I remember sitting by the fire with that
familiar whistling sound as we awaited children's hour on the wireless, in
fact it was several years before we discovered that the sound was not our set
but father who has some unusual bowel complaint, but internal issues aside
how many of us associate radio with the snap crackle and pop?
Well deep in the heart of techiedom a group of fearless
geeks have been working on DAB digital radio, much like the conversion of
analogue satellite and terrestrial TV to digital it has all been driven by
space or rather the lack of it! The UK government would very much like some
of the regulated airwaves back, no doubt to auction to mobile phone
companies for their next white elephant project, so a way was to be found to
squeeze more radio into less space.
And that's where CODFM enters stage right, this stands
for coded orthogonal frequency division multiplex, it is in fact a
mathematical system to split the radio signal across 1,536 frequencies
offset by time, this enables compression and indeed packets of data to be
lost without the loss of service. This also allows for reflected signals off
buildings or other large immovable objects to be used to rebuild lost data
from the direct signal.
CODFM also enables the same frequency block to be used
all across the UK so no need to tune in anymore or retune when you travel
into a new county or area, this block of frequencies is known as a
multiplex each one can carry up to 8 stations in the space previously
occupied by one. So far the UK government has allocated 7 national
multiplexes with a mixture of music, sport and the spoken word, each one can
contain mono or stereo signals and bring benefits of a data channel that can
be used to supply track data to the receiver.
And the reclaimed frequency space can then be re used
for other much needed applications like 3G mobiles......ah well nothing in
life is perfect is it!
So what can you listen to if you make the leap and
invest in digital radio? The BBC national multiplex 12b contains the
following services
Radio 1
1Xtra
Radio 2
Radio 3
Radio 4
Radio 5 Live
5 Live Sports Extra
6 Music
BBC 7
Asian Network
World Service
The commercial national multiplex "Digital One" on
multiplex 11D
Classic FM
Core
Digizone (d)
Life
Oneword (m/pt)
Planet Rock
PrimeTime Radio
talkSPORT (m)
Virgin Radio
Plus some regional multiplexes as
and when the transmission sites are upgraded and licenses are awarded
More Explained Reviews
[ Firewalls Explained ] [ HDTV Explained ] [ DAB Digital Radio ] [ How to Bluejack ] [ RFID Explained ] [ Gadgets 2004 ] [ GPS Explained ] [ Bluetooth Explained ] [ WiFi Explained ] [ Gadgets 2005 ] [ Gadgets 2007 ] [ Webstreaming Explained ] [ Broadband Explained ] [ TMC Explained ] [ Next Fest 2005 ] [ Gadgets 2006 ] [ Podcasting Explained ] [ WiMAX Explained ] [ GPRS Technology Explained ] [ Search Engines ] [ Speed Cameras Explained ] [ CeBit 2004 ]
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