RTÉ to cease radio transmission on DAB network

TheBMG

Mickey Mike wrote: »

I would imagine when RTE set up their VHF radio service in 1966 that it was in mono (maybe I'm wrong). Radio2 took over the VHF network because of it being a music station (and it was good back then). Radio1 got a new High power 500kw transmitter in Tullamore.
Been from Kerry, Radio1's signal was so much better and stronger than Radio2 which was 100kw.

I was told once that Tullamore was a better site than Athlone because of its ground conductivity as well as its higher power.

Tullamore site was selected by engineers whereas Athlone had been more of a political decision (located right in the centre of Ireland).

TheBMG

SPDUB wrote: »

The scheduling of that sharing was bizarre though as I heard it in Dublin but I presume it was nationwide

IIRC RnG's hours then were 1130am to 130pm and 5.30pm to 830pm so you would think Radio 1 would be on FM outside those times

Except 1002am every weekday morning R1 would go on to MW only with a blank carrier on FM til RnG started then get the FM network back at 130pm for the News at 130.

Same in the afternoon but the blank carrier was from 3pm to 530pm

Plus only certain programmes were stereo! They’d let you know by printing a (s) symbol beside their listings in the RTE Guide!

Seem to remember this happening up to the early/mid 80s which seems bizarre when you had the likes of Nova lashing out 80 kajillion gigawatts of EQ’d and compressed FM stereo.

kazoo106

When the third network came on (and we won't mention why they used 102.7 in October 1985) only the FM3 stuff was in real stereo, all content from connemara on R na G did not have stereo content for a long long time

Hamsterchops

Wow, freaky .....

Just did a scan for DAB stations and nothing, but nothing appeared on the dial. Zero stations

Last time I did a scan it must have been six months ago (I use the WiFi feature on my Philips radio) so not normally on DAB, but still, to think that the Digital waveband is now totally empty is very sad, specially for all those people who have bought Digital radio sets in the last few years!

Money wasted when an FM radio would have sufficed. Wearn't we all told that FM would be slowly phased out in favour of digital radio?

DAB radio now has the same COOL factor as Blu-Ray

Tork

Did many people really buy digital-only radios though?

Tork

Deleted User wrote: »

DAB radio now has the same COOL factor as Blu-Ray

More like Betamax really...

Hamsterchops

Tork wrote: »

Did many people really buy digital-only radios though?

No I don't think so, but I remember a few years ago when I was in the hunt for WiFi radios and I went to Curry's, and the assistant told me that most people were asking for Digital radios, so that's what we stock, no WiFi radios in-store I'm afraid.

So I got mine online, but what about all those who bought Digital thinking it was the future, bless

Mickey Mike

Just popped into my local Aldi store yesterday and saw a crate of new DAB radios on offer at €49:99, it also has FM so they are not totally useless. But here in Kerry we never had DAB.

NeuralNetwork

My minidisc & DAB combo unit will be heading off to that box off old tech in the attic, along side the ISDN TA and the DVD player, the old Nokia satellite box and the Zip drive.

Tork

I wonder how many people bought DAB radios, thinking they'd now be able to pick up the BBC stations? I think it was mis-sold to some extent. You've also got to remember that DAB never reached large swathes of the country. Did the coverage ever expand much past what's on this map which I think is from 2008

NeuralNetwork

Yeah I remember a lot of confusion about that, particularly when you often had boxes with U.K. oriented imagery on them mentioning extra stations.

A lot of people assumed they were Internet radios.

Mickey Mike

In my young days we had a big old PYE radio, MW, LW and SW. The radio reached the end of its days in the spring of 1983, my older brother bought a new Babino radio with MW, LW, SW and ULK (can't remember exactly) but its another name for FM. So one day I was playing around with the dial, I tried this new button and scanning through I came across the great Larry Gogan, it was my first time hearing Larry and Radio2 at that time on FM, I couldn't believe the much better sound quality, even on that mono radio.
Let's hope FM sticks around for a long time to come.

Mickey Mike

Its unbelievable to see morden technology heading for the Attic and worse, the skip.

golondrinas

On a good day,depending on conditions, I can get English DAB stations on a Sharp DR 1470 just using the telescopic aerial. Don’t know why I bought it as hay google , kygo speakers are almost as good for sound.

I live near the coast.

Dindane

Mickey Mike wrote: »

In my young days we had a big old PYE radio, MW, LW and SW. The radio reached the end of its days in the spring of 1983, my older brother bought a new Babino radio with MW, LW, SW and ULK (can't remember exactly) but its another name for FM.

VHF?

Mickey Mike

Dindane wrote: »

VHF?

Thank you, silly me

Antenna

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Babino radio with MW, LW, SW and ULK (can't remember exactly)

Or was it 'UKW' ? - the name used in Germany for the regular FM radio band - UKW (or 'U' for short)

Mickey Mike

Antenna wrote: »

Or was it 'UKW' ? - the name used in Germany for the regular FM radio band - UKW (or 'U' for short)

That was exactly it, knew it was something like that, UKW, that jogged a memory alright.

corkie

Obsolete technology for Ireland now.


Got a cheap Bush DAB Radio Alarm clock in Early 2020, around the time of first lockdown. Also got beard/hair trimmer at the same time.


Can not see currys or argos selling there inventory now.

Only used the DAB stations to set the time automatically, and nothing else because thought they would be more stations on it. (Not UK ones).


Was not keeping informed of the status of DAB and only came aware of it been down when I couldn't set the time today.

Hotblack Desiato

tv3tg4 wrote: »

They switched TV to. Digital and not radio.
It is limiting potential choice.

