digital radio... advice please!

[storeysinfrance]

hiya

i'm looking to buy a digital radio but just want to double check a few things.

one... am i right in assuming that i'll be able to pick up channels from (say) the uk besides those in france? (we can pick up bbc etc etc via the tv / dish set up we have but that really only covers us for part of the house).

second.. if so... has anyone any thoughts on the best makes / brands?

all advice etc etc gratefulkly recieved.

thanks

neil (24)

[YCCMB]

...or you could save your money and buy a gizmo (if you are interested will ask OH for the details rather than even pretend to know what I'm talking about). This gizmo attaches to your TV and allows you to pick up all the radio stations you can already receive on your TV, via the TV but through your ordinary radio. You can even take the radio into the garden (mind you, we don't have 45 hectares, only a "normal" garden) and still receive all the channels.

The only minor downside is that you can't watch someting else on TV whilst another person elsewhere in the house is listening to the radio, so if that's what you want then this doesn't entirely solve your problem.

Jane

 

[Martin963]

I assume we're talking DAB (as it's known in the UK) here.

If so I'm afraid the answer is that you're not going to get anywhere.  Whilst DAB is taking off in the UK,  (in spite of the lamentable audio quality of many of the channels (including - shamefully - the BBC))  the same is not true in France.

France uses L band transmissions, and only in Toulouse,  Paris,  Nantes, and a couple of other conurbations.  There has been virtually no take-up by the public and there is talk of suspending the service,  which only carries public Radio France and a few commercials already available on FM.

A set purchased in the UK covers VHF Band 3 and only a very few also cover L Band,  which is on a higher frequency (around 1500 MHz with limited coverage as a result) compared to Band 3 (225 MHz approx,  similar to the old ITV 405 line VHF service,  ch 13 specifically).

Band 3 only has a range of about 35 - 40 miles with the powers used for DAB (1 - 10 kW) and so coverage by UK transmitters of France is limited to 62 and Calais if at all!   Certainly not Perigord.

I could have just said "don't bother" but at least you now have chapter and verse. 

  

[Martin963]

Sorry about the triplicates!

[Miki]

Martin,

You can simply go to Edit and delete two of your posts.

[Martin963]

Done Miki.  Thanks.

[Deimos]

I had assumed we were talking about Worldspace radio (http://www.worldspace.com). I nearly purchased one over a year ago so I could get the BBC world service (which was at that time free-to-air on Worldspace). Fortunately I did not because shortly after I was looking pretty well all their transmissions went over to a subscription basis (including BBC World Service) and it was at (to me) was quite a high price. Its was a nice system with portable radios, etc. available, but the subscription make it too expensive.

Croixblanches, I would be very interested in a system that can take the radio from my satellite receiver and transmit it so I can receive it as this would address what I was actually looking to get the Worldspace thing for (i.e. to receive the BBC World service and maybe others) whilst a bit distant from my satellite receiver).

Ian

[YCCMB]

Don't shoot the messenger, but OH hasn't got full details of the unit that we've got in France. Basically it's an audio sender, which is about the size of a large box of matches, with an aerial, and plugs into the TV, taking the signal from there to the radio. It appears that the internet has lots to offer in the way of senders which do both audio and video (although I assume you could always NOT use the video bit) but I can't find our audio sender anywhere. We got ours with the package when we had our digibox and dish installed a couple of years ago.

There also appears to be something on the market called a Sky Gnome which does the same thing (I think) although quite expensive at about £70 - but still in the same sort of ball park as a DAB radio, which wouldn't be of much use in France anyway.

Sorry to be vague - will try to find out more and post info when we next visit and I can check the gadget itself, and the paperwork!

[Robbie34]

The Sky Gnome is not like DAB digital radio.  It merely connects to your Sky receiver and allows you to listen to the audio of any of the channels to which your Sky digibox is tuned, some distance away from your receiver.  It allows you to change channels remotely, e.g. you can listen to radio whilst in bed and change channels, say, from Radio 4 to Radio 5.

A much cheaper option is buy a pair of wireless speakers, you can get these from Maplins for £49.95, and do the same thing albeit you can't change channels remotely.  I have a pair of these in my bedroom in France so that I can listen to Radio 5 Live when I'm in bed.

[YCCMB]

Thanks Robbie34 - I didn't mean to suggest that a Sky gnome was a DAB thingy, only that I thought it did what you've explained it does, i.e. allow you to listen to the audio from your TV. Glad you could explain, though - as I wasn't sure that this was what it did. Headphones are cheaper, of course, but they mean that only the person wearing them can listen,so if, for example, we're in the garden and want to listen to the radio together, headphones aren't really practical.

[Simon]

Those with broadband may want to consider one of these:-

http://www.slimdevices.com/

Regards

Simon

[Deimos]

[quote]Those with broadband may want to consider one of these:-http://www.slimdevices.com/RegardsSimon[/quote]

Looks quite a neat device (but quite pricey). I do like their open source attitude.

Ian

[pagnol]

I want to improve my French 'listening' by using the radio.

I don't have one at the moment and its going on my Christmas wish list. Can I assume from I've read a DAB type radio will be of no use to listen to French radio stations in the UK?

 

[Martin963]

A DAB radio is of no use whatsoever for listening to French stations in the UK.  Correct.  Pointe finale.

But lots of French stations are available on long wave in most of England (F inter 162 kHz,  Europe 1 183 kHz,  RTL 236 kHz).   F Info on Medium wave in some southern counties of England.

If the quality isn't good enough to hone your language skills there's almost all of them on Astra 1 and a lot on Hotbird, (on the latter a few are - unjustifiably - scrambled).

[Tourangelle]

If you have an ipod or similar mp3 player, then Europe 1 has started doing podcasts as of this week.

www.europe1.fr

[Simon]

Streaming over broadband is the answer in many cases for listening to radio remotely. Use a PC, or better still a dedicated network music player. I use my squeezeboxes - http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html -(one each side of the channel) to listen to the BBC, FranceBleu, and many others. Quality is excellent as it goes through your own hifi amp and speakers. I also have my entire CD collection in both houses on the 2 old PCs I use as hosts for the silmserver software saving me the trouble of making copies of my 400 or so disks.

Regards

Simon