After visiting the website of the Radio Society of Great Britain for no particular reason the other day; I noticed that the results of the national survey of radio amateurs had been published.
After reading through these I was rather pleased to see they had used one of my responses on a slide relating to the RSGB website:
The website should be the first port-of-call for radio related information, news, projects etc. The site should aggregate articles from across the web and provide frequently updated RSS Feeds. Southgate ARC provides a very good news aggregation service which is superior to anything offered by the RSGB site. This is the wrong way around!
Amateur Radio Survey Questionnaire Analysis 2011, Page 22, Point 3
As a result, I wanted to expand on my impression of the Society's website.
News and Latest Information
On the home page of www.rsgb.org, news is awkwardly split-up into different sections: a scrolling ticker at the top, GB2RS News and RSGB Articles and Statements.
The first of these should be scrapped. Scrolling tickers are an annoyance. If I visited the site frequently, I would rarely sit and watch that ticker scroll through each of its items. Actually, even on rare visits do I do that.
The other two sections should be merged. Upgrading the news system to something more modern that supports tagging or categorisation would easily enough permit articles to be filtered, but on the home page the latest articles in chronological order should be visible in one obvious list.
Since the survey response, I've noticed that RSS feeds are available from news articles, but you have to visit the News section to find them. Really, if news is going to be on the home page, then a News section is unnecessary and the feed links should be placed on the home page.
For sharing, those news stories which are published by the RSGB do have links for the common social networks and email. This is good. There is no commenting however. Enabling this feature could be an interesting way to poll the opinions of the membership and radio amateurs at large.
About Us and Services
The Society has a section labelled About Us. As an RSGB member and licensed radio amateur I consider this to be of no relevance to me. However, clicking into that section I find information on various services offered such as the AV Library, the QSL Bureau, lists of affiliated societies etc. There is obviously a wealth of information here that could be missed simply because of a bad heading. Perhaps keeping the About section to 'About Amateur Radio' and 'About the Society' would be best, and creating a 'Services and Information' section would give those pages more prominence?
Style
I'm not going to make to many comments on the actual style of the site as this is personal preference - what I may like/dislike, another will probably think totally different to me. What I will say is that the style of the site should be consistent in all sections.
I have counted at least four different styles in use: That used in the home page and many other pages, that in the Tutors section, that in the Operating section and the RSGB shop. A common theme across all areas would aid navigation and enhance the appearance of the site.
Relevance
According to the copyright date of the page itself, the Links section doesn't appear to have been updated since 2006. A page of this type should be reviewed regularly to ensure that links still work and are still relevant. Whilst most do seem to work, I couldn't connect to "Marconicalling" (www.marconicalling.com) at the time of writing.
Whilst mentioning the Links section, there is no clear policy on how a site gets listed here, nor a form to request consideration.
Member's Area
First of all, a proper secure logon method would be nice as opposed to the popup box requesting a username and password.
Next, some sort of account management section would be very useful. RSGB members should be able to update callsigns, change passwords and amend their contact details. Some of this would save administrative time as at present these details have to be changed via email or by telephone.
While a number of issues of Radcom are available to view in PDF in the member's area, I would like to ability to download these PDFs for personal use. Currently, Flash is used to view these issues online and whilst this is fine for general viewing it seems impossible to search.
This would probably be a controversial suggestion from the society's point of view. They sell annual CDs containing PDFs. By offering these for download they'd potentially be losing out. However, I won't buy one of these CDs as I won't pay for a magazine a second time - well certainly not the cost that these discs are currently made available. I want to be able to keep copies of Radcom for future reference, but don't want to keep stacks of magazines in the shack. I also don't want a collection of CDs which, whilst better, still take up valuable space.
Summary
In conclusion, the RSGB site needs a thorough overhaul. It needs consistent styling across all sections and a review policy to ensure pages don't become out-of-date. Members need to have a proper area where they can manage their accounts as well as receive enhanced content and it would be nice to see PDF downloads of back-issues of Radcom.
All news articles should contain sharing links, and commenting facilities. Perhaps some sort of integration with social media could be helpful too.
The RSGB website is of prime importance for amateur radio in the UK. It needs to sell the hobby to all newcomers but in particular those at the younger end of the age spectrum. A modern well designed website will hopefully help grasp their attention and hopefully encourage take up of an interesting and diverse hobby.
After reading through these I was rather pleased to see they had used one of my responses on a slide relating to the RSGB website:
The website should be the first port-of-call for radio related information, news, projects etc. The site should aggregate articles from across the web and provide frequently updated RSS Feeds. Southgate ARC provides a very good news aggregation service which is superior to anything offered by the RSGB site. This is the wrong way around!
