DAB radio

It is, but it must get its alternate frequency data from somewhere.
Which is why I said they might be linked.

There is no display of what is on, just the channel name. It may have TA but I would never use that so I don't know.
On DAB there is what's on data available, but it will be down to the receiver capabilities as to whether it can be displayed.

That reminds me: the time pips are pointless on DAB!
I suspect that these days the pips are pointless anywhere. Someone needing that level of time accuracy is almost certain to have another source, like the GPS system.
 
Or a radio locked clock. I note that the BBC have not for a long time transmitted the picture of their clock before the news, and the morning on screen clock only show HH:MM
 
Or a radio locked clock.
:roflmao: We've got 3 or 4 radio controlled clocks around the house - none show seconds.
I was really meaning people like sailors who need to keep a chronograph accurate for navigation purposes (the old fashioned kind when the electronic stuff fails). Pips on LW might still be meaningful for them.
 
Ditto. At least.

I suspect that these days the pips are pointless anywhere.
I don't agree - they are not pointless if they are accurate, but when transmitted by a digital rather than analogue system the system delays are indeterminate (since the decoder in the user's equipment is part of the delay).
 
long wave
medium wave
short wave
fm
dab
freeview sd
freeview hd
satellite sd
satellite hd
internet radio

Put them all together on the hour and what do you get?
 
We set off from home earlier and there was silence on dab. I switched to fm and the same channel was fine. So why didn't the radio do that itself?
 
We set off from home earlier and there was silence on dab. I switched to fm and the same channel was fine. So why didn't the radio do that itself?
At a guess it needs to have the current streamed information available so it knows where to go if the transmission is subsequently lost or weak. A really good/expensive radio might have a memory to store that data between uses but I suspect most don't.
 
I sometimes get silence on DAB simply because the sub-system has crashed. It's a bugger getting it rebooted though.
 
Most of my radio is listened to via podcasts or catch up and comparatively little live: Maybe the morning news or TMS or F1 practise (though currently listening to FP3 on catch up rather than give up on a normal night's sleep).
 
The worst alarm radio I ever owned was a Pure model, Tempus? When I set it to come on at the start of the Today programme, at 6am, I expected it to switch on at 6am. Pure boasted about the time keeping of their radios, locked as they were to the time signal of FM broadcasts. What they neglected to mention was that

1 The time signal was only acquired when the radio came on.
2 There was no attempt to acquire the time maybe 15 minutes before the alarm time.
3 The old crock of a digital clock inside the radios was capable of losing or gaining up to 3 minutes in a day.
I too had a Pure Tempus-1. It had a fault where it would lockup completely (clock freeze) at about 6 monthly to yearly intervals. This is not exactly ideal for something sold as a clock radio. I tried their 'support' but after checking the firmware version and reloading the software they lost interest.

Eventually it totally died except for the display backlight.
 
I had another interesting experience in the car today. I was listening to ClassicFM (why do people put FM in a title, ffs?) on DAB. I had the car display up so could see when it switched to FM. Well, it did, but at such a tiny volume I could barely hear it. Next, after a few minutes, it switched to DAB again at a reasonable volume, but a few seconds later it was on FM at a much louder volume than the DAB.

Assuming those two FM transmissions were from different frequencies, as I can't think of any other reason the volume would change so much, we have the other problem. Why would two FM transmitters broadcast a station at different volumes?

I hope I am boring the numpties to death, by the way. Let them go back to twitface.
 
Slightly off topic but.................... I recently aquired a free DAB radio via Tesco clubcard vouchers. I had planned to use it to replace the FM radio I keep in my bathroom. Being
a bit of a miser I like to use rechargeable batteries but instead of the 4 x AA in the FM radio the DAB one takes 5 x R14 batteries. Chargers for R14 are easily available but only
charge 2 or 4 at a time hmmmph! . I have seen one online that charges 6 but it cost over £100. Has anyone come across a more realistically priced charger for more than 4 x R14's ?
 
I know the feeling, I have several things that require 3 AA or AAA cells.

Looks like you need 2 x4 chargers or an x4 and x2.
 
ClassicFM (why do people put FM in a title, ffs?)
I guess because it was on FM, but now it's on DAB and Freeview as well it's too much hassle to change the branding. You could call it lack of foresight. They might claim their "FM" doesn't stand for Frequency Modulation (much like another brand I can't bring to mind at the moment).

Your issue with different FM volume levels for the same channel is perplexing. I don't see any alternative but to blame the radio. FWIW, my car radio seems to reboot more often at around 11.15 on a Saturday night than at other times when I'm regularly in the car, interrupting the Radio 4 quiz slot for a few seconds (enough to miss a question or an answer). No, I can't explain it either - unless it's geographical*.

* Aha! Maybe there's a bug in the code for switching between transmitters on DAB.
 
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