A dab hand at DAB radio

If you remember the home service or the light programme, then the changes we have seen in the past few years probably strike you as astonishing. And they continue to come, but not everything is quite as good as it sounds.

DAB radio was launched with a big fanfare offering more programmes, far better reception and a host of other advantages. Now it is generally accepted that while it has a lot of advantages, it also has problems.

DAB stands for digital audio broadcasting and of course you have to buy a special DAB radio to listen to everything broadcast under this system. It offers many more programmes than analogue could offer and today you can find any number of special programmes on everything from hip hop music to sport, traffic news and even religious channels. Even better, with DAB you can scroll text to identify the channel you want, and many scrolling text accompaniments are also available with DAB so that you can even find out the name of a tune you are listening to.

However, none of this is any good if all you hear are bubbly or fuzzy broken up voices or sound, and this can happen when the signal you are receiving is too weak. Many different things can contribute towards a weak DAB reception; old buildings with thick walls, a building made from reinforced concrete or built with a steel frame, or even the area in which you live.

To check you are able to receive DAB, the BBC has an online checking system at http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/digitalradio/dab.shtml Just enter your postcode and you can find out whether you are in a good DAB area or not.

Location of your DAB radio can be key and simply moving it around a house can totally change reception – it may be better upstairs or near a window. Most DAB radios are fitted out with an inbuilt aerial and moving that around can help.

In difficult areas or situations, you may need to install an external aerial. DAB radios can be fitted with external aerials but you need the right type, fitted on the roof or high up on the outside of the building. The aerial fits into an aerial slot in the radio through a cable, but it is usually best to get this fitted by a professional installer. Any local aerial installer should be able to do this.

One other interesting aspect of DAB radio is that you can experience a signal delay. Normally this won’t be apparent and certainly won’t be a problem. However, if you want to listen to perhaps a commentary of a sporting event while you are actually watching it, you may find that the commentary is not synchronised with the action and is slightly behind. This is because of the nature of a single frequency network and how it all works and is not a problem with the radio or the commentator.

That said, it seems DAB radios are here to stay, for a while at least, and the enormous choice and in some cases superior quality that they offer is welcomed by many. As the years go by, no doubt it will improve more and more. The Light Programme seems a very long time ago now!!

Keep in touch with everything happening in Laterlife Today!

Subscribe to our free monthly email newsletters for the latest articles, offers and events. You can unsubscribe at any time should you want to.