Amateur Radio Survey Questionnaire Analysis 2011, Page 22, Point 3
As a result, I wanted to expand on my impression of the Society's website.
News and Latest Information
On the home page of www.rsgb.org, news is awkwardly split-up into different sections: a scrolling ticker at the top, GB2RS News and RSGB Articles and Statements.
The first of these should be scrapped. Scrolling tickers are an annoyance. If I visited the site frequently, I would rarely sit and watch that ticker scroll through each of its items. Actually, even on rare visits do I do that.
The other two sections should be merged. Upgrading the news system to something more modern that supports tagging or categorisation would easily enough permit articles to be filtered, but on the home page the latest articles in chronological order should be visible in one obvious list.
Since the survey response, I've noticed that RSS feeds are available from news articles, but you have to visit the News section to find them. Really, if news is going to be on the home page, then a News section is unnecessary and the feed links should be placed on the home page.
For sharing, those news stories which are published by the RSGB do have links for the common social networks and email. This is good. There is no commenting however. Enabling this feature could be an interesting way to poll the opinions of the membership and radio amateurs at large.
About Us and Services
The Society has a section labelled About Us. As an RSGB member and licensed radio amateur I consider this to be of no relevance to me. However, clicking into that section I find information on various services offered such as the AV Library, the QSL Bureau, lists of affiliated societies etc. There is obviously a wealth of information here that could be missed simply because of a bad heading. Perhaps keeping the About section to 'About Amateur Radio' and 'About the Society' would be best, and creating a 'Services and Information' section would give those pages more prominence?
Style
I'm not going to make to many comments on the actual style of the site as this is personal preference - what I may like/dislike, another will probably think totally different to me. What I will say is that the style of the site should be consistent in all sections.
I have counted at least four different styles in use: That used in the home page and many other pages, that in the Tutors section, that in the Operating section and the RSGB shop. A common theme across all areas would aid navigation and enhance the appearance of the site.
Relevance
According to the copyright date of the page itself, the Links section doesn't appear to have been updated since 2006. A page of this type should be reviewed regularly to ensure that links still work and are still relevant. Whilst most do seem to work, I couldn't connect to "Marconicalling" (www.marconicalling.com) at the time of writing.
Whilst mentioning the Links section, there is no clear policy on how a site gets listed here, nor a form to request consideration.
Member's Area
First of all, a proper secure logon method would be nice as opposed to the popup box requesting a username and password.
Next, some sort of account management section would be very useful. RSGB members should be able to update callsigns, change passwords and amend their contact details. Some of this would save administrative time as at present these details have to be changed via email or by telephone.
While a number of issues of Radcom are available to view in PDF in the member's area, I would like to ability to download these PDFs for personal use. Currently, Flash is used to view these issues online and whilst this is fine for general viewing it seems impossible to search.
This would probably be a controversial suggestion from the society's point of view. They sell annual CDs containing PDFs. By offering these for download they'd potentially be losing out. However, I won't buy one of these CDs as I won't pay for a magazine a second time - well certainly not the cost that these discs are currently made available. I want to be able to keep copies of Radcom for future reference, but don't want to keep stacks of magazines in the shack. I also don't want a collection of CDs which, whilst better, still take up valuable space.
Summary
In conclusion, the RSGB site needs a thorough overhaul. It needs consistent styling across all sections and a review policy to ensure pages don't become out-of-date. Members need to have a proper area where they can manage their accounts as well as receive enhanced content and it would be nice to see PDF downloads of back-issues of Radcom.
All news articles should contain sharing links, and commenting facilities. Perhaps some sort of integration with social media could be helpful too.
The RSGB website is of prime importance for amateur radio in the UK. It needs to sell the hobby to all newcomers but in particular those at the younger end of the age spectrum. A modern well designed website will hopefully help grasp their attention and hopefully encourage take up of an interesting and diverse hobby.
To mark the wedding of HRH Prince William to Catherine Middleton; the RSGB has negotiated with Ofcom to permit UK licenced radio amateurs to run special callsigns based on their ordinary call following the successful application for a Notice of Variation (NoV).
This is a simple and fun way of radio operators getting involved with the celebrations, and perhaps generating a bit of international interest in the amateur radio community; not only in the wedding itself but with international operators logging contacts with British operators using the modified callsigns.
The modification is simple. The regional locator character changes to an R regardless of region. So, my M0GKY callsign would become MR0GKY; my 2E1IPA callsign would be 2R1IPA.
To apply for an NoV is simplicity itself. Applications are conducted through the RSGB website by completing a form which simply asks for the existing callsign and a valid email address. Once submitted, applications should take about 72 hours. If accepted, a PDF copy of the variation will be sent to the supplied email address.
I've applied for my variation this evening, so with any luck I'll know if I've been accepted in a few days!
