Digital Radio

[Barry Edmunds]

In view of the current spate of advertising on radio, can someone advise me what impact or effect that the introduction of digital radio will have on existing car radios?

Barry

[shane wescott]

Hi Barry

Digital radio is gradually being introduced (i think in Melbourne in May). You need a special radio to decode the digital signal and hence listen to the channel. So an existing car radio will not receive and decode the Digital Channels by itself.

At this stage I dont think there is any schedule for turning off AM/FM so no need to rush for a digital radio. Apparently some after markets will release Digital radio adapters, inc blue tooth devices so you can receive the signal and play the audio through your existing system.

Nothing to plan for a this stage in my opinion. It's a bit different from the digital tv thing where there is a definate timeschedule on the go.

Its just clearer, static free radio. Digital is more efficient than standard AM/FM due to the way it send the signal over the airwaves, more channels etc.

Hope this helps.

Catch ya

Shane

P.S. I am a radio technician by trade (apprentice in the air force many moons ago) so any electronics q's I may be able to help with :-)

[MD]

Shane

If AM is amplitude modulation of the carrier and FM is frequency modulation of the carrier, how does digital work and what's its transmission range compared with AM?

[shiny_car]

if digital radio reception is anything like DTV, reception will be hit and miss in fringe areas. though i wonder what transmitters it will be broadcast from - could it utilise the same towers as mobile phones? doubt it.

the uptake of digital radio in australia has been very slow. not sure why - whether it's the lack of infrastructure (like the transmitters) or receivers (ie: new headunits), or willingness of radio stations to invest. probably all of it. it's been available in places like the UK (DVB) and US (Sirius and XM radio) for years, and the major headunit brands offer suitable models/adaptors in these regions (ie: Alpine, Pioneer, Blaupunkt, etc). some of it is subscription radio too, and i can't imagine Australians being keen to pay for digital radio in a hurry.

i can't see it taking off here any time soon. car audio has been a passionate hobby for years; very little discussion about it. though as above, the products are available, so it would be easy for the distributors to bring in the relevant models.

[shane wescott]

I agree Mate, take up will be slow I think.

MD

AM is sent via changing the amplitude of one frequency signal based on the audio, FM is sent by changing the frequency based on the audio and digital is just ones and zeros sent in one carrier frequency. This means you can gets heaps of channels in a tight band of frequencies. FM takes up much more frequency "room"

CAtch ya

Shane

[alfagtv58]

Oohhh some experts on audio, maybe I should be posting this as a seperate topic.....but......

Old skool radios.  Is it possible to keep the original facia and have more modern guts behind it?  Even if it is just having an ipod input (but ideally FM transmission also)?

I want to keep the original look but have an updated sound.

[MD]

Phil, I would think it is entirely possible as long as you don't visualise it as a do it yourself project if you are not into electronics. You know how it is, all it takes is money. Got a mate who used to go the other way and restore period car radios for original car restorations so if you had to have a valve radio in working order for your 56 Chevy, he would rebuild a dead one for you. He would also restore the old 8 track tape decks that were around in those days too.

As for the digital radio sales taking off well, we got more radio stations today that we had ever had in the history of Australian radio but have you ever spent more than 5 minutes on the one station and heard anything worth listening too? Why would you spend extra bucks for more of the same high fidelity crap?

From a technical point of view my favourite is talk back FM radio. What a total mis-use of the medium. I mean the frequency spectrum of speach is very limited and very easily catered for by the AM band. It is even catered for by  Graham Bell's original telephone so WTF are they taking up bandwidth and wasting huge amounts of transmitting power by broadcasting that rubbish in a high fidelity FM medium that is not required whatsoever ? !! It is more than overkill. It is moronic.

..oh and this other letter to the editor..just gotta figure out how this morse code gizmo works..

[alfagtv58]

 

What an entertaining rant MD.  made me smile.  high five

[MD]

Thanks Phil. You know sanity is precious and the price is going up as soon as I get some...

[shane wescott]

Hi Phil

Number of ways to do this. If the current radio has acceptable FM you can get a remote box for the ipod which sends the ipod signal via FM radio, i think they are about $80.

For a new guts you could use a radio/cd player with remote and control it via remote but keep the old school look on the front panel.


Just a couple of ideas.

CAtch ya

Shane

[shiny_car]

Oohhh some experts on audio, maybe I should be posting this as a seperate topic.....but......

Old skool radios.  Is it possible to keep the original facia and have more modern guts behind it?  Even if it is just having an ipod input (but ideally FM transmission also)?

I want to keep the original look but have an updated sound.

that sort of customisation is well beyond my experience. but i think it would be very difficult, and require total customisation at some expense. particularly if your existing old skool headunit uses analogue knobs/controls, and needs to be integrated with the current crop of digital control. an interface of sorts would need to be designed, tested, and integrated.

as suggested, for something like iPod, you are probably best (ie: easiest, off-the-shelf) to utilise an FM Modulator kit, where the audio feeds via FM transmission. of course, the limitations are that the sound quality is only as good as FM radio ('average' at best, compared with CD or lossless iPod recordings), and controlling the iPod (track selection, etc) remains hands-on with the iPod and not controlled via the headunit buttons.

[luca]

WTF are they taking up bandwidth and wasting huge amounts of transmitting power by broadcasting that rubbish in a high fidelity FM medium that is not required whatsoever ? !! It is more than overkill. It is moronic.

+1