DAB radio reception

eth0_

Has anyone here successfully received DAB radio south of the border? I'm in Drogheda and can clearly receive TV and radio from Kilkeel and Lisnagarvey, so i'm guessing I should be able to get it, but i'd like to know if anyone else has had success

Mike 1972

DAB isint transmitted from Kilkeel or Lisnagarvey (indeed the latter is only used for AM radio) but there have been reports of DAB being recieved in the Dublin mountains. Id imagine it can also be got in parts of Co Donegal

Incidently theres parts of Belfast which cant get DAB because of Carmoney hill being in the way :mad:

eth0_

Hmm, maybe receiving it from Wales? I can get Welsh TV channels...I think I might get one and send it back if it doesn't work, worth a try.

Mike 1972

You may have some luck with an outdoor Band 3 aerial pointing at Wales or NI (Wales is better as youll get Digital one as well) feeding into your DAB radio


If youre very lucky you may get DAB signals on the radio's own built in aerial

DMC has picked DAB up perfectly from Divis in the Dublin mountains on a portable with just its telescopic aerial!
I can get real radio on my car radio here with RDS from presely.
I can also get radio pembrokeshire with RDS as well as many of the BBC channells so now I'm deffo going to get a DAB.

Any recommendations on a DAB that I can hook to a band 3 aerial.
The ones I've seen in dixons and the like don't seem to have had an input for an outdoor aerial.I'll be in London next week and will have a look then.

Moving this to terrestrial, where if you search you will find DMC's and some other threads on UK DAB reception in the Republic.

eth0_

What's the difference between RDS and DAB? I'm mostly interested in listening to BBC 6 music and Radio 4, and Xfm if possible.

I'm going to Edinburgh next weekend so I think i'll pick up one of the walkman type DAB radios and see if it works here, they hold their resale value well from checking out eBay today!

RDS is just the bit alongside an analog signal that allows your car radio to display the name of the station automatically and switch automatically to a linked channel when traffic reports come on the other channel.
It also allows your radio while on the move to auto tune for the nearest transmitter for the station that you are listening to.
It's what puts the RTE 2FM up on the screen for instance.

RDS=radio data system
DAB=digital audio broadcasting, its a digitally encoded transmission capable of carrying several channels on the one single tramsmission called a Mux.
A dab receiver radio decodes this and lets you select any of the several channels that might be available.

It's very unlikely that the DAB walkman radio will work in Drogeda by the way so don't buy one if you will be using it there-the signal would be too weak,I'd imagine.
DMC would have had height and a flukey line of sight in the dublin Mountains

DMC

Must be DAB day for me

As already discussed, only Divis up north has the BBC mux, while on Brougher Mtn and some of the other big tx sites has the Score Digital mux. You wont be able to get Xfm on DAB from the north.

Etho_, if you buy any Freeview or DAB kit, in say Currys, they'll wont refund you if it doesnt work. They would want to check your postcode before selling. When I was in Currys in Newry, I told them it was for a place in Donegal that already has a signal (element of truth), and they took my cash then. But you wont get yer money back. Best to get the lend of one for a time, and on the strength of that, then buy or not. Portable DAB is a no-no down here, In fact, its only an option if you had a strong signal in most cities in the UK, useless outside of these areas without a large protruding aerial (which must be vertical!)

Earthman, The back of my Roberts, if you unscrew the telescopic aerial at the back, you have a screw-in co-ax connection. If you get a screw-in co-ax fitting, \o/