This is a simple and fun way of radio operators getting involved with the celebrations, and perhaps generating a bit of international interest in the amateur radio community; not only in the wedding itself but with international operators logging contacts with British operators using the modified callsigns.
The modification is simple. The regional locator character changes to an R regardless of region. So, my M0GKY callsign would become MR0GKY; my 2E1IPA callsign would be 2R1IPA.
To apply for an NoV is simplicity itself. Applications are conducted through the RSGB website by completing a form which simply asks for the existing callsign and a valid email address. Once submitted, applications should take about 72 hours. If accepted, a PDF copy of the variation will be sent to the supplied email address.
I've applied for my variation this evening, so with any luck I'll know if I've been accepted in a few days!
This weekend, I set myself a little project. Construct a dipole for use on 2m and an appropriate stand.
The project is pretty much complete apart from some minor adjustments and pictures are available on my Flickr page (see link in 'Related Links', or visit www.flickr.com/photos/m0gky/sets/72157625058766415/) showing the results.
The Aerial
The dipole, being a simple aerial, was very simple to construct. I decided to use my favourite of materials - 20mm PVC conduit tubing (available from B&Q), of which I had a number of offcuts from my Magnetic Loop project. All I needed for the dipole structure were two pieces of tubing, a T joint and a couple of straight-through joiners which I used to make the ends nice and tidy.
A BNC socket was fixed to the T joint allowing for the easy connection of RG58. To the BNC socket I soldered two lengths of wire, each a quarter-wavelength long (in approximation), resulting in a half-wavelength dipole. Once the soldering and drilling had been completed, it was simply a case of bolting the BNC socket in place, threading each wire into it's own piece of tubing and connecting the tubing to the T connector.
With the dipole constructed, I connected a length of RG58 between it and my 2m rig, balance the dipole between two curtain rails and gave it a try. Using an SWR meter and taking measurements at 144.025MHz, 145.000MHz and 145.975MHz I attempted to optimise the length of the dipole by trimming about 1cm of each piece of wire and then re-testing. I continued with this until I reached a SWR reading I was happy with.
The Mast and Stand
The next stage was to create a suitable stand permitting orientation of the dipole in either a horizontal or vertical polarisation and at any rotation I required. My solution was to create a small indoor mast with an H stand and guy strings.
The stand, like the dipole is constructed from 20mm PVC conduit tubing. Each leg has 1 meter of tubing, terminating in straight-through joiners with a hole drilled to accommodate the guy string. Half way along the leg, a T joiner is placed to allow a cross bar to be fixed, joining both legs together.
For the cross bar I used an offcut totalling about 40cm in length. Like the legs, this accommodates a T joiner at half it's length. This is where the central mast fits.
The mast is two pieces of tubing, each about 77cm long and connected with a straight through joiner. The split is so that the setup can be collapsed into a small easily portable package. At the top of the mast sits another joiner to which sits a short (20cm) piece of conduit with four holes drilled around it's circumference. This is where each of the four guy strings (one from each end of each leg) terminates. These guy strings are important to ensure the stability of the structure. 20mm tubing is not strong enough to support the aerial on it's own. It will bend out of shape without guys to keep it upright.
Next, the dipole can be connected directly to the mast using it's T joiner. This will allow it to be oriented in a horizontal polarisation only. Instead, I have attached a right-angle joiner. A very short piece of conduit extends horizontally from the joiner to which the dipole can then be connected. This allows orientation in either horizontal or vertical polarisation, but does put a bit of stress on the mast as it moves the centre of gravity. It's for this reason that the conduit extending between the right-angle joiner and the dipole must be as short as possible.
Still to do
The T joiner at the base of the mast, and the right-angle joiner both have removable covers. This means I can run a length of RG58 up through the centre of the mast and out of the top before connecting to the aerial. This will reduce strain on the mast as at the moment, the weight of the cable pulls down on the aerial which already moves the centre of gravity away from the mast as mentioned above. I need to order a BNC plug this run of cable but once that arrives, I can add this in.
As for the aerial, I'm considering the possibility of adding a director and/or reflector for improved directionality. I'm not sure if that will make it just too big for indoor use, but the advantage of using the tubing is that I can try it and if it doesn't work, I can just re-configure it back to a dipole.
The project is pretty much complete apart from some minor adjustments and pictures are available on my Flickr page (see link in 'Related Links', or visit www.flickr.com/photos/m0gky/sets/72157625058766415/) showing the results.
The Aerial
The dipole, being a simple aerial, was very simple to construct. I decided to use my favourite of materials - 20mm PVC conduit tubing (available from B&Q), of which I had a number of offcuts from my Magnetic Loop project. All I needed for the dipole structure were two pieces of tubing, a T joint and a couple of straight-through joiners which I used to make the ends nice and tidy.