FM is not full anywhere in Ireland. Phantom/TXFM's slot in Dublin is still empty. There is not the advertising or licence fee to provide for more stations. BAI's ridiculous content regulations are a major problem. RTE Gold etc. only existed on DAB in that form because they were test services, no ads, no bullshít requirements for Irish, news, etc.

Hotblack Desiato

Comhra wrote: »

Six prods of the touchscreen every time I start the car, just to get RTE 1 FM.

It's really not very reassuring that people that thick designed your car!

As for someone thinking DAB sounded better than FM... pull the other one.

lertsnim

corkie wrote: »

Can not see currys or argos selling there inventory now.

They'll sell to their UK customers.

dxhound2005

Antenna wrote: »

Or was it 'UKW' ? - the name used in Germany for the regular FM radio band - UKW (or 'U' for short)

To avoid any confusion the K is the German abbreviation for Short. UKW translates as Ultra Short Wave.

UKW is "Ultrakurzwelle"

Hotblack Desiato

If they call VHF "ultra short" what do they call UHF?!? :pac:

Saorsat

I see on Twitter some (mask wearing in their profile photos) Normies are thanking RTE for reinstating DAB🙄. These Normies think dab is back because RTE comes automatically on their car radio again since the dab tx was switched off last week.

end of the road

Saorsat wrote: »

I see on Twitter some (mask wearing in their profile photos) Normies are thanking RTE for reinstating DAB🙄. These Normies think dab is back because RTE comes automatically on their car radio again since the dab tx was switched off last week.

wow, riveting stuff.
i'm soooooooo outraged.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

If they call VHF "ultra short" what do they call UHF?!? :pac:

Answered my own question - opened UHF article on Wikipedia then clicked Deutsch...

Als Dezimeterwellen, auch dm-Wellenbereich, UHF-Frequenzbereich, UHF-Frequenzband oder UHF-Band (englisch Ultra High Frequency – UHF), bezeichnet man elektromagnetische Wellen mit einer Wellenlänge von einem bis zehn Dezimeter (10 cm bis 1 Meter), was einem Frequenzband von ca. 3000 MHz (3 GHz) bis 300 MHz entspricht. Der Dezimeterwellenbereich liegt somit zwischen den (längeren) Ultrakurzwellen und den Zentimeterwellen.

Saorsat

Former Former Former wrote: »

They're DAB and FM radios with Bluetooth so still perfectly functional.

But sure according to this thread, DAB is going to come roaring back any day now, so kudos to the Germans for making sure we're all ready.

Simon "comical ali" Maher was on Flirt FM the other day predicting that DAB is coming in 2022

ITV2

I noticed today the mini-mux at RTE in Donnybrook is still active, the only station playing audio was RED FM Cork.

kazoo106

Under what exact license are these MUXes from the RTÉ campus transmitting under?

Test?
Trial?
Unlicensed / Pirate?

SimonMaher

Saorsat wrote: »

Simon "comical ali" Maher was on Flirt FM the other day predicting that DAB is coming in 2022

LOL - Comical Ali

I think what I said on Wireless on Flirt FM was that I suspect that when one Radio group jumps then the others would have to follow and that I thought that the arrival of Bauer may light that particular fuse and that if that happens then we may see DAB in use in 2022.

Obviously I hope so from both my 8Radio and general radio industry perspectives. Knock the barriers to entry down and if it works then great, we end up with more choice on Terrestrial radio (which should serve to increase the share of the advertising cake that Radio gets) and if it doesn't work then at least we will have tried.

Interview is the first item on this months show: https://wirelessflirt.radio.ie/2021/04/05/programme-51-april-2021/

Your comical pal, Simon.
8Radio.com

mackersdublin

Don't know if its been mentioned already on this thread, but Three Rock's TX is now off. It was stil on air with "This Service is Closed" since 31st March

Antenna

mackersdublin wrote: »

Don't know if its been mentioned already on this thread, but Three Rock's TX is now off. It was stil on air with "This Service is Closed" since 31st March

Was reported switched off on the 9th April, in this thread.

It should have been switched off immediately considering the resultant hassle with some/many DAB car radios reported here, or alternatively what were the four stations also on FM completely disabled on the MUX, with the digital-only RTE radio stations carrying the Closure messages on DAB (perhaps with spoken message in a loop as well as the displayed messages for the benefit of anyone visually impaired who could not read the messages)

In comparison the analogue TV transmitters were switched off without delay when the service ceased in 2012.
There may have been some justification though to have run a 'nightlight' info-service on one analogue channel per transmitter site (the one that was RTE 1 where possible) for a few days after though.
As was done in the USA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m9OOV3FlWc

Elmo

Antenna wrote: »

In comparison the analogue TV transmitters were switched off without delay when the service ceased in 2012.
There may have been some justification though to have run a 'nightlight' info-service on one analogue channel per transmitter site (the one for RTE 1 where possible) for a few days after though.

The Government's own DSO/ASO digital switch over website went down the day after switch over, never to come back. While RTÉ ran another ASO/DSO campaign. It was a complete mess.

Ger Roe

I found an interesting article online today - Magill Magazine from 2008, reporting on the start of the DAB trial.

The article is entitled 'RTE steps quietly into the unknown'. Now that they have quietly stepped out of it, the article is worth a read to see how hopeful the venture once was, although the article also notes challenges that ultimately were not addressed, and that eventually resulted in the recent switch off.

https://magill.ie/archive/rte-steps-quietly-unknown

Hurrache

There's an ad running on RTE television at the moment for their radio services. The radio being used in it is a DAB radio.

Mickey Mike

Hurrache wrote: »

There's an ad running on RTE television at the moment for their radio services. The radio being used in it is a DAB radio.

They have to keep things a kind of modern.

Ballycommon Mast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116599069#Comment_116599069

kazoo106

Have you ever heard of ERP and antenna gain?