Dab+

[porkop]

Gday,

Just bought myself a BUSH BR10DAB DAB+ radio reciever.

First impression is very nice.

Not a radio one would set up for a teens party but just to have purring along in the background it is fine. Nice and clear on the test stations, Koffee sounds real good and my sort of music. Dont know if it is a DAB+ only station, never heard of it before today.

"AM" stations are nice and crisp, well they are not really AM are they, just the DAB+ retransmission of their AM counterpart, but none the less with the simple telescopic rod antenna in SE suburbs of melbourne it works and works very well.

Cant wait till July when DAB+ starts actual transmissions

Regards

porkop

[Fernbay]

What sort of $ porkop?

Any linkies for us?

[porkop]

I was reluctant to put a URL just in case it was considered spam, but if you ask, I got it from DSE in Fountain Gate for $148.00. They had a shelf price of $169 but I quoted that I had seen it on their web site for the $148 and I got it for that.

This was the review I read that made me deceide on it as a first DAB+ radio....

Porkop

[Fernbay]

I was reluctant to put a URL just in case it was considered spam

Not in this case...
Most spammers have less than 10 posts, although some real member do try it on from time to time. Your post is not spam.

[exited]

Gday,

Just bought myself a BUSH BR10DAB DAB+ radio reciever.

First impression is very nice.

Not a radio one would set up for a teens party but just to have purring along in the background it is fine. Nice and clear on the test stations, Koffee sounds real good and my sort of music. Dont know if it is a DAB+ only station, never heard of it before today.

Yes, Koffee, Novanation, Pink Radio and Radar are DAB+ only, although they stream on the internet as well.

[Krustyone]

Forgive me if this seems a bit silly but why is Koffee etc considered to be DAB+ and not the other stations like MMM etc?

Are they not broadcasting yet?
Are their broadcasts limited?

Thanks.

[porkop]

There are a number of retransmissions on the DAB+ spectrum (202MHz or there abouts) of mainstream analogue stations, 3AW, 3MP, Vega, Nova and others, and yes they are being transmitted in the DAB+ format.

some interesting reading and

Koffee, Novanation and others mentioned above appear only in the DAB+ arena as a broadcast station and on the internet as a stream. They are not on the analogue spectrun (88 - 108 MHz or 550 - 1600 KHz)

There has been all sorts of advertising on ABC 774 about their commencment of DAB+ transmissions in july. I can not comment on other stations as I only listen to 774 during the day.

porkop

[kingey]

I got it from DSE in Fountain Gate for $148.00. They had a shelf price of $169 but I quoted that I had seen it on their web site for the $148 and I got it for that.

I got mine from Good Guys Fountain Gate for $139. They have it advertised at $149 "less for cash" and the salesperson gave me the $10 off with no haggling.

I work in Dandenong in the electronics sector and my lab is notorious for radiated "hash" so much so that AM will simply not work and FM can be very patchy. To make matters worse we are also in a factory that is more or less a big "tin shed" with offices built into it.

The Bush radio is excellent. Picks up all DAB+ stations with ease and very little (>5) signal error using the inbuilt antenna. Perfect for me who likes listening to 3AW but has had more than a challenge to get a reasonable AM signal (loop resonance antenna, anyone?).

At home on the outskirts of Pakenham did not fair as well as was expected. I am shadowed by a few hills from the Mt Dandenong transmitters and also outside the intended radiated area for DAB+. The inbuilt rod antenna only marginally worked in selected areas of the house and only up at height.

To combat this I have cut a 4 element yagi (one reflector, one driven element and two directors) resonant at 204.640MHz that is spot on the 9B ensemble but has very similar gain for the other active ensembles too. I used one of the many web based yagi antenna design sites and made mine out of an old discarded TV antenna and simply cut the elements to suit and mounted them at the appropriate distances as per the design specs. Termination of the yagi is the usual 300 to 75 ohm balun you would use for TV antennas. The feed is low loss RG58 50 ohm coax which technically is an impedance mismatch but does not seem to degrade performance.

Even though I could have connected this to the radio via the inbuilt rod antenna I have also modified the Bush radio to now have an SMA socket in the rear of the case and have deleted the rod antenna. There are appropriate "antenna" and "ground" connection points on the PCB to make this very easy to do.