A BNC socket was fixed to the T joint allowing for the easy connection of RG58. To the BNC socket I soldered two lengths of wire, each a quarter-wavelength long (in approximation), resulting in a half-wavelength dipole. Once the soldering and drilling had been completed, it was simply a case of bolting the BNC socket in place, threading each wire into it's own piece of tubing and connecting the tubing to the T connector.
With the dipole constructed, I connected a length of RG58 between it and my 2m rig, balance the dipole between two curtain rails and gave it a try. Using an SWR meter and taking measurements at 144.025MHz, 145.000MHz and 145.975MHz I attempted to optimise the length of the dipole by trimming about 1cm of each piece of wire and then re-testing. I continued with this until I reached a SWR reading I was happy with.
The Mast and Stand
The next stage was to create a suitable stand permitting orientation of the dipole in either a horizontal or vertical polarisation and at any rotation I required. My solution was to create a small indoor mast with an H stand and guy strings.
The stand, like the dipole is constructed from 20mm PVC conduit tubing. Each leg has 1 meter of tubing, terminating in straight-through joiners with a hole drilled to accommodate the guy string. Half way along the leg, a T joiner is placed to allow a cross bar to be fixed, joining both legs together.
For the cross bar I used an offcut totalling about 40cm in length. Like the legs, this accommodates a T joiner at half it's length. This is where the central mast fits.
The mast is two pieces of tubing, each about 77cm long and connected with a straight through joiner. The split is so that the setup can be collapsed into a small easily portable package. At the top of the mast sits another joiner to which sits a short (20cm) piece of conduit with four holes drilled around it's circumference. This is where each of the four guy strings (one from each end of each leg) terminates. These guy strings are important to ensure the stability of the structure. 20mm tubing is not strong enough to support the aerial on it's own. It will bend out of shape without guys to keep it upright.
Next, the dipole can be connected directly to the mast using it's T joiner. This will allow it to be oriented in a horizontal polarisation only. Instead, I have attached a right-angle joiner. A very short piece of conduit extends horizontally from the joiner to which the dipole can then be connected. This allows orientation in either horizontal or vertical polarisation, but does put a bit of stress on the mast as it moves the centre of gravity. It's for this reason that the conduit extending between the right-angle joiner and the dipole must be as short as possible.
Still to do
The T joiner at the base of the mast, and the right-angle joiner both have removable covers. This means I can run a length of RG58 up through the centre of the mast and out of the top before connecting to the aerial. This will reduce strain on the mast as at the moment, the weight of the cable pulls down on the aerial which already moves the centre of gravity away from the mast as mentioned above. I need to order a BNC plug this run of cable but once that arrives, I can add this in.
As for the aerial, I'm considering the possibility of adding a director and/or reflector for improved directionality. I'm not sure if that will make it just too big for indoor use, but the advantage of using the tubing is that I can try it and if it doesn't work, I can just re-configure it back to a dipole.
Last Wednesday I added to my collection of computers by purchasing a Samsung N210 netbook - a small, low-power, long-life laptop computer.
My primary reason for purchasing such a machine was for a forthcoming holiday, allowing me to backup photographs, video footage, write a journal and connect to the internet. A standard laptop wouldn't fit the bill - the one available to me was just to big and heavy. My smartphone didn't have the connectivity or storage to allow me to get pictures off from SD cards.
So the netbook option seemed to be the logical choice, and after a lot of searching (it's a crowded marketplace), I settled on the Samsung.
This particular model has a white case, a 10.1" 1024x600 matt screen, 250GB hard drive, 1GB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 2GB), Bluetooth, wifi 802.11b/g/n, built-in webcam, SD card reader and 3x USB sockets. The processor is one of the newer Atom N450 1.66GHz models which features an Intel GMA350 graphics chip as well. This processor, compared to the older Atom N270, features significant power reduction meaning battery life is significantly better than the earlier model.
I had to spend a lot of time seriously considering my requirements and trawling through reviews. Quite early on, I settled for a machine with the N450 processor which fortunately narrowed my search. From here though, machines are very similar with little to tell between them.
What settled it for me was that this model had strong reviews and featured the newest WiFi standard. Although I don't operate a 802.11n network just yet, I'm planning an upgrade in the not-to-distant future and it made sense to future proof the machine as far as possible.
As for my impressions now that I'm using the netbook, I'm very happy. The machine is slightly heavier than I anticipated but compared to an inexpensive laptop, it's certainly small and light. It fits in my backpack easily and I think it'll just fit in to my camera bag. The reduced resolution on the screen is noticeable - particularly in the vertical, but small tricks such as auto-hiding the taskbar and running a web browser full-screen offsets that limitation somewhat. Battery life is impressive and I estimate achieving anything between 5 - 7 hours of uptime depending of course on what it's used for. Admittedly this is short of the advertised 11 hours battery life, but still very good.
