New Year radio updates

We begin our first twenty twenty-four entry looking at updated things and one comes out of the airwaves, literally

Much trumpeted from the last half of twenty twenty-three was the announcement the classical pops station, Classic FM established in nineteen ninety-two would be changing the system it uses on Band III Dab radio from the original Dab system to Dab+ which is used by much of continenental europe.

In simple terms it offers high quality sound by using a more efficient coding system which means it can sound clearer and yet use less space than the old method and that was changed from 128 kilobits in Joint Stereo Dab to 64 kilo bites descrete stereo Dab+ on January second.

It does sound clearer but in the awful weather we've been having in the West Midlands over the last few days it showed another advantage which is the old standard would break up with loud "chirping" sound with the slightest signal drop, Dab+ is more resilant just fading before coming back and able to "run on" for longer when faced with intermittant rain fade.

Other stations owned by the same group had upgrades to their sound quality as capacity on the Block that transmits a group together, which is an issue on Dab nationally, had been freed up.

Most modern radios can handle Dab+ such as my Roberts Portable downstairs with its telescopic antenna so it's a win win all around and it's just a pity the BBC don't move over to it too.

We've gained a few more local stations such as one for the Churnet Valley and Moorlands FM covering the Leek area