Norway to Scrap FM Radio for the Digital Era <header class="article-header">Officials promise "better sound quality and new functionality" </header> Norway will become the first country to scrap FM radio after it announced final plans to switch to digital radio in the next two years. They will make the transition to Digital Audio Broadcasting by 2017, following up on a 2011 government proposal. It will be the first country to do away entirely with FM radio http://time.com/3827986/norway-fm-radio/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true
...And we are not terribly happy about changing to a digital broadcasting technology that is close to outdated at the time of introduction, but what can you do when the politicians have finally made their decisions? We have had DAB broadcasting in many cities for many years already, but over the last years DAB has been introduced in most of the more populated places, with almost full coverage planned before FM broadcasting is turned off. The DAB sound quality is not bad, but still leaves a bit to be desired. For functionality, DAB is well behind, compared to newer systems. So we might be early here in LA-land, but I fear we will be passed by most other countries when they make up their minds for which digital broadcasting system to choose. And in case you wondered, the FM broadcasting band at 87,5 - 108 MHz will not be made available for ham radio. :-(
And how long will your DAB radio batteries last if you have a national emergency ? 3 hours ? Good luck ! Brian
And what about coverage overall? Metro areas is one thing ... how about in extremely rural Wyoming or Montana or Texas? FM doesn't do well in those areas at times ... along the same situation with cellular signals unless there are towers being placed, but the carriers don't like spending a ton of $$ for a tower/antennas where the high population is cattle. ... Just curious?? !!
in America the conversion to digital radio is about killing competition and giving more frequencies the big corporations and pricing community operators out of picture and also its outdated chances are some big company Wants the spectrum for commercial purposes. then they're selling all those radios and licenses for production
I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that with the exception of one longwave station, all radio broadcasting in Norway had moved to VHF FM.
Norway is mostly mountains. It looks like most of the country is covered by the national channels. http://radio.no/dekning The dropdown menu on the right labeld VELG KANAL (CHOOSE CHANNEL) selects the various networks and channels.
You are not mistaken, Mike. Norwegian LW and MW broadcasting was closed years ago, so we are living with FM only (and DAB for the last years). As was mentioned by ND5Y, Norway is mostly mountains, but we live along the coast, in the fjords and in the valleys, and we have excellent FM coverage, with DAB improving fast. In order to get a broadcasting license, a broadcaster has to cover a very high percentage of the population and the main roads, so the distribution of broadcasting towers is good even in the very sparsely populated areas. The same goes for digital TV (analog TV was switched off years ago) and cellular coverage. You will have a hard job finding (even very sparsely) populated areas without digital coverage for radio, TV and cell phone. I think it is fair to say that communication here is "topographically challenged" by our mountains, valley and fjords, be it land, TV or radio (broadcasting, ham and cell) communication. An image of Montana placed in the fjords of southern Alaska (which is also about the correct latidude) might help. However, since he early days of broadcasting it has been a national priority to get broadcasting as good as possible for everybody, in recent decades followed by computer networks. When it comes to technological infrastructure I believe we are playing well above our league. HF ham radio works excellent here, but in VHF/UHF we depend on a network of repeaters to get our signals over the mountain, or to the next valley or fjord. While most populated areas are covered, we lack ham repeater coverage in many remote places where people have their cabins and go hiking, skiing, hunting, etc. But then there must be some challenges left. That was a report from the communciation life around the North Pole or so.
They will last just as long as they do with an analog radio of the same power requirements. Good luck waiting for your dreamed about national emergency! So many hopes, wishes and expectations are bound up in fulfilling life ambitions with disasters!
Funny rural Wyoming was mentioned, that is where I live and the FM coverage is pretty reasonable most of the time. My car only has an FM radio and I get close to a dozen stations (~70 mile radius) unless I am in one of the deeper mountain passes. DTV is another matter entirely with coverage being almost non-existent and forget about cable. Almost everyone uses one of the satellite TV providers. Cell service is pathetic (and I can see the AT&T tower from my living room!) unless you subscribe to the local provider which is three times the cost of one of the national companies.
Where'sd you steel this quote from Bill? Don't know where your stole this quote from Bill but...I'll betcha' you've been JUST ACHING to put it out there!
Well, as a ham, I can easily make an FM receiver with nothing more than foil from a stick of gum, a rusty razor blade, a headset from a telephone and a small bit of copper wire. Problem is with all this digital stuff is that just one EMP air burst weapon and you have a nation full of millions of little colorful plastic boxes which do absolutely nothing. K5BIZ - Biz www.bandconditions.com
If its anything like the "over the air" Digital TV here in the U.S. it will SUCK! Back in analog days the picture would get fuzzy but you could still see and hear it. Now, my new DTV whacks out if the wind blows too hard or it rains somewhere between me and the transmitting tower. Who ever thought up this idea needs his behind booted. And for those that say Ham Radio is not needed for emergency communications any longer I think they will some day find out. I remember the morning of 9/11 clearly. There was NO phone communications of any kind - cell or land line - for a few hours. At least not where I live in the Deep South. And the whole city of New York wasn't even destroyed. There just has not been a bad enough catastrophe yet.
I am positive to the change. DAB+ har far less noise, and many more available channels than FM. The downside is DAB is not widely supported by manufacturers, so there is a lack of good radios and supported mobilephones. The future is probably internet and 4G/LTE anyway, so this is just an transition period I presume. The new DAB chips does not consume more battery than FM, so dont come to the discussion with obsolete arguments. When DAB signals gets really weak, they start to sound like popping bubbles. We have digital TV too, and thats amazing. I am 50km from the transmitter, and get PERFECT HD pictures with just a tiny string into the tuner. Anyway, change always gets the crowd crying. I wonder if anyone really wants to reverse the evolution, or if its just the human need to moan... ^^
