Digital radio

[cooky1]

I took my digital radio to France last year and I could not get any reception at all. I was staying near Cherbourg.

Earlier this year I took it to Wooler in Northumberland and again got no reception. Does anyone know if they do not work inside caravans or is it just the areas where I have been staying?

 

[rob_jax]

Graeme,

For the UK, take a look at www.digitalradionow.com and www.bbc.co.uk/digitalradio for local coverage.

Nearly all countries transmit on Band 3 including the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland

Germany transmits on both Band 3 and Band L. If you have a Band 3 radio, you can only receive the Band 3 stations.

France transmits only Band L and I think only Paris and major cities are covered. So a Band 3 radio won't work at all in France.

What stations were you expecting to pick up in France? DAB is a terrestrial service using land based transmitters. You can only pick up stations inside their broadcast range, and Cherbourg will be outside the UK digital transmission range.

Some DAB radios like the Pure Evoke 1XT Tri-band and the Evoke 3 (and others) can pick up Band 3, Band L, and analog FM

Robert

 

[cooky1]

Robert, thanks. I just wondered if the fact that the radio was inside the van caused it to not receive any signal.

I will check out the web sites you mentioned.

 

[rob_jax]

Graeme,

Our caravan is an Eriba Triton - aluminium wall panels and galvanised tubular steel frame.

So it's pretty efficient at screening out FM radio signals and Band 3 (and Band L) signals - but place our DAB radio (Pure Oasis) by a window and it works fine - or we just use an extension aerial in weaker signal areas.

If your caravan has GRP body panels - then these plastic walls cut out about 25% to 50% of the signal strength

We have a Sony Worldband radio for France and Europe - easily pick up the BBC World Service throughout Europe - or local stations.

Robert

 

[cooky1]

Robert,

I tried with the radio (Acoustic solutions portal 1) next to the window but it still got no signal.

Do you need a special aerial ror DAB radio's?

 

[RogerL]

DAB has not taken off in the UK like it was expected to. There are some suggestions that coverage won't be extended any further due to lack of demand.

 

[rob_jax]

Graeme,

Digital radio (and TV) need a consistently good signal (with low noise), poor signal - it doesn't work, good signal - everything works.

In truth the same applies to analog radio (and TV) except that the noise just gets worse and it doesn't stop when the noise is too bad.

The internal aerial in a DAB (or analog FM) radio is probably OK in a strong signal area, but outside that an external (to the radio) aerial is needed.

DAB Band 3 is broadcasts over the 217.5 - 230 MHz frequency range, so a normal FM aerial is cut to the wrong length, but you can buy good and well-priced DAB aerials from places like Maplin.

Take a look at www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/index.htm for advice on aerials.

Robert