On 11/01/2017 16:19, Chris B wrote:
Listening to Radio 4 this morning they did an item on (I think) Norway
and their switch to Digital radio - it appears that by the end of 2017
FM radio switch off in that country will be complete.

Anyway the bloke said that approximately 48% of UK radio listening was
now digital and when this reaches 50% a date will be set for UK FM
switch off.

When DAB first came out it was reported that all sets consumed batteries
like it was going out of fashion and as they all used basically the same
chip they were all as bad as one another.

I have an FM radio that sits in the bathroom and gets used for about 30
mins a day. 4 rechargeable C cells last about 3 months or thereabouts.
Direct connection to the mains is not an option.

Has the design of DAB radios moved on such that it is now possible to
get acceptable performance from disposable or rechargeable C/D
batteries. I'm not keen on bespoke rechargeable as the replacement cost
(even if available in 5/10/15 years time) will doubtless be astronomic.


Yes it was Norway. DAB has various problems, it takes a lot of
processing power to decode hence short battery life, it is expensive to
transmit and generally of low quality because better quality uses more
bandwidth and therefore costs more. Two dab radios tuned to the same
station will not be in sync unlike two FM radios

There are some good quality stations on the Internet.


--
Michael Chare