encoder never tells you visually what volume it might be when turned on or un-muted. DRM, DRM+, DAB and DAB+ are all failures.


Digital TV vs Digital Radio
Countries with DVB-T, also many ending or have ended Analogue TV, also see other Digital TV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T#Countries_and_territories_using_DVB-T

In 2012 there are four digital wireless radio systems recognized by the International Telecommunications Union: the two European systems DAB digital audio broadcasting system, and DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), the Japanese ISDB-T and the U.S. or Arab World HD-Radio (IBOC).

Only Arab Middle East Dictatorships are turning off FM Radio (2013 to 2015). They use the US HD-Radio (IBOC) standard which can transmit Analogue on same channel.

Very few countries compared to Digital TV are implementing Digital Radio and even fewer have a plan to close FM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio
Ignore Satellite. It's not a substitute for Portable Radio.

Johnboy1951

I wonder if DVB-H/DVB-NGH/whatever is a runner ...... surely seems not due to lack of progress since trials ..... or maybe I missed updates?

Irish trial in 2007?

http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=2298

Sam Russell

Does anyone know how many listeners RTE have on their DAB service, and how this compares with the same service on Saorview radio?

RTE do not advertise the existence of the Saorview radio service (that I have heard anyway).

watty

DVB-H is dead Johnboy. Current proposals replacing DVB-h are variations of DVB-T2.

Sam, even the BBC & UK refuse to count real DAB only listeners, preferring to count only DAB sets sold (but there is a high failure rate and short life compared to older analogue radios) and total listening to ALL Digital services including Internet!

I doubt you can get any sensible figures for RTE DAB. For a start the coverage is terrible compared to VHF-FM.

The UK has had DAB for over 10 years and actual DAB penetration has fallen to 21% and FM risen to 61% (but as to what these figures measure is unclear).

Antenna

watty wrote: »

RTE doesn't do 252 for anyone in Cars or In Ireland. It's their "external service".

Who says it is only an external service? It was to replace RTE R1 on MW - A domestic service in the first instance with external as well.

The RTE R1 "opt-out" religious church services on Sunday mornings, and sometimes sports coverage (not on FM, only on 252LW and digital RTE R. 1Extra) are for a domestic audience and LW would be the only radio coverage geographically for most of the country (unless you include radio on DTT).





Surprising that the RTE Guide schedule of the religious RTE R1 "opt-outs" fails to mention (in addition to LW and DAB) it also being on Saorview 201 (RTE R 1Extra). Many prospective listeners might be in a building where neither LW or DAB will work (due to screening and/or internal interference as well as the limited DAB coverage) or don't have a radio with LW (or DAB) reception at hand yet do quite likely have a TV receiving Saorview

Sam Russell

The larger part of RTE (staff and managers) do not use Saorview, as they all get either Sky or NTL/UPC, and never watch the programmes off an aerial.

They have bigger things to worry about.

Antenna

watty wrote: »

RTE LW shoud be a SFN of 2 TX sites at 1/4 power.

If that was implemented both transmitters would unavoidably largely cancel-out/seriously interfere with each other in large tracts of Ireland and the UK.
Reception would deteriorate in a lot more areas of Ireland (and beyond) than it might improve. They would have the expense of maintaining another transmitter site.

The BBC has a SFN of a main transmitter and the 2 smaller transmitters in Scotland on 198kHz (previously 200kHz) for BBC R4LW. The areas around Scotland and near England/Scotland border that the transmissions largely cancel-out have additional MW filler transmitters or cancel in sparsely populated areas of Scotland that they forget about. Car radios have non-directional aerials and obviously can not be turned about to try reduce interference effects in this type of SFN arrangement. Elsewhere in Europe there are no LW SFNs.

watty wrote: »

Limerick City is bad for R4 LW and I lose it between Galway and Castlebar.

probably cancellation effects between the main Droitwich transmitter and the nearer Scottish transmitter (Westerglen - located between Glasgow and Edinburgh) have a lot to do with poor 198kHz reception in north-west Ireland?

some reading on the subject here:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1979-27.pdf