Norway First To Switch Off FM Radio.
Posted by: Tony2011 on 20 April 2015
I hardly listened to FM these days due to the wider choice and improvement in digital streaming. It is just a question of time before the UK follow suit. I know there are hardcore FM listeners here in this very forum but they will have to face the facts that the FM radio is on its last legs.
.......... It will be interesting to see how they overcome transmission drop outs in the tunnels and remote mountainous areas.
They also are probably on DAB+ unlike this sad land.
All the tunnels are fully wired for radio & phone & have been for numbers of years.
They have a mix of DAB & DAB+ at the moment & expect to be all DAB+ by 2017 when FM is switched off.
Also worth noting that in Norway FM is still available for local radio if they wish to use it, & that will be the same in UK as & when the national FM services are switched off.
It's interesting that this is a happening thing in Europe. I haven't heard a word about it here in the States, aside from the car guy above.
I doubt it woud be cost effective in the US to compensate all of the private broadcasters in order to shut down FM and hand the spectrum over to the data people.
From what I know of USA & the chat from various friends, I understand there are no plans to change the analogue services other than let them naturally evolve (die on the vine) as the marketplace moves to other technology. USA does have digital radio with HD Radio - a digital medium using/sharing existing frequencies - & Sirius radio from satellite.
Also worth noting that in Norway FM is still available for local radio if they wish to use it, & that will be the same in UK as & when the national FM services are switched off.
Remind me. What was the reason for DAB in the first place ?
I thought it as to free up space in the VHF frequency bands. I know it was dressed up by the gov as "Better" than FM, but that's politics and big business for you.
How much VHF space will be freed up when the BBC FM stations close down but local stations are allowed to operate ?
I think it was more a case of rationalisation rather than space; the cost of running & maintaining nation wide services on both FM & DAB networks & transmitters does not make sense. Once the nationwide FM network is freed up, its whole bandwidth will be available for local radio & each local station will have its own or shared & privately owned local low power transmitters. What will look like in the future only time will tell.
w.r.t. to VHF space the national broadcast system on 88-108MHz FM does have space limitations, & not getting into techno babble, it cannot carry half the numbers of stations we have right now on DAB. DAB uses a multiplex (MUX) system & one MUX on one frequency can carry the same number of stations we have now locally across the whole 88-108 FM band. Each DAB transmitter in UK has 3 or 4 & soon to be more MUX each carrying numbers of stations on one MUX, & there are 21 MUX available for use & another section of frequencies that is so far unused.
I'm an FM fan - superior SQ & all that, but in the cold light of day digital radio (note I did not say DAB) makes all sorts of sense. And providing the broadcasters do care about quality, they do have the wherewithal in transmitted bit rates & codecs to provide SQ thats very similar to what we get with quality FM.
w.r.t. to VHF space the national broadcast system on 88-108MHz FM does have space limitations, & not getting into techno babble, it cannot carry half the numbers of stations we have right now on DAB. DAB uses a multiplex (MUX) system & one MUX on one frequency can carry the same number of stations we have now locally across the whole 88-108 FM band. Each DAB transmitter in UK has 3 or 4 & soon to be more MUX each carrying numbers of stations on one MUX, & there are 21 MUX available for use & another section of frequencies that is so far unused.
Thanks Mike.
When I referred to "space" what I understood was that each analogue VHF FM station occupies quite a wide bandwidth. I had assumed that digital broadcasts could use less bandwidth hence permit more channels (at closer frequency spacing) and in addition, could use a Multiplex system to further increase the number of available channels to broadcasters. I think that is what you are describing above ?
Aviation uses the VHF band 108-117.975MHz for high quality voice communications and with the present 0.025MHz channel spacing can create 720 channels. Work is in progress to reduce the channel spacing to 0.00833MHz thereby increasing the number of usable channels...... At a price.
Aviation uses the VHF band 108-117.975MHz for high quality voice communications and with the present 0.025MHz channel spacing can create 720 channels. Work is in progress to reduce the channel spacing to 0.00833MHz thereby increasing the number of usable channels...... At a price.
Yes, I can see that, Don: I can imagine there would be an awful lot of aircraft requiring expensive radio unit upgrades....
Aviation uses the VHF band 108-117.975MHz for high quality voice communications and with the present 0.025MHz channel spacing can create 720 channels. Work is in progress to reduce the channel spacing to 0.00833MHz thereby increasing the number of usable channels...... At a price.
Yes, I can see that, Don: I can imagine there would be an awful lot of aircraft requiring expensive radio unit upgrades....
We have seven aircraft in our training fleet, each with two radios, all Nav/Com sets. Some (the GNS430's and 530's) can be updated to 8.33 spacing relatively simply, but overall, its going to be pricey.
How's the rotary wing flying going ?
We have seven aircraft in our training fleet, each with two radios, all Nav/Com sets. Some (the GNS430's and 530's) can be updated to 8.33 spacing relatively simply, but overall, its going to be pricey.
How's the rotary wing flying going ?
Very well thanks, Don. A new school started at our local airfield last year and I decided to join up and re-start my training. I am taking it slooooww but my old heli-skills are still there, even after an interlude of a few years. A few weeks ago we went on a day-trip to Le Touquet and I piloted an R22 pretty much all the way there and back (albeit with an instructor in the left seat making sure everything was hunky dory). First time over the water too. T'was a good day - I was buzzing at the end of it so much I couldn't get a good night's sleep afterwards!