There's no doubt that the processor is limited, but day-to-day browsing feels sufficiently fast. Standard definition video files play okay from the hard-drive but I did struggle to use BBC iPlayer through Firefox on the supplied Windows 7 Starter. Video playback stuttered and full-screen use was out of the question.
I've configured my machine to dual-boot Windows 7 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04. I've divided the disk into multiple partitions to accommodate the two operating systems, the restore partition and a shared data partition. I find myself booting more and more into Ubuntu. It feels snappy and iPlayer here is much more successful although full-screen playback is still a struggle.
There are a few niggles with the open source system - after installation there is no wireless connectivity until an update is done via wired ethernet, and some additional software needs to be installed to make some special keys e.g., brightness work. I've also noticed the wireless does not always resume when waking the machine from a sleep state although this is intermittent and a reboot easily fixes it. I also needed to enable multiple desktops using gconf-editor which I think is essential on a limited resolution screen. Now it's configured though, I think it's a very usable and snappy system.
The Windows installation needed some work too. As seems to be the case with bought computer systems, a lot of extra - unnecessary - software was pre-installed. It took some time to install this as part of the initial setup and then more time again to remove it. I'm talking about Microsoft Office 2007 (trial), Microsoft Works, various non-standard games, McAfee virus scanner - all applications that hog disk space and have the potential to slow down the machine. Fortunately once I'd cleared all this I was able to take a snapshot of the system with one of the useful pieces of software - Samsung Recovery Solution 4.
So all-in-all, I think this was a sound choice and I'm looking forward to putting it through it's paces. As well as the uses I mentioned earlier, I will also see how it performs next to my radio equipment - I wonder if it emits a large amount of RF? As it has a large battery life I'm considering how useful it could be for operating a portable PSK amateur radio station. I suspect that it will be like other laptops I've used - on battery it'll be fine. It'll be the mains adaptor that pollutes the spectrum.
At the time of writing, the Samsung N210 was available at Amazon UK for £278 (white model) or £333 (black model).
My primary reason for purchasing such a machine was for a forthcoming holiday, allowing me to backup photographs, video footage, write a journal and connect to the internet. A standard laptop wouldn't fit the bill - the one available to me was just to big and heavy. My smartphone didn't have the connectivity or storage to allow me to get pictures off from SD cards.
So the netbook option seemed to be the logical choice, and after a lot of searching (it's a crowded marketplace), I settled on the Samsung.
This particular model has a white case, a 10.1" 1024x600 matt screen, 250GB hard drive, 1GB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 2GB), Bluetooth, wifi 802.11b/g/n, built-in webcam, SD card reader and 3x USB sockets. The processor is one of the newer Atom N450 1.66GHz models which features an Intel GMA350 graphics chip as well. This processor, compared to the older Atom N270, features significant power reduction meaning battery life is significantly better than the earlier model.
I had to spend a lot of time seriously considering my requirements and trawling through reviews. Quite early on, I settled for a machine with the N450 processor which fortunately narrowed my search. From here though, machines are very similar with little to tell between them.
What settled it for me was that this model had strong reviews and featured the newest WiFi standard. Although I don't operate a 802.11n network just yet, I'm planning an upgrade in the not-to-distant future and it made sense to future proof the machine as far as possible.
As for my impressions now that I'm using the netbook, I'm very happy. The machine is slightly heavier than I anticipated but compared to an inexpensive laptop, it's certainly small and light. It fits in my backpack easily and I think it'll just fit in to my camera bag. The reduced resolution on the screen is noticeable - particularly in the vertical, but small tricks such as auto-hiding the taskbar and running a web browser full-screen offsets that limitation somewhat. Battery life is impressive and I estimate achieving anything between 5 - 7 hours of uptime depending of course on what it's used for. Admittedly this is short of the advertised 11 hours battery life, but still very good.
There's no doubt that the processor is limited, but day-to-day browsing feels sufficiently fast. Standard definition video files play okay from the hard-drive but I did struggle to use BBC iPlayer through Firefox on the supplied Windows 7 Starter. Video playback stuttered and full-screen use was out of the question.
I've configured my machine to dual-boot Windows 7 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04. I've divided the disk into multiple partitions to accommodate the two operating systems, the restore partition and a shared data partition. I find myself booting more and more into Ubuntu. It feels snappy and iPlayer here is much more successful although full-screen playback is still a struggle.
