When listening to marginal FM signals, the AR1780 can be set to mono mode instead of default stereo mode.
(Source: The Guardian)
Digital switchover means that only the country’s local radio stations continue to use FM frequencies
Norway has completed its transition to digital radio, becoming the first country in the world to shut down national broadcasts of its FM network.
The country’s most northern regions and the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic switched to digital audio broadcasting (DAB) as scheduled on Wednesday, said Digitalradio Norge (DRN), an umbrella group for Norway’s public and commercial radio.
The transition, which began on 11 January, allows for better sound quality and more channels and functions at an eighth of the cost of FM radio, according to authorities.
The move has, however, been met with some criticism linked to technical incidents and claims that there is not enough DAB coverage across the country.
Radio users have also complained about the cost of having to buy new receivers or adapters, usually priced at between €100 and €200 (£88 and £176).
Only 49% of motorists are able to listen to DAB in their cars, according to DRN figures.[…]
I’m not sure what it’s like in Norway, but here in Australia I live in a city of a million people and that can’t even be adequately covered. Walking down the street I need an external antenna fully extended (which isn’t the case with FM). FM can be received up to 200kms away from the transmitter but DAB+ struggles to reach 30kms.
The other thing about DAB is that it’s for the elite, it’s for wealthy companies to cement their position by taking up all the bandwidth and not allowing anyone else to broadcast. We have about 45 stations on DAB in each Australia city and that’s the most there will ever be, almost all of them owned by big corporations (and the government).
Here in Australia, just in my city, there are dozens of local broadcasters that will never be on DAB+
The talk about radio receivers costing over 100 euros is humbug. When it comes to low-end portables, 50 is a more realistic range and sometimes you could get one for even less. Now car adapters, they are indeed more expensive. But there has been many years of advance warning(and time to save up!) and this is probably more to do with either ignorance, blind hope that the plan is abandoned(no doubt fueled by fake news sites claiming the technology is about to collapse etc), or just personal tenacity – gotta stick it to the man. Or all of the above. Was it really that hard to start setting aside a few euros a month in 2015?
Exactly. I suspect it’s coming from the “shortwave is the future crowd”, who just won’t let go and are stuck in 1970.