Had a listen to a number of stations today and all except the FRN stations sounded excellent. It seems that the Melbourne stations are now broadcasting at full power as they come in loud and clear with little use of the antenna. Previously the antenna had to be fully extended.
Listened to AW for about 20 minutes and thought that they had gotten over their problems, but NO... the problem is still there and was even worse today. Not being a tech or engineer I don't know what the technical term is but the speech just keeps repeating and today it became hard to even understand what was being said. I switched over to Magic the other FRN station and they were having the same problem. Whatever the problem is it is emanating from the FRN studios and not a fault of the DAB+ broadcasting. I checked the multiplex that the other stations are in with AW and Magic and they all sounded fine. Hopefully FRN can fix this soon!

I see PURE in conjunction with Pioneer had the official launch of their DAB+ products at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art today. Congratulations to Graeme Redman, Managing Director of Pure Australasia Pty Ltd, who has worked very hard to get these products up and running in Australia. I bought my first DAB+ radio from Graeme.
PURE and Pioneer have high hopes for their Pure Highway, the in car DAB + radio with FM tuner which will be marketed via Pioneers existing automotive distribution network of over 400 retailers. Hope it all goes well for them. I have enough digital radios so I will wait and see how this goes! Should be a big advantage though for PURE being able to use the Pioneer selling network.

Further Pac Star News.

News on Pac Star post, it was unfortunately only a test broadcast but the good news is that Pacific Star is planning extra digital content.

Pac Star.

This morning Pacific Star owners of AM stations SEN and MP are broadcasting a new station with just music under the name Pac Star. It is an eclectic mix of music with no ads and no announcers. It is being broadcast in stereo. Don't know if it is permanent or just something they are trialling. I say good on them, would be nice to see the "minnows" of Melbourne radio come up with something new. It is a mix of probably, MIX, pop and some of Koffee's chill and certainly not anything like MP. Check it out! This is why I like digital radio!

Have listened for some time to Pac Star and it sounds like a test as they have begun to repeat the songs. They have about an hour and a half of songs on a loop. Pity the mix was good;-(

Latest on DAB+ launch.

The latest on the launch of DAB+ from todays Australian.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/busin...05-7582,00.htm

Review of my PURE Evoke-2s

I stated in a previous post I would review my PURE Evoke-2s once digital broadcasting began, well here is my review!

This is one hell of a powerful radio. It uses PURE’s Clearsound technology and has 30 watts of power from its speakers. The sound on music stations on DAB+ is awesome and it is excellent on spoken word stations also. It is so good to hear AM music stations which used to sound "tired" revitalised by this radio and the DAB+ broadcasting system. The 2S can also be used to connect an iPod or MP3 player or portable CD to play through its powerful speakers.

If you wish the Evoke =2S is ChargePAK® Ready – an optional fit-and-forget ChargePAK provides around 20 hours of portable listening. I intend to get one of these in the near future.
It has a feature called ReVu where you can pause and rewind live DAB+ radio for up to 15 minutes. You can also browse stored scrolling text and pause and control scrolling text.
You can save up to 100 station presets (50 DAB+ & 50 FM). New features can be added as they become available via USB.

I have owned many radios throughout my lifetime and this would have to one of the best (if not THE best).

If I had to do crass things and give my PURE Evoke radio marks out of 10, it would rate 9.5. The .5 loss is only because I would have liked just a wee bit more info on station bitrates etc. But not to quibble, this is one hell of a radio and I am proud to own it and no words I can write can do it justice!

If you wish to read more on this radio or on any of the other radios in the PURE range checkout the link below.

https://www.pure.com/au/

New Roberts DAB+ radio.

Got another radio today which shows bitrate etc. It's a Roberts 'Ecologic 4' DAB+ Digital Radio. Will do a review of it once I have listened to it for a few days.

Good to see Magic has pumped up the bitrate, sounding almost as good as MP! Listening to the cheaper model I bought and comparing it to my original has made me appreciate the original even more. The new one is good but doesn't compare with the original. So as I said in a previous post be careful what you buy!See there 20 stations listed at present but still only the 4 new ones

Report 13th May.

3AW and Magic are now sounding fine.
As I work from home and don't have a "go to work time", I have been listening overnight and there doesn't seem to any reduction in power. My signal quality hovers between 95-100% most of the time, day and night.
ARN began with The Edge but changed to a relay of Gold by Monday night. FRN are dupicating AW and Magic and SEN, MP and Sport927 are single stations, so we have 15 stations as expected.
Did a bit of a scout around my area (Werribee/Hoppers Crossing)yesterday and Monday and there are still very few DAB+ radios available. There are a few of Sangean's cheapest model at Good Guys and Retravision and a Roberts and Revo at Harvey Norman. Dick Smith seem to be ignoring them! In another shop (not one of those mentioned previously) a guy tried to tell that an AM/FM radio with a digital display was a digital radio! When I mentioned DAB+ to him his reply was "what's that".
Will report anything else of interest.

Melbourne - The first day!

Well, Melbourne DAB+ is up and running and sounding great! That is all except Fairfax Network stations!!!! 3AW and Magic sound dreadful. Sounds like they are on repeat and the bitrate of Magic and the sound level is way below all other stations. Fairfax has also got FN1 and FN2 but are only relaying AW and Magic over them. ARN is relaying The Edge and calling it The Edge Digital. So there are 18 stations instead of the expected 15. Not a lot of different scrolling info yet, similar to FM RDS at present but I notice Sport927 is giving racing odds. I do like that it makes 3MP sound a bit more "modern" with the better sound etc. Pity FRN can't do the same with Magic. My station of choice Vega sounds great but on my new DAB radio it sounds great on FM too. I'm pleased I spent a wee bit more than I meant to and got a GOOD radio. Could't handle one of those mono speaker "things"! Maybe as a cheapie clock radio but not as my main one. I intend to get a Sangean component in the not too distant future when I'm sure all is well with dab and when I can afford it!Anyone else listening in Melbourne?

Melbourne switches on 11 May!

Melbourne first on the east coast to switch on digital radio (8-May-09)Commercial radio stations in Melbourne MIX, GOLD, SEN, 3AW, 3MP, FOX, MAGIC, TRIPLE M, NOVA, VEGA, Sport 927, Radar, Pink Radio, Koffee and NovaNation create radio history on Monday, 11 May 2009 when they begin broadcasting the first permanent DAB+ digital radio services on the east coast of Australia. http://www.digitalradioplus.com.au/index.cfm?page_id=1013&display_news_id_1104=1026 From today's digital radio news.

Anyone in Melbourne have a DAB+ radio and ready to listen on Monday? I am looking forward to Monday morning!

Perth to be first Australian City with full DAB+ digital radio service!

Congratulations Perth, You're first!

Commercial radio stations in Perth - Mix 94.5, 92.9, Nova 93.7, 6PR, 96 fm, 6ix, Radar, Pink Radio and Novanation create radio history on Monday, 4 May 2009 when they begin broadcasting the first permanent DAB+ digital radio services in Australia.

Commercial digital radio services are expected to be switched on in each city from the dates below barring any weather delays. For the first 10 -14 days services might be on low power at night as any potential interference is addressed.
Perth - 4 May Melbourne - 11 May Adelaide - 20 MayBrisbane - 25 May Sydney - 30 May

This news is from todays Digital Radio Plus News.