Could someone that is a beeb insider (BBC) do they know when DAB will start in aberdeen for all the beeb channels eg radio 1


thanks folk

I wouldn't worry about it unless:

- you have crappy FM reception where you are
or
- you only want to use it in the car
or
- you want to listen to stations not available in FM in your area
or
- you only want to listen to Radio 3

The reason I say this is that they have butchered the bit rates so much now that it sounds crappy. Almost all of the commercial are streaming at 128k, which just isn't enough.

The BBC stations are little better, except for the sacred Radio 3 which is still at 192k. At the moment Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 6 Music and 1Xtra are on 128k (except Radio 1 and Radio 2 get boosted to 160k overnight when Radio 4 is cut to 80). Radio 5 is at 80k and WS at 64k.

And all this is before they finish cramming in the extra channels that they want (Asian channel and Network Z). At that point I fully expect bit rates to fall again, I'm so looking forward to listening to Radio 4 in 96k joint stereo, not !

Of course Radio 3, the sacred cow that a whole 1.1% of the radio audience listen to is promised to stay at 192k, lucky old them. Just proves it's not what you know but who you know...

In the car or if you have poor FM reception DAB is obviously more useful.

Sorry, didn't know it was going to be a rant when I started. Someone at the BBC decided that "choice" is more important that quality, and that pisses me off.

At least the BBC site is no longer claiming "pure digital sound" and is now saying things like:

"I get good FM reception, so why bother with digital radio?

If you already receive good FM, the differences in sound may not be as readily apparent. However, you won't gain access to additional services that can only be carried on digital radio, such as new radio stations and additional text and data services."

Just wondering as i have a wavefinder thingy and it is nice to save stuff direct to hardrive to stick it on the empeg, for use later when well away from land

I have a Wavefinder as well. I do use it, but usually only as a source of a MP2 stream to listen to when I am at work (so I don't have to listen to the crappy Real feeds that the BBC provide). I love having a 1Mb DSl line...

However most of my listening at home is via FM, it sounds better even on a portable here.

I am hoping to be able to stream the MP2 streams to my Rio Receiver soon too, thanks to the new RioPlay http://www.pier13.com/rioplay software it is nearly working.

I'll have a chat to my mole in transmissions at Wood Norton tomorrow.
I have a friend who works in Cardiff (which I realise is more than a short difference away!) but lives near Swansea and has no DAB reception, and apparently nothing is planned. So this could be the case with you as well.
What transmitter do you get your TV and Radio from, I should be able to look it up.

No idea what transmitter it is but i already get some DAB services up here just the main radio channels aren't there yet

Which services are they? Stuff like MXR, Digital 1? Is it just the BBC services that are missing?

According to my sources there are three transmitters serving DAB to Aberdeen they are Durris (NO763899), Meldrum (NJ761329) and Mormond Hill (NJ983569). It surprises me that you can get the commercial services and not the BBC ones, in my experience it's usually the other way round. Are you using the built in aerial? I'd recommend getting an external jobbie if your signal strength is iffy. Whats your AGC on the existing services.

yep using the built in arieal which is so so

as to the AGC i have no idea what you mean

we get ministry and a few other national ones as well as the real crappy local station which i would pay to not hear

You should be able to use the aerial wizard (i think that's that it's called) to look at the signal strengths of the various ensembles that you are able to receive. If you have full scale deflection (high signal strength) then it may be a lack of BBC coverage problem. If they are borderline, then you may have to invest in an external aerial to increase your chances of getting more services. It surprises me that in somewhere like Aberdeen you can't get the services. Do you live in Aberdeen or are you out in the sticks?
You can buy the connector and lead cheap from RS and fashion your own aerial. The stock number for the connector is 326-8445.

I held off whilst I saw the thread develop, but: congratulations Andy on an erudite description of what a white elephant the powers that be are making of DAB in the UK.

Is the key issue providing a public service, or raising money for the treasury?

the latter regrettably.

You will find me much more vociferous on the Wavefinder BBS than this!

I would add, as a use, the downloading by Dabbar of MP2's for use on my Empeg, using the scheduler, is a godsend, but I think that thinforth2 had already mentioned this.

congratulations Andy on an erudite description

Looking back at it it was a surprisingly lucid post for me...

Is the key issue providing a public service, or raising money for the treasury?
the latter regrettably.

The only saving grace (for me at least) is that I didn't go out and blow 300 quid on a decent tuner when I intended to. If I had I would have been even more pissed when the started the bitrate slash and burn. Thankfully the Wavefinder only cost me 40 quid and it useful for other reasons than just because it is DAB (the MP2 streaming side of it).

Back to the subject: The Beeb's own coverage map clearly shows that they don't cover Aberdeen, just the central belt. I've e-mailed a pal of mine within the organisation, to see when this might change, but he's not in until tomorrow PM. I'm not in friday, hope to post something at the weekend.

i wasn't aware of there being a scheduler in the software with the wavefinder

No...and why not, download Dabbar.co.uk or Wavelite.co.uk. They both work considerably better than the wavefinder software, and both have schedulers. Dabbar also converts to MP3 or Wav in real time, should that be of use to you. They both take up much less space than the original software. One is shareware, the other £30, I can't remember which is which. To my mind Dabbar is a short neck ahead in ease of use and the file conversion facility.

Both of them will open a new world for you with your Wavefinder.

