Hi. 

I know absolutely nothing about DAB radio but use it in the car all the time. Of my ten presets 8 of them will hold the station and play immediately but 2 will lose reception almost every time I start the car. I put them on to a different preset and still the same so the radio isn't at fault. 

I assume it must be the area I'm in (Southwest London) and the stations which are both Heart (70's and 80's).

Is there a way to get them to start or am I just in a dodgy area for this Station?

LOVE it or HATE it DAB still needs to be occasionally rescanned to get the best results as it drops and adds channels, i tend to do it monthly as i know which channels i use most.

 

which car ?

if the its the OLD Sony DAB radio in a Mk2 of course you will have issues....   DAB is totally different reception and transmission system from DAB+

its a lot like MPEG2 vs MPEG4, DAB is huge data need, now transmitted at half strength trying to land more channels - Germany switched off DAB forever in 2016.... they moved exclusively to DAB+ a better compression std with more channels and a better more robust error correction idea

the UK, went dual broadcast of old DAB and a new launch of DAB+, most of DAB was switched off, we have a few weak stations left going

 

Despite opposition aired to the government regarding the introduction of DAB+ in the United Kingdom by the industry and experts, Ofcom began testing DAB+ on the Brighton Experimental ensemble in January 2013 for a period of one month.In March 2014, the BBC announced that it would undertake a trial of DAB+ in the UK later in the year and on 1 September 2014, Folder Media began a four-month trial of DAB+ on the North East Wales and West Cheshire ensemble.

In early 2016, two new stations launched DAB+ services on the Portsmouth trial multiplex. Sound Digital, operators of one of the national multiplexes, launched three full-time broadcasting DAB+ services on 29 February 2016. Since then a number of stations have launched on DAB+ or switched from DAB to DAB+. As of September 2016, there were over 30 DAB+ stations being broadcast in the UK. In March 2017 the Brighton multiplex became the UK's first to only broadcast DAB+.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport published minimum specifications for digital radio receivers in the UK in February 2013 which states that a receiver sold in the UK must be capable of decoding a DAB+ stream of up to 144 capacity units. Radios must support DAB+ to receive the digital tick mark. However this is not mandatory and many retailers continue to sell DAB receivers that do not support DAB+.

Certain cars, Pug and Merc are good examples, in ones where they have both DAB and DAB+ tuners they can keel over and die whenever you pick up multiple broadcasts and the car falls fouls of the bad software 99 channel limit - it took Merc two updates in late 2016 before they fixed it and most where never updated.  And Pug finally had updates to fix in 2018

Mine is a mark 3, 61 plate Sony unit. 

Are you saying that when you select that preset it shows 'station seek' ? 

I would try to scan again to see if you can pick up Heart 70s and 80s (you sad old man ;-)) from a different transmitter. Maybe there is a transmitter in London giving you strong signals on all your other stations but you've previously been trying to store Heart stations transmitting from further away.  I can receive Greatest Hits London and also Greatest Hits Essex - they are nowhere near each other when scanning. The radio seems to scan in blocks of geographical areas.

My radio does NOT have a "perform a full rescan" function. Mine is a Mk3 2013 Sony, so I suspect it is the same as yours (but it might not be EXACTLY the same).

BTW if yours IS the same as mine, you know you've got 20 presets - DAB1 and DAB2.

Usually when I start the car it will briefly come up with Heart 70's or 80's but then stay silent and say "no reception". Sometimes i can go to a working station next to it for say 30 seconds then click back to Heart and it will tune in and stay with me until I stop the car, then usually, but not always I lose Heart again at start up.

All other stations work perfectly and start playing when the car starts. 

16 hours ago, Botus said:

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport published minimum specifications for digital radio receivers in the UK in February 2013 which states that a receiver sold in the UK must be capable of decoding a DAB+ stream of up to 144 capacity units. Radios must support DAB+ to receive the Digital tick mark. However this is not mandatory and many retailers continue to sell DAB receivers that do not support DAB+.

Worth mentioning that this applies to domestic DAB radios as well, I now have 5 x old DAB radios in a box because they are not DAB+ compliant, so cannot get the radio stations I now listen to. If buying one for the house, definitely make sure it is DAB+. My radios, although good quality (Roberts, Pure etc) are now worthless because of tech moving on, and I can't yet get my head around just tossing them out!...

In addition, the number of 'DAB' radios on sale on Ebay, where the seller has no idea which version of DAB it has is simply amazing LOL (Or maybe they act dumb on purpose!)

4 hours ago, StephenFord said:

My radios, although good quality (Roberts, Pure etc) are now worthless because of tech moving on

So the much-heralded digital radio is just another case of enabling built-in obsolecence as a way of forcing consumers to junk perfectly serviceable equipment. The possibilities are endless - how long before we have to scrap a perfectly good car because it doesn't support the latest updates?

25 minutes ago, mjt said:

The possibilitues are endless - how long before we have to scrap a perfectly good car because it doesn't support the latest updates?

I fear that'll happen sooner than you think. All these new 1st generation battery cars will be scrapped fairly quickly as the tech moves on so quickly. Hence unless you are dripping in money, don't ever buy one! Just rent it monthly...