There are a few niggles with the open source system - after installation there is no wireless connectivity until an update is done via wired ethernet, and some additional software needs to be installed to make some special keys e.g., brightness work. I've also noticed the wireless does not always resume when waking the machine from a sleep state although this is intermittent and a reboot easily fixes it. I also needed to enable multiple desktops using gconf-editor which I think is essential on a limited resolution screen. Now it's configured though, I think it's a very usable and snappy system.
The Windows installation needed some work too. As seems to be the case with bought computer systems, a lot of extra - unnecessary - software was pre-installed. It took some time to install this as part of the initial setup and then more time again to remove it. I'm talking about Microsoft Office 2007 (trial), Microsoft Works, various non-standard games, McAfee virus scanner - all applications that hog disk space and have the potential to slow down the machine. Fortunately once I'd cleared all this I was able to take a snapshot of the system with one of the useful pieces of software - Samsung Recovery Solution 4.
So all-in-all, I think this was a sound choice and I'm looking forward to putting it through it's paces. As well as the uses I mentioned earlier, I will also see how it performs next to my radio equipment - I wonder if it emits a large amount of RF? As it has a large battery life I'm considering how useful it could be for operating a portable PSK amateur radio station. I suspect that it will be like other laptops I've used - on battery it'll be fine. It'll be the mains adaptor that pollutes the spectrum.
At the time of writing, the Samsung N210 was available at Amazon UK for £278 (white model) or £333 (black model).
Today seems to be a day of negative digital radio news - and not necessarily entirely accurate news at that. Be warned, I'm going to ramble on for a bit. If you can't be bothered to read it all, I sum up my point at the end.
An Open Letter to Rt. Hon. Ed Vaizey MP
First I read an open letter from Rob Mannion, the editor of Practical Wireless Magazine, which was sent to the Telegraph newspaper aimed for the attention of Mr Ed Vaizey MP and reproduced here:
Dear Sirs: With the right Hon.Ed Vaisey about to make a statement regarding the imposition of DAB radio on Band II v.h.f. radio services, to replace the practical f.m. broadcasts, it is to be hoped that the new coalition government have listened clearly to all the criticisms regarding the impractical technology and the difficulties of receiving DAB radio services on portable equipment using simple antenna systems (a service the public has been used to for many years).
With the much mentioned huge spending cuts announced by the government, it will be unfortunate indeed if pensioners and those out of work should face the prospect of buying new equipment - all made in Far East - that would most likely provide inferior reception.
I implore Mr Vaisey to take the opportunity to repeal the legislation that will force listeners to buy equipment that's not necessary, and at the same time will also send money overseas to support another country's economy. Keep the money that would be spent in the UK, keep the service that works so well on simple portable receivers and enable as many people to carry on enjoying the essential broadcast radio services as before with simple to use receivers that don't require large amounts of power to operate them and work efficiently. With DAB radio on Band II that's certainly not possible.
Please Sir - Dump the DAB on Band II.
Rob Mannion
Editor Practical Wireless magazine
Broadstone
Dorset BH18 8PW
Whilst the theme of the letter may be sound, I find the arguments put forward here to be quite surprising particularly the mention of the source of DAB products - the Far East. I fail to see the issue with electronics being made in foreign countries. It is indeed the case that a significant majority of our products are manufactured outside of the UK and I daresay this is true for analogue radio products. Yes it would be nice for the UK to have a thriving manufacturing industry, but at the moment it simply is not the case. The sale of digital radio products will still occur on these shores however and that will generate revenue for the UK economy.
I also take issue with the inference to expensive digital radio sets. Prices are falling all the time, and a DAB radio receiver can now be had for £20.00. It wasn't so long ago that the lower price was £50.00 and when I first obtained a DAB receiver, it was £100.00. Switchover isn't happening this year or next - it's pencilled in for 2015. That's five years for prices to fall further and for people to gradually replace sets. I'm sure also that as technology improves, so will the power consumption.
It also may be the case that people may choose not to replace some sets. With many digital radio stations broadcasting via digital television some may find that all the radio they need is already available to them in a post TV switchover country. Let's also not discount online radio.
Lastly in respect of this letter, if you're going to emplore a minister to listen to your viewpoint and in an open letter at that, it's probably worth at least spelling his name correctly!
The Daily Mail Jumps On The Bandwagon
The second source of negative reporting comes from that bastion of quality news(!) The Daily Mail.
The news report itself is linked to via Related Links on this entry, but the key points are thus:
In typical sensationalist journalism, the body of the story contradicts the headline as can be seen in the points above. The headline that motorists will have to pay £300 to replace their radios simply is not true. Let's do some research:
I conducted a quick search through Google UK found a JVC DAB head unit for £148.99 - half the price quoted by the paper. Unfortunately, for a quick search, that was about the only result but one result at half the price is still not £300.00 in my book.
