Comments by "Bond25" (@Bond2025) on "A Mystery Transmitter Appeared! - This Is What It Does" video.

I don't use DABradio as the quality of the audio, even in the car, is rubbish. It is like listening to AM mono radio compared to FM stereo. When i first heard tests on DAB in the 2000s the audio was over 200Kbps, now its mono at as low as 32Kbps.
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Quality of DABradio is pathetic in the UK and it is mostly MONO. On one car I have the DABradio aerial is built in to the back window. Unfortunately the rear car camera and wiring used to generate quite a bit of "noise" and de-sensitise the radio on DAB, so I had to get a different camera that linked the rear to the front camera using mini coax. This happens a lot and people often wonder why DABradio and their normal radio starts acting odd. It might not be anything to do with this in your case. It means my aerial is effectively horizontal, so reception is limited compared to if it had been vertical. Poor design on the car manufacturers part. A lot of broadcast stations are mixed polarisation, but I always think that is a waste of time, money and power when most people use vertical polarisation at home.
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The disused 68-88MHz would have been ideal for DAB and the coverage is really good on those frequencies. It works a lot better than 200MHz! I am not sure why they went for near 175MHz to 225MHz, I used a PMR service called Dolphin TETRA in Band 3 in the 1990s. Coverage was OK, but it was single digital channels in use on a shared repeater system from Winter Hill. No one wants DABradio now because of low audio quality, low bitrates and mono, all the stations playing the same music in a different order with continual adverts and silly announcements... People prefer to use their phone and stream audio as it is more convenient and sounds a lot better.
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every single PMR install i have seen since the 90s has the same problem with brackets.
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It depends on the aerial. If you only want local coverage, a single aerial with medium to high angle radiation pattern will cover the locals if it is low down. If it was high up, a downward tilt or something like a Slim Jim or J pole would be better to give a blanket coverage and not get too far. No need for higher gain aerials there.
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@ToomasTelling DABradio is finished in the UK, it failed because of - 1. Advertisers 2. Poor Audio Quality 3. Choice of different stations When it first appeared, the audio quality was brilliant as bitrates were high, some as high as 320kbps stereo on the BBC test stations. As time went on, it was all monetised and people looked at ways to get back their investment and make money. It went away from being a method of transmitting stations to one of selling advertising, making every channel play automated music with adverts and a bit of talking over the top. Many of my local DAB stations play the same music from the same feed, but change the announcements. Why just have 4 stations on a multiplex for example, when you would have 12 or 24 all running really low audio bitrates. That is why no one listens now. Who wants MONO audio at a bitrate and audio quality lower than a standard AM radio. In North West UK if you listen at home or in a car to stations on 88-108MHz FM Stereo, the audio quality is really good. Listen on DABradio and you get thin or tinny MONO with 16kbps to 64kbps and it is "quiet", plus there is no processing, no dynamic range, no compression etc, so unusable in cars. Most stations rely on streaming. DABradio was a "gap filler" while Streaming Services were improved and people started to use them more thanks to unlimited data on phones etc. I now just stream music in the car, I don't bother with DABradio and only use normal radio if there is no coverage on the phone! The choice of frequency up around 200MHz was odd too, if they had used 68-88MHz the coverage would have been vastly improved, especially for mobile use. Less transmitters and links would have been required. I use 4M amateur band (70MHz) and the coverage is really good compared to 2m and 70cm for example.
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With all those stations hooked up to the same audio feeds, just with different adverts played and different announcements. it really is in a terrible state now, I was SO disappointed when I got a DABradio after it first come out. I expected what was lied about on the false DABradio adverts about "crystal clear sound" and "Great audio Quality". I got lots of stations, only two local ones in stereo and everything else was mono, some sounding worse than MW. I had DABradio as standard in my car and used to listen to KISS as the bitrate was 160kbps and it was stereo. That last a few months and it went to 128kbps, then 112kbps and now I think it's 64kbps MONO. No one wants that rubbish quality. I wanted a DARradio with TWO speakers (for stereo) and could never understand why so many of the Pure radios were sold with just one. They knew everything was going to be low quality mono, so no point selling a radio with two speakers! Advertisers lied about DABradio to promote sales and they misled people. Many were fined and forced to stop lying about the audio quality, coverage and claims of "interference free crystal clear audio".
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You can pirate on DAB so all is not lost! A bit more complicated and expensive, but you could get those old 10GHz links back out. On my TX aerial in the NW i used to be able to RX Dimension FM and IBC .
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