Comments by "Gareth Hart" (@tgheretford) on "Ringway Manchester" channel.

Ireland has the next step-up, pirate DAB multiplexes because the regulator has been dragging their feet on DAB for years.
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This reminded me of Teletext, who ended their service before the digital switchover on the basis of costs, the Internet and the uncertainty of the continuation of the public teletext licence and got a fine for ending the service early. Which they probably considered cheaper than keeping the service going on analogue and digital television until 2014.
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Something else to note, the National Radio Licences also grants guaranteed carriage on the Digital One multiplex using DAB (not DAB+). Losing that licence removes that guarantee. But I suspect Bauer knows that there is no danger of the losing that space because they suspect there will be no new INR2 advertisement. It could however, allow Absolute Radio to transition to DAB+ to make further savings by cutting the bitrate to what their main competitor is using on Digital One. Again, I suspect that won't happen.
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People genuinely believe that the UK has no emergencies or disasters and therefore such a system is a complete waste of time and money. They're even suggesting this now for severe weather and floods! Couple that with a complete distrust of both the Government and the mainstream media and you could probably understand now why it has been treated as such a big deal. On the other side of the spectrum, the BBC gave wall-to-wall coverage to the test alert on their news channel which seems overkill.
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I know MuxCo DAB ensembles tend to extend outside of their coverage area in order to make the ensembles more financially viable. For example, Lincolnshire also extends to East Yorkshire, Doncaster and Nottinghamshire. The NE Wales and West Cheshire one's overspill effectively makes it an unofficial Liverpool 2 ensemble.
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Successfully decoded on QSSTV on Linux. The hardest thing was setting up the virtual sink and monitor on Pipewire/Pulseaudio so it could pipe the audio from the YouTube video to the program.
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In Ireland, they have pirates on DAB!
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Bauer would have taken that into consideration before making this decision. Otherwise they just handed a massive gift to their direct competition, Radio X. It does mean that they are no longer obligated to keep Absolute Radio using the original flavour DAB now. They could switch to DAB+ for lower bitrate and stereo sound but I suspect nothing will change and come spring Absolute Radio will still be on Digital One at 80kbps and in mono.
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Bauer knew they would get a slap on the wrist financial wise and that gamble paid off. Now we wonder if the other AM services will follow.
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The D-808 was the radio I bought as an introduction to analogue radio which I got with the additional wind-up wire antenna. It's good to know that my investment was well spent. I have also picked up The Buzzer in my house.
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Ask the Irish. It's been done many a time there since RTE left DAB although all pirate transmissions have now ceased. A legit licensed trial is due to begin in April on the east coast.
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@BillyNoMates1974 Normally under the law, something is not disallowed unless explicitly prohibited by law. There is a desire for your "safety" to reverse that and make everything illegal by default and grant you freedoms with responsibilities as they see fit.
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There is already a precedent for this - Teletext Ltd.
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I'm an evidence based individual and I get grief from both sides of the debate because I refuse to completely believe one side as I keep an open mind and the other side considers me a traitor to their side because I don't agree with what they said. What I have found in recent times is that science has been made politicised and ideological, what colloquially is known as "the science". The concept that one avenue of knowledge is considered final and unquestionable is antithesis to the scientific method that has brought about technological advances and improved quality of life for humanity. Worse still, we are censoring dissent to "the science" which in recent times, has proven to be disastrous and ongoing to this day. After all, once upon a time, the concept of the Earth revolving around the Sun was deemed a conspiracy theory and misinformation with punishment for those who dare challenged the ideology. And for the benefit of doubt, I do consider the theories about 5G causing harm to be unscientific nonsense - unless you're stood right next to the antenna! If Bill Gates really did want to gather data on everyone, he doesn't need to implant microchips in a vaccine which is activated by 5G, he could already do so via Microsoft Windows, installed on virtually every computer with Internet access around the world.
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Could be a issue for Internet radio. Technically, data sent over the Internet is now encrypted and therefore listening to radio online could technically be illegal. It would be fun to see people using BBC Sounds, Global Player, Rayo and the like being prosecuted for illegal listening.
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@williamhoff2172 Different circumstances but the chimney effect if I recall correctly was also the effect the fire at the Bilsdale mast had which eventually made it unsafe and had to have it demolished.
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There are people who genuinely believe that the two tone alert picked its frequencies to ensure the mind control of every citizen who heard it to become compliant to the Government. Unsubstantiated madness. There's some real mad stuff out there by social media commentators.
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Reminds me of the gambled calculation Teletext Ltd did in 2009 when closing their service five years early. The fine probably was less than what it would cost to run the service until the end of the licence period.
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Next year, everyone will have to comply with the Online Safety Act. If anyone posts "offensive rubbish" and they're not stopped, it's £18m or 10% of worldwide revenue as a fine if it's not taken down. Companies and channels are more likely just going to disable comment sections than risk a fine.
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I still remember the two morons who filmed themselves climbing the mast to the top whilst it was fully powered in 2016. I think it should go without saying that no-one should do this for many, many reasons.
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AM, plus they are no longer guaranteed capacity on the Digital One multiplex for Absolute Radio using DAB (not DAB+). But I suspect nothing will change on DAB and I can't see a move to DAB+ for further bandwidth savings like their Global counterparts did with Radio X.
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Someone, somewhere will have that as their WiFi SSID.
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If I recall when the FM band was being cleared for broadcasting use, the 104-108MHz range was used for ILR while 98-104MHz was not cleared yet. If I recall correctly, the tagline for one station declared itself to be "on the right side of the law".
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@johnb6723 A moot point anyway as Absolute Radio is in mono at 80kbps MP2 audio. Any move to DAB+ would be something along the lines of 32-40kbps HE-AAC. But I reiterate, I suspect any transition to DAB+ will not happen.
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The UK has never experienced a terror attack? Market Rasen, the epicentre of an earthquake that did structural damage in recent times, doesn't exist? Flooding is a myth? What about the Great Storm of 1987?
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That mast looks exactly like the one Three uses in a nearby town. If it's anything like the experience I had with that mast, they'll be waiting up to two years before service is restored. In terms of the rationale people have against 5G, the only way you would stop that is to shut down the Internet, replaced it with a licensed and controlled national Intranet and restrict speech to licensed Government approved organisations (ie. the BBC). However, that would also mean the end of this comment section and the vast array of YouTube channels unless they can get carriage with a major licensed broadcaster.
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You joke but I did have a loss of service for a few weeks after a lightning strike took out the nearby mast. It didn't cause it to set on fire though.
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Two people did in 2016 whilst it was fully powered. Arqiva were naturally not best pleased when they found out.
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