The results are magnificent. Even with the antenna only temporary clamped a metre off the ground outside the shed and pointing through the house - the house also has wall foil behind the bricks as most recent houses do - I now get all stations with mostly zero signal errors and only the occasional flicker to a 1 or 2 error reading.

I have since permanently installed the antenna in the roof and have an outlet point near the table in my study.

So for those not in prime DAB+ transmission areas the answer is that yes receiving digital radio is possible but you do have to work a little at it. If you know how the results are very rewarding.

[porkop]

I got mine from Good Guys Fountain Gate for $139. They have it advertised at $149 "less for cash" and the salesperson gave me the $10 off with no haggling.

I was limited in as much as my daughters had got me a DSE voucher for my birthday. none the less, now a few more days along the DAB+ path I am sold completely on digital radio, not that I thought I wouldnt be being a radio/computer nerd/nut/OCD person

I live near dandenong and have absolutely no issues with reception with the suppplied rod antenna compressed all the way down, ie, just a little stubby antenna.

I am a complete Koffee fan, , reminds me of the old days (10 yrs ago) when I listened to JJJ, when they played music I liked and not that designed for my kids kids lol.

Who can complain ay Mazzy Star, The Cure, Jack Johnson, Pete Murray, U2 and the like all from one station and perfect quality to boot.

Although only a single speaker and designed as a "kitchen radio" as I have read it described, it is fantastic to have running on the studdy bench while I surf and the like.

How will I survive tomorrow in the car with just normal analogue radio

[kingey]

You sound a lot like me with music choice. I have not had a lot of time to explore the DAB+ only channels yet but I will eventually when some of my lesser liked 3AW personalities come on air

How will I survive tomorrow in the car with just normal analogue radio

Take it with you. It can run on batteries You can then give us a report on how well it fares while on the move

[porkop]

good idea.........will look into it

[exited]

If you use batteries, I recommend rechargeable's. My understanding is the process of audio conversion involves very high power consumption.

[porkop]

O. I took the little baby with me today all around melbourne, I didnt use rechargables as it will not be a common thing I do, anyway, for those that know melbourne, here was my path...

Hampton Park to Scorsbey to Collins St City (via freeway) to Resevoiur to Campbellfield to Bundoora to Diamond Creek to home via Eltham/Tempelston/Eastern FWY/Eastlink.

Now there where only 4 points where I momentary lost signal, 2 are understandable, 2 are acceptable.

The 2 understandable where, 1 in a basement carpark in the city, 2 in the Eastlink Tunnel.

Te 2 acceptable where under Toorak Rd on the freeway and the 2nd was under the Train Tracks on punt rd. The loss was only for a second or so.

And as is usual with digital, it is there or not, no fluttering or fading, There...NOT.

Re locking onto the signal after the tunnel was immediate, in fact it happened about 100m still inside the tunnel.

Over all, very very impressed with it performance. It was sitting on the floor in the front passenger side withte rod antenna fully extended.

This particular model, the Bush BR10DAB, when running on batteries, the backlight blanks after about 5 seconds, most probaly to conserve battery life.

Recommend this radio to anyone

Oh yea, and the playlist of Koffee helped control my road rage levels

[kingey]

Thanks for the comprehensive report that was an excellent test route. I'm very impressed with your report as it was even better than I would have imagined DAB+ would be in a mobile environment.

[Adobe]

Yes but the unit is not stereo is it

Adobe

[porkop]

heading off to Maryborough today, out towards Bendigo/Castlemain for those that dont know. I will take the little non stereo BUSH with me and see how far I get DAB+ out of Melbourne.

EDIT

Wel here I am in sunny Maryborough.

The DAB+ broadcasts worked much like yesterdays little trip around Melbourne, with the following black spots noted.

In Keilor on the Calder FWY where you start to head down into the gullies and valley's.

Digger's Rest, for much the same reasons as above.

Signal finally lost totally out past woodend turn off on the calder FWY.

porkop

[porkop]

can decode it in Geelong too...boy I get around!!

[exited]

In Melbourne you should be getting around 5 ABC and 5 SBS channels in test mode.