How the industry could be promoting digital radio

I had a proper aerial fitted. Could get hardly any reception on the South coast and patchy all the way up the M6 and the very patchy all the way to Ft William. I really love the sound of DAB (maybe the aerial wasn’t fitted properly, but it was done by a pro). Although my in-house DAB isn’t great in Eastbourne. Although I have spoken to quite a few folks. (Art : In Scotland) who are also having problems. So instead of dismissing what I am saying as ‘rubbish’ we should acknowledge that I and others I know have had or are having a problems with in-car DAB, and maybe clear guidance on technical requirements are needed, halfords will just install a stick on aerial. Again in-car DAB is essential.

Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK (the organisation responsible for much of digital radio’s promotion) responds:

I enjoyed your blog on promoting digital radio and agreed with many of your points. I wanted to give you some additional data and clarify some points.

The copy does specifically mention digital radio’s great sound, the beautiful choice of stations and the fact that you can enjoy it anywhere. Some executions specifically reference the ability to get digital radio in your car. Our retail leaflets point at specific station choice as does the getdigitalradio.com online station checker which the BBC and Digital One link to. Individual station groups are increasingly doing a good job on air at cross promoting their digital only stations and this ultimately is the most powerful form of promotion.

Great flannel from Mr Ennals – such a pity that digital radio does not live up to his promotion of it in so many ways, especially its “great sound”(?!) – with the exception of more choice of channels.

@Maco Euan McAleece

It sounds to me that your aerial wasn’t properly fitted. Was it fitted to the bodywork – or to the glass? If it was fitted to the glass (which is what Halfords do) then this is not anywhere near as good for reception as being fitted to the bodywork or using a magmount on the roof.

Today I drove from my home in mid-Lanarkshire to Caerlaverock, south of Dumfries, for which I was tuned to Radio 5 on DAB. On the M74, whilst realising that there is a DAB gap between Abington and Beattock (they have yet to switch on the TX at Abington), I only lost the signal 5 times, for no more than two seconds. For the rest of the journey, it was rock-solid. I use a (Halford’s bought) Sony DAB radio and a magmount aerial that I stick on the roof before journeys.

As for reception along the M6, I’ve been on that road and not had problems except for a small patch around Shap (which I believe has been sorted now) and I have also driven up to Inverness via Fort William and experienced DAB drop-out for only a few moments to the south of Crainlarich and again south of Glencoe, other than that it was rock-solid reception all the way.

You should try these aerials:-

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_MagnetwiG__DMA-1004_DAB_car_aerial.html

You mentioned about “minimum technical requirements” That’s simple. The minimum technical requirement is that the DAB antenna has to be fixed (or magnetically stuck) to the car’s bodywork to maximise performance (which it does extremely well), which, funnily enough, is exactly what is done with the existing FM/AM aerials on cars (which also use the car’s bodywork to enhance reception). Sticking aerials to glass means that they won’t perform as well.

It was on the body work on the roof

Is that why FM reception in cars is always better than in the home?

James, it certainly helps (as well as the fact that your car is outdoors so the signal is not being attenuated by the effect of glass, walls etc).

Maco, then I seriously suggest that your aerial is not fitted properly or is inadequate. There is a smaller (and far less likely) possibility that your radio is a little deaf.

Unfortunately, many people come onto forums and say that DAB in the car is as good as useless, which is the complete opposite of my (and many others) daily experience. They then dismiss the platform, rather than blame their aerial (and most of those poeple who actually have DAB in the car are using glass mounted aerials – others who dismiss it usually don’t have DAB in the car at all).

It’s common sense, really. If DAB, as a platform, wasn’t fit for purpose for good in-car reception (with a properly fitted aerial), then it would be shut down instead of having broadcasters and consumers wasting money and engineers wasting time. However, the reality is that DAB is extremely good for in-car reception and the signal surpasses FM and AM for robustness by a very long way – it’s just a pity that some people are not realising that what is a basic principle of electrical conductivity (as taught in secondary school) is that glass is an electrical insulator and metal is an electrical conductor, hence the reason why we don’t get electrocuted if we touch electricity pylons carrying tens or hundreeds of thousands of volts, yet we’re somehow forced to have microscopic voltages of radio signals getting pushed through glass and expect it to work brilliantly.

As a slightly different point of view: I had a glass-mounted antenna on my in-car DAB, and the quality of reception was excellent. All antennas are not the same.

How to promote take up of digital radio? There was a golden opportunity about 3 months ago.

Sign up Chris Moyles to do Breakfast on a digital only station. Transfer his Radio 1 show lock, stock and barrel. A significant proportion of the audience who Radio 1 wanted to get rid of would have followed him there.