Now I come to think of it Alistair at Dabbar is more likely than most to be able to answer your reception question - e-mail him when you've had a look through his site.

Incidentally, both these sites are put together by really nice guys who will bend over backwards to help you.

e-mailed Alistair at Dabbar in the meantime, he doesn't have an answer for Aberdeen, but knows where to find one. He is off on a fortnight's holiday - if we haven't got the answer when he gets back, he will check it out.

Also take a look at WinDAB:



http://simans.worldonline.co.uk/windab/

I tried Wavelite and Dabbar, but I get on better with WinDAB. All three are a major improvement on the crappy Java app that comes with the hardware.

Sorry, I forgot the third one, but because I was so happy with Dabbar, I never got round to trying it!

The DabBar interfaces offends me, I can't really explain why, I guess I just prefer the look of:



compared to:

I wish I could do clever things with my postings, like put pics. and links in, but I'm only an old man.

Now's the time to reveal, am I the only person on this forum that had to go out and buy a computer to work my Empeg?

You might say that on top of its other fabulous features, Empeg forced me to learn how to use a computer, and I've gone a long way since.

Surely Dabbar is the only one that converts to MP3? Although that's not an advantage for Empeg it's very handy to put CD-R's on my portable.

Now's the time to reveal, am I the only person on this forum that had to go out and buy a computer to work my Empeg?

Probably !

Surely Dabbar is the only one that converts to MP3? Although that's not an advantage for Empeg it's very handy to put CD-R's on my portable.

Many things that playback MP3 can also play back MP2 (although you might have to change the file extension to lie to it) even if they don't advertise the fact. But you are right, if you need MP3 output then DabBar is useful (although there are plenty of other ways of converting MP2 to MP3)

Changing the name doesn't fool my rio portable CD player, for some reason - Rob suggested the same. I find it convenient to load all my files of radio programmes to Empeg, and the portable, as MP3's and Dabbar means that I don't have to convert them, just edit with DirectCut and load.

Incidentally, when Wavefinder fails me, I'm finding it very useful to be able to go to the BBC player( quality a problem, but better than missing the programme completely) and download using Audiotools: Which is a darn good programme for turning your tapes and records to MP3 as well: UnrelatedInventions.com, I think.

Maybe, we should start an unofficial Wavefinder forum and cut out the middleman! But I haven't forgotten that the purpose of this thread is to establish a date for BBC Aberdeen Dab, and I'm still working on it -BBC source didn't know, so I'm relying on Alistair at Dabbar on his return, unless someone else has an answer?

Try: http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/BDXC/lists/dig.html , for future DAB plans:

s far as I can gather from Alistair at Dabbar, the BBC does not have an allocation for Aberdeen, or as he so eloquently puts it:
Ensemble Ensemble Area EID Transmitter Area Site
Freq. Block TII Main Id TII Sub Id Serv Label1 SId 1
Serv Label2 SId 2 Serv Label 3 SId 3 Serv Label4 SId 4
Serv Label5 SId 5 Serv Label6 SId 6 Serv Label7 SId 7
Serv Label8 SId 8 Serv Label9 SId 9 Serv Label10 SId 10
Serv Label11 SId 11 Serv Label12 SId 12 Serv Label13 SId 13
Serv Label14 SId 14 Serv Label15 SId 15 Data Serv Label1
Data SId 1 Data Serv Label2 Data SId 2 Data Serv Label3
Data SId 3 Data Serv Label4 Data SId 4 Data Serv Label5
Data SId 5 Data Serv Label6 Data SId 6 Data Serv Label7
Data SId 7 Data Serv Label8 Data SId 8 Data Serv Label9
Data SId 9 Data Serv Label10 Data SId 10 Data Serv Label11
Data SId 11 Data Serv Label12 Data SId 12 Data Serv Label13
Data SId 13 Data Serv Label14 Data SId 14 Data Serv Label15
Data Sid 15 NGR Site Height In-Use Ae Ht In-Use ERP Total
Dir Max ERP 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170
180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270
280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350
Switch Aberdeen Aberdeen C19A Aberdeen Meldrum
220.35 11C 3E 6 Northsound 1 C8B1 Northsound 2
C1C9 Waves Radio C6B6 NECR C5B4 MinistryofSound
C2C9
NJ761329 244 138 8.51 140 7 5 4
2.25 1.25 0.5 0 0 0.5 0.75 1.5 2 2.5
2.75 2.75 2.75 2.5 2 1.5 0.75 0.5 0 0
0 0.5 1.25 2.25 4 5 7 9 9 9
9 9 9
Switch Aberdeen Aberdeen C19A Aberdeen Durris 220.35 11C
3E 7 Northsound 1 C8B1 Northsound 2 C1C9 Waves Radio
C6B6 NECR C5B4 MinistryofSound C2C9
NO763899 325 237 2 43 1.5 2.5 3
2.25 2.5 2.5 2.25 3 2.5 1.5 1.5 0.75 0.2
0.5 0 0 2 1.5 3 4.5 9 10 7
10 10 9 10 4.5 3 1.5 2 1 0
2 0.75 1.5
Switch Aberdeen Aberdeen C19A Aberdeen Mormond Hill
220.35 11C 3E 1 Northsound 1 C8B1 Northsound 2
C1C9 Waves Radio C6B6 NECR C5B4 MinistryofSound
C2C9
NJ983569 219 35 1