Apologies for the frivolous message below. I've just switched to Outlook and haven't got used to the reverse time sequence of messages. I thought I was responding to something new and refreshingly free from the BARD discussion, but I realize I'd kept this exchange from a month ago. Still, at least we all now know how far Brisbane is from Melbourne, right?
-----Original Message----- From: pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Adrian Spratt Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 3:46 PM To: 'PC Audio Discussion List' Subject: RE: So I bought a Digital radio.. Hi, Dane and Bob. You've had this friendly disagreement about the distance between Melbourne and Brisbane before. So, with the BARD debate still raging, I thought I could at least settle this dispute once and for all. Thanks for all your wonderful contributions to this list. Now, here's the WikiAnswers entry describing the distance between your two fair cities: >From Melbourne to Brisbane by road is a distance of 1709km (1061 miles) >and takes about 21 hours to travel. This is without rest breaks so, ideally, the trip should be taken over three days. This is the quickest route, taking you the inland way through Seymour, West Wyalong, Parkes and Narrabri. The flight travel distance is 1370km (851 miles), and travel time from Melbourne to Brisbane is around 2 hours, whilst from Brisbane to Melbourne is closer to 2 hrs 20 mins, depending on the airline. -----Original Message----- From: pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane Trethowan Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 4:04 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: So I bought a Digital radio.. howdy! Couple of things here, Brisbane is about 1000 miles north rather than 1500, you're halfway to Cairns <smile>. Thanks for the tip about the Ccrane web site, will this aerial work on the high frequency bands this radio receives? So for channel selection and here's a brief summary of what I found out through experimenting. You're best to use the jog dial when selecting channels rather than the up and down buttons and it helps to know how the stations are laid out, for example in Melbourne stations are stored in the radio in alfabetical order so I have an idea where everything is. If you want to go down say 5 stations, turn the jog wheel clockwise 5 clicks and press the "select button". If you have sight you'll see the display scroll every click of the jog wheel. You're quite right, I think the Roberts is the only set with a line-out jack which you can buy unless you want to buy a DAB+ audiophile tuner and that will be my next project, either that or one DAB+ receiver which will plug into a computer, I'm yet to see one of those. Thanks for clarify the different digital radio standards, they call it HD Radio in the states and I think its based on the IBOC standard, makes a hell of a mess of the AM broadcast band I believe <smile>. In country Australia they're talking about DRM as a digital radio standard because of the long distances, won't go into all the tech specs here but basically you can listen to the signal on your standard AM radio, if you have a DRM compatible receiver then the extra information carried with the audio will be decoded and you'll get a "FM quality" audio output. Cheers! On 18/03/2010, at 6:48 AM, Robert Nelson wrote: I should point out that Dane's comments are only relevant for list members living in Australia. The DAB system used in the USA is different because of the early adoption of the DAB standard in that country. DAB in the USA also seems to have strong competition from satellite radio which can offer a greater range of content. The Roberts Ecologic 4 is a radio originally designed for DAB radio in Britain but has been modified to meet the DAB+ standard used in Australia. I live in Brisbane, Queensland, which is about 1500 miles north of Melbourne where Dane lives. In Brisbane there are more than 20 digital channels offered by AM or FM broadcasters and an odd collection of special interest groups (mostly non-English speaking). I have a Roberts Ecologic 4 and like it very much, partly because it is a portable and partly because it has a line out that llows it to be connected to a hi fi system for remarkably good results. As far as I can tell, most digital radios being sold in Australia do not have the line out feature. The Ecologic is a little quirky in its controls. You can't tune across the digital channels in the conventional manner. You have to press the up or down key then the enter key to move from one channel to another. As far as I can tell, you can't press the up key 3 times and then press the enter key and hope to move up 3 channels. Acquiring and holding a digital signal can be a problem if you are getting further away from the transmitters. The Ecologic 4 makes a sound remarkably like a bronx cheer when it is having difficulty holding a digital signal. However, digital radio is no different to FM in signal degradation the further you get away from the transmitter. Dane, if it becomes too aggravating, look at the C Crane company web pages because they have an excellent FM antenna for marginal areas that may improve your reception of the digital transmissions. The only other complaint I have about the Ecologic 4 is that it supposedly has 10 presets. Five are accessed using a shift key but I have yet to be able to store a station in the shifted presets. For some reason the device will just not store them. I wonder if it was because I wasn't holding my mouth right <GRIN>. Bob Nelson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dane Trethowan" <grtd...@internode.on.net> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:32 PM Subject: Re: So I bought a Digital radio.. All the commercial stations plus there extra channels, Buckle Country, Radar, Koffee, ABC Grandstand, all the SBS channels which include delayed feeds as well as a service broadcasting the BBC World Service 24/7 at the moment etc. On 17/03/2010, at 8:13 PM, hank smith wrote: hello what would we get on one of these sets if i was going to buy one of these units? Hank ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dane Trethowan" <grtd...@internode.on.net> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 8:39 PM Subject: So I bought a Digital radio.. Hi everyone! I bought myself a Digital radio today and thought I'd tell you of my experiences with the set thus far. I chose the Roberts Ecologic 4 DAB/DAB+ portable digital radio as I know people who are using it and I wouldn't be surprised if some of those people are on this list so hello to you and I hope you're enjoying the rich listening experience which Digital Radio in the capital cities of Mainland Australia offers. Now I have to warn you of a couple of things here, when you initially turn the set on it will do a scan of the DAB+ bands in Australia and DAB bands if you're in the U.K., so far so good. The next challenge you have is finding what you want and I've found ways to scroll through or "seek" stations, once you've found what you want you can put that station into the preset memory by holding down the button you want the station to be associated with, say button 1 or if you want to use the presets above 5 hold down the shift key and then old down preset 1 for preset 6, you can just press the preset then of the desired station you want so others may find it easier to have someone sighted go through the stations and that way you can nominate the one's you want in the preset channels. I live about 24 miles away from the centre of Melbourne so signal is probably fairly week and I'll talk more about that in a few moments. I've noticed that in Melbourne stations are sorted in alphabetical order which may make things easier when you're setting the presets, for example suppose you know you're listening to ABC Local Radio 774, turn the selector knob once clockwise and press the select button, you'll then be on 3mp+, turn it 2 clicks and you're on 3MP etc so perhaps a few notes taken will be handy here. Digital radios are a bit of a pest in that you have to be careful of placement and the Roberts Ecologic 4 in my experience thus far is no exception, I'd like to have it in the back room but the radio and my computers just don't get on so the radio is on the top of my fridge in my kitchen and even then! I had to adjust the aerial to exactly the right angle, you know if you don't get a signal on the Ecologic 4 as the sound drops out totally so I wouldn't recommend you walk around the house with one of these things even though the set is a good tough portable. the radio runs on both AC mains and battery power, its claimed in the manual that the Roberts Ecologic 4 radio will last up to 150 hours on a set of alkaline batteries. Sound quality exceeded my expectations for such a small set, the radio has both headphones and line output. Last but not least, the radio has a FM band for those times when you can't receive a digital signal and why this radio doesn't have a standard AM broadcast band I'll never know, do the manufacturers of digital radio sets think we just live with a FM band even though top rating radio stations in Melbourne and Sydney for instance are on the AM band? 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