The Mail does mention conversion kits and acknowledges that these are cheaper than head units (there's the contradiction). More research again:
A search for the Pure Highway DAB receiver, which mounts on the windscreen and re-broadcasts a digital station on an FM frequency that any plain old car radio from the last 20 years can receiver, resulted in a number of hits. The cheapest source for this product (from a major known retailer) was Amazon UK at £68.00 - a whole 32% less than the cost of a conversion kit quoted by the Mail.
So we can clearly see that The Daily Mail is simply wrong with it's figures. It's also wrong stating that a switch-off of the analogue bands will happen in 2015 but this is more forgiveable. Major national and local stations are intended to be moved from FM to DAB by 2015. The resulting space on the FM band is earmarked for community stations. A similar prospect is on the cards for AM, but there is an intention to close this by moving community stations found here to FM.
As can be seen from the above paragraph, with FM being used for community stations it does not mean that all analogue radios will become redundant although it's true that the requirement for them will be reduced. There's no reason to fear that these will end up simply trashed though - old radios could be recycled and sent abroad to countries where digital radio has not become established.
So let's take a final look at costs. The article states that most homes have two or three radios (although a later quote mentions four or five, we'll go with the Mail for the purpose of this bit of maths). Let's say that all of these radios are replaced with digital sets. At the cheapest cost of £20.00, that's a replacement cost of £60.00. Adding on a new car head unit at £148.00 results in a total replacement cost of £208.00. Okay, it's still not cheap but that's every radio replaced for less than the cost stated for motorists only.
Going back to my earlier point about other sources of digital radio, we could perhaps assume that only two radios will be needed - one for the kitchen and one for the bedroom with the living room being served by digital television. Take £20.00 off the above total, that's £188.00.
There's five years remaining to replace these radios, so no immediate rush. The cheaper sets could be replaced over the next two years - easy enough by saving £1.70 per month. Then there's a further three years to save for that more expensive car head unit - £4.11 per month assuming prices don't fall.
What's My Point?
Digital radio is here and it's going to stay. I don't think there's any two ways about it, and at the moment 2015 is earmarked as the date when we should be using some form of digital radio as our primary method of receiving radio broadcasts.
DAB has its problems. At the moment, coverage is less than FM and there are issues around audio quality. Yes, receivers currently use more power than FM and yes, they do cost more.
All I ask for though is some perspective. There's five years for problems to be ironed out. Coverage can be improved, power consumption can be improved. Audio quality is subjective but there are solutions to that too (increased bitrates, codec changes), and a good quality DAB signal does provide generally better audio than a poor quality FM signal.
Whilst DAB is digital radio, digital radio is not just DAB. Satellite, cable and online services all provide digital radio and in many cases the audio quality is excellent.
It also occurs to me that perhaps there is some hate for DAB simply because it's not analogue.
I know I'm asking to much of our press, but let's look at the both the pro's and con's of digital radio compared with analogue radio and have a balanced report written in light of the situation we're in now - not as though switch-over is taking place next week and we're all being conned out of our hard earned cash.
An Open Letter to Rt. Hon. Ed Vaizey MP
First I read an open letter from Rob Mannion, the editor of Practical Wireless Magazine, which was sent to the Telegraph newspaper aimed for the attention of Mr Ed Vaizey MP and reproduced here:
Dear Sirs: With the right Hon.Ed Vaisey about to make a statement regarding the imposition of DAB radio on Band II v.h.f. radio services, to replace the practical f.m. broadcasts, it is to be hoped that the new coalition government have listened clearly to all the criticisms regarding the impractical technology and the difficulties of receiving DAB radio services on portable equipment using simple antenna systems (a service the public has been used to for many years).
With the much mentioned huge spending cuts announced by the government, it will be unfortunate indeed if pensioners and those out of work should face the prospect of buying new equipment - all made in Far East - that would most likely provide inferior reception.
I implore Mr Vaisey to take the opportunity to repeal the legislation that will force listeners to buy equipment that's not necessary, and at the same time will also send money overseas to support another country's economy. Keep the money that would be spent in the UK, keep the service that works so well on simple portable receivers and enable as many people to carry on enjoying the essential broadcast radio services as before with simple to use receivers that don't require large amounts of power to operate them and work efficiently. With DAB radio on Band II that's certainly not possible.
Please Sir - Dump the DAB on Band II.
Rob Mannion
Editor Practical Wireless magazine
Broadstone
Dorset BH18 8PW
Whilst the theme of the letter may be sound, I find the arguments put forward here to be quite surprising particularly the mention of the source of DAB products - the Far East. I fail to see the issue with electronics being made in foreign countries. It is indeed the case that a significant majority of our products are manufactured outside of the UK and I daresay this is true for analogue radio products. Yes it would be nice for the UK to have a thriving manufacturing industry, but at the moment it simply is not the case. The sale of digital radio products will still occur on these shores however and that will generate revenue for the UK economy.
