Have you heard the one about the DAB radio?

29/06/2009

Have you heard of the latest proposals issuing forth from technically inept men in grey suits who inhabit the corridors of Westminster? It is to do with them trying to convince us all that we would be better off with Digital Audio Broadcasting radio equipment in our homes, rather than our existing, perfectly serviceable, much-loved and satisfactory AM/FM radios, audio and hi-fidelity equipment.

 

Mature Times readers may wish to write to their MPs, as I have already done, to ask who is to pay for these expensive, power-hungry DAB radios and audio systems. British tax payers, especially poorly- off pensioners, are hard pressed enough without the added unnecesary burden of purchasing new DAB receivers etc. There is also likelhood that expensive antennae equipment will be required to obtain satisfactory reception of DAB broadcasts!

 

Can you imagine what the millions of radios and audio systems being consigned to landfill will do for the 'carbon footprint'?  How 'green- friendly' is that? I have at least a dozen radios of the AM/FM variety, and a couple of cherished audio/hi-fi systems in my home, sheds and woodworkshop. I would be completely lost without my beloved Long Wave radios to listen to the quintessentially English broadcast of 'Test Match Special' during summer months.

 

So come along you MT readers, get scribing to your men and women in grey suits/skirts, and show 'em what you are made of!

 

 

W. J. Bourne

Milton Keynes

 

 

DAB Radio? Not here!

 

I read W.Bourne's internet letter "Have you heard the one about DAB radio?" in which he writes that DAB radios use more battery &  electricity power, will be an added expense for pensioners to buy & of the waste created by throwing all our old radios away. He asks people to write to their MP on this.

I listen to a Christian radio station called Premier, which broadcasts everyday on Medium wave around  London & suburbs.   It s very clear in our area of Middlesex on medium wave.   We've also bought a DAB radio because it can be heard throughout the UK - but strangely it often cannot pick-up Premier Radio.  The radio simply

states "No Ensemble."

We took the radio into electrical shops & they confirmed this to be the case.  Occasionally our DAB reception becomes slightly better but it needs an 'eye-pokingly' dangerous aerial to be fully extended!   DAB radios were promoted as giving crystal clear reception -  but give me good old Medium wave, in this area at least! 

Of course, I'm glad if DAB gives people a chance to hear radio stations they couldn't otherwise hear, but it's wrong for the government to take analogue radio stations off the air.

A Wills.