I'd really like an EV but that's exactly what's holding me back.

5 hours ago, StephenFord said:

My radios, although good quality (Roberts, Pure etc) are now worthless because of tech moving on, and I can't yet get my head around just tossing them out!...

on a similar but different thing, it caused be great heartache 6 years ago when I eventually took 5 perfectly working 'Analog' TV's to the local tip, after finally accepting there was no point in hanging on to obsolete kit no matter how good it was.

Which brings me to another random point. Why can you still buy a 'Black & White' TV licence when there has never been as far as I know a Digital black & white TV ?

5 minutes ago, unofix said:

on a similar but different thing, it caused be great heartache 6 years ago when I eventually took 5 perfectly working 'Analog' TV's to the local tip, after finally accepting there was no point in hanging on to obsolete kit no matter how good it was.

 

I still have 2 x working 'analogue' TV sets (Kitchen & study) hooked up to individual FreeView boxes, and also with a feed to my Sky box. I think the Toshiba 15" is 27 years old, and the Sony 14" is 30 years old! Shown with 'guide' menu to prove today's date LOL

 

24 minutes ago, unofix said:

on a similar but different thing, it caused be great heartache 6 years ago when I eventually took 5 perfectly working 'Analog' TV's to the local tip, after finally accepting there was no point in hanging on to obsolete kit no matter how good it was.

Which brings me to another random point. Why can you still buy a 'Black & White' TV licence when there has never been as far as I know a Digital black & white TV ?

Because i remember seeing or hearing something on tv or radio ages ago that theres still a percentage of the uk still using B+W tv's thus requiring licences

49 minutes ago, JImpster said:

Because i remember seeing or hearing something on tv or radio ages ago that theres still a percentage of the uk still using B+W tv's thus requiring licences

I just wonder how these B&W analog TV's are receiving a live broadcast signal. Seems odd that you would pay for something like Sky just so you could watch it in black and white.

4 minutes ago, unofix said:

I just wonder how these B&W analog TV's are receiving a live broadcast signal.

A FreeView box will quite happily work on a B&W 625 line analogue TV set. I just saw the new Kenneth Branagh movie, 'Belfast' done in B&W, quite atmospheric! 😁

8 hours ago, fladavid said:

 

Ah, your radio isn't the same as mine (I think mine is the upgraded version) but my other comments/suggestions still stand. I think a scan should find the stations whose signals are strongest in your area. Good luck.

 

 

On 1/27/2022 at 8:12 PM, alanfp said:

Ah, your radio isn't the same as mine (I think mine is the upgraded version) but my other comments/suggestions still stand. I think a scan should find the stations whose signals are strongest in your area. Good luck.

 

 

upgraded as in 4 times the size ?

or different look?

some mercs with DAB around 2012 to 2015 have the DAB+ tuner, but without the last update its turned off waiting for the system to come online

then those made in 2016 all die as couldn't cope (>99 channels and it goes in a robot loop, till u get to an area with less stations), but on all the forums the owners know better than to update it

https://getdigitalradio.com/?slide=check-your-available-stations

 

gatwick airport

https://getdigitalradio.com/whats-on-dab/at-your-address/results/?postcode=RH6 0NP&address=1

On 1/26/2022 at 10:09 AM, fladavid said:

Hi. 

I know absolutely nothing about DAB radio but use it in the car all the time. Of my ten presets 8 of them will hold the station and play immediately but 2 will lose reception almost every time I start the car. I put them on to a different preset and still the same so the radio isn't at fault. 

I assume it must be the area I'm in (Southwest London) and the stations which are both Heart (70's and 80's).

Is there a way to get them to start or am I just in a dodgy area for this Station?

looks like if u can get talkSPORT 2 you have DAB+ if you can only find talkSPORT you only have a DAB tuner

1 minute ago, Botus said:

looks like if u can get talkSPORT 2 you have DAB+ if you can only find talkSPORT you only have a DAB tuner

Likewise, if you can get TalkRadio - you have DAB+ (They stopped broadcasting on DAB last year!)

Just did the postcode checker and I must have DAB+ as I have the stations listed. Bizarrely Heart 70's and 80's is supposed to be good reception for my area, but they're not, whereas the others listed are good reception. 

20 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Likewise, if you can get talkSPORT - you have DAB+ (They stopped broadcasting on DAB last year!)

that's not what it says for that area of the country ?

the channel listing specifically calls out DAB+ channels, its why I wrote what I did in red

 

It was a typo but talkSPORT near Heathrow signal area is in DAB

45 minutes ago, Botus said:

that's not what it says for that area of the country ?

the channel listing specifically calls out DAB+ channels, its why I wrote what I did in red

I'm not sure what you mean, TalkRadio is ONLY broadcast in DAB+, if you get it, you have a DAB+ receiver, if not, you don't...

it should say in your radios manufacturers specs what it can and cant do, i filled up a 32gb stick with flac tunes and my unit said not supported, on checking the spec it says it supports flac so its the stick size at issue.

keep retuning every other day or so, it may wake it up.