I also take issue with the inference to expensive digital radio sets. Prices are falling all the time, and a DAB radio receiver can now be had for £20.00. It wasn't so long ago that the lower price was £50.00 and when I first obtained a DAB receiver, it was £100.00. Switchover isn't happening this year or next - it's pencilled in for 2015. That's five years for prices to fall further and for people to gradually replace sets. I'm sure also that as technology improves, so will the power consumption.
It also may be the case that people may choose not to replace some sets. With many digital radio stations broadcasting via digital television some may find that all the radio they need is already available to them in a post TV switchover country. Let's also not discount online radio.
Lastly in respect of this letter, if you're going to emplore a minister to listen to your viewpoint and in an open letter at that, it's probably worth at least spelling his name correctly!
The Daily Mail Jumps On The Bandwagon
The second source of negative reporting comes from that bastion of quality news(!) The Daily Mail.
The news report itself is linked to via Related Links on this entry, but the key points are thus:
- Motorists face a bill of £300 to install digital radios,
- the government is pushing ahead with plans to switch of AM and FM broadcasting,
- 100 million analogue radios will be redundant following switchoff in 2015
- New car head units cost £300; conversion kits cost £100
- Most ordinary homes have 2 or 3 radios
In typical sensationalist journalism, the body of the story contradicts the headline as can be seen in the points above. The headline that motorists will have to pay £300 to replace their radios simply is not true. Let's do some research:
I conducted a quick search through Google UK found a JVC DAB head unit for £148.99 - half the price quoted by the paper. Unfortunately, for a quick search, that was about the only result but one result at half the price is still not £300.00 in my book.
The Mail does mention conversion kits and acknowledges that these are cheaper than head units (there's the contradiction). More research again:
A search for the Pure Highway DAB receiver, which mounts on the windscreen and re-broadcasts a digital station on an FM frequency that any plain old car radio from the last 20 years can receiver, resulted in a number of hits. The cheapest source for this product (from a major known retailer) was Amazon UK at £68.00 - a whole 32% less than the cost of a conversion kit quoted by the Mail.
So we can clearly see that The Daily Mail is simply wrong with it's figures. It's also wrong stating that a switch-off of the analogue bands will happen in 2015 but this is more forgiveable. Major national and local stations are intended to be moved from FM to DAB by 2015. The resulting space on the FM band is earmarked for community stations. A similar prospect is on the cards for AM, but there is an intention to close this by moving community stations found here to FM.
As can be seen from the above paragraph, with FM being used for community stations it does not mean that all analogue radios will become redundant although it's true that the requirement for them will be reduced. There's no reason to fear that these will end up simply trashed though - old radios could be recycled and sent abroad to countries where digital radio has not become established.
So let's take a final look at costs. The article states that most homes have two or three radios (although a later quote mentions four or five, we'll go with the Mail for the purpose of this bit of maths). Let's say that all of these radios are replaced with digital sets. At the cheapest cost of £20.00, that's a replacement cost of £60.00. Adding on a new car head unit at £148.00 results in a total replacement cost of £208.00. Okay, it's still not cheap but that's every radio replaced for less than the cost stated for motorists only.
Going back to my earlier point about other sources of digital radio, we could perhaps assume that only two radios will be needed - one for the kitchen and one for the bedroom with the living room being served by digital television. Take £20.00 off the above total, that's £188.00.
There's five years remaining to replace these radios, so no immediate rush. The cheaper sets could be replaced over the next two years - easy enough by saving £1.70 per month. Then there's a further three years to save for that more expensive car head unit - £4.11 per month assuming prices don't fall.
What's My Point?
Digital radio is here and it's going to stay. I don't think there's any two ways about it, and at the moment 2015 is earmarked as the date when we should be using some form of digital radio as our primary method of receiving radio broadcasts.
DAB has its problems. At the moment, coverage is less than FM and there are issues around audio quality. Yes, receivers currently use more power than FM and yes, they do cost more.
All I ask for though is some perspective. There's five years for problems to be ironed out. Coverage can be improved, power consumption can be improved. Audio quality is subjective but there are solutions to that too (increased bitrates, codec changes), and a good quality DAB signal does provide generally better audio than a poor quality FM signal.
Whilst DAB is digital radio, digital radio is not just DAB. Satellite, cable and online services all provide digital radio and in many cases the audio quality is excellent.
It also occurs to me that perhaps there is some hate for DAB simply because it's not analogue.
I know I'm asking to much of our press, but let's look at the both the pro's and con's of digital radio compared with analogue radio and have a balanced report written in light of the situation we're in now - not as though switch-over is taking place next week and we're all being conned out of our hard earned cash.