View Full Version : Save our FM _ Write to your MP
We will all have a different take on this subject, but do write a pithy letter to your MP.
Use this site
http://www.writetothem.com/
A few years ago a small number of cyclists prevented changes to the Highway Code that would have disadvantaged them, The motoring organisations had been consulted, but none of the cycling groups. We made ourselves heard.
My text is below. You cant make every point in a short letter, so aim carefully.
If you like post your template here.
Dear Andrew Murrison,
There is a lot of chatter and a lot of discontent about proposals to switch off analogue radio transmissions - certainly FM and possible MW and LW`radio.
The arguments are well rehearsed, but briefly:
1. Unlike the move to digital TV there are no advantages for the general public and many disadvantages. Set top boxes allow old TVs to continue is use for a time but radios will just be junked. Each household has many perfectly serviceable radios that will become redundant. The economic and environmental consequences will be great and for no advantage.
2. The DAB system proposed to replace FM transmissions results in less reliable reception for car radios and portables, and in poorer sound quality in a home HiFi.
3. DAB is based on 1980s technology. The UK has the poorest implementation of it in Europe. The proposed upgrade to DAB+ raises other economic and technical issues.
In my view the whole DAB project should be dropped, FM transmissions maintained for portable and car use, and effort concentrated on devising a digital system based on 21st rather than 20 century technology to deliver studio quality sound into the home by satellite, cable and internet.
The Broadcasting authorities should consult the public before imposing a project that might save their face but not serve the nation well.
Yours sincerely,
And you can post any replies. I had one immediately:
Thank you. This sounds complicated! I'll look into it and reply as soon
as I can.
Best,
Andrew
We will all have a different take on this subject, but do write a pithy letter to your MP.
A few years ago a small number of cyclists prevented changes to the Highway Code that would have disadvantaged them, The motoring organisations had been consulted, but none of the cycling groups. We made ourselves heard.
My text is below. You cant make every point in a short letter, so aim carefully.
If you like post your template here.
Dear Andrew Murrison,
There is a lot of chatter and a lot of discontent about proposals to switch off analogue radio transmissions - certainly FM and possible MW and LW`radio.
The arguments are well rehearsed, but briefly:
1. Unlike the move to digital TV there are no advantages for the general public and many disadvantages. Set top boxes allow old TVs to continue is use for a time but radios will just be junked. Each household has many perfectly serviceable radios that will become redundant. The economic and environmental consequences will be great and for no advantage.
2. The DAB system proposed to replace FM transmissions results in less reliable reception for car radios and portables, and in poorer sound quality in a home HiFi.
3. DAB is based on 1980s technology. The UK has the poorest implementation of it in Europe. The proposed upgrade to DAB+ raises other economic and technical issues.
In my view the whole DAB project should be dropped, FM transmissions maintained for portable and car use, and effort concentrated on devising a digital system based on 21st rather than 20 century technology to deliver studio quality sound into the home by satellite, cable and internet.
The Broadcasting authorities should be to consult the public before imposing a project that might save their face but not serve the nation well.
Yours sincerely,
Hi Brian
That's a well-worded letter. I shall do the same.
Regards
You can join the the "Save FM campaign" at http://www.savefm.org/
Spectral Morn
29-06-2009, 16:26
You can join the the "Save FM campaign" at http://www.savefm.org/
Done... Now guys if you haven't joined...join now.
Regards D S D L
Magna Audio
03-07-2009, 11:58
Good stuff. Been meaning to do something about this issue and this has catalysed me to do so.
The comparison of digital radio out of a Humax PVR received played into my TVC / tube amp / Tannoys and FM from a very cheap surround sound system outputting in to same system is startling! Digi is very compressed / poor indeed.
Put a cheapish Denon Tuner from the 90's in instead and it's a joke how bad digi is in comparison.
Magna Audio
03-07-2009, 12:37
got this back already
"Thank you very much for your message.
Mr Gove is more than happy to raise these points on your behalf with the
Minister. Would that be helpful?"
You can also sign this
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AM-FM-Radio/
Stratmangler
03-07-2009, 13:26
The comparison of digital radio out of a Humax PVR received played into my TVC / tube amp / Tannoys and FM from a very cheap surround sound system outputting in to same system is startling! Digi is very compressed / poor indeed.
Following the replay chain you have listed is not exactly giving digital radio a fair crack of the whip, is it ?
I've yet to hear any PVR put out a decent noise through its' analogue line outs.
Putting the Humax through a decent DAC, such as one of Stan's would improve things no end.
Also the Humax is probably a Freeview box, and as such does not receive particularly high bitrates because Freeview do not send them. Sky is better in this respect (bitrates).
Is the Denon Tuner one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DENON-TU-260L-FM%2fAM-Hi-Fi-STEREO-TUNER_W0QQitemZ140329611457QQcmdZViewItem ?
They were a very well respected bit of budget gear.
Not as good as some of the more exalted tuners seen elsewhere on this forum, but a decent piece of kit nonetheless.
I have signed the petition myself, although my radio listening at home is by digital methods. My car stereo uses an analogue tuner. I have a foot in both camps.
Chris:)
Magna Audio
05-07-2009, 23:12
Yes you are right. I just tried the Humax through my DPA Enlightenment DAC (a big enough step up from the mighty Beresford IMO).
Still sounds carp compared. Could be the Freeview compression.
Yes the Denon 260.
Has anyone compared a good dedicated digi tuner to a good FM tuner then?
The Grand Wazoo
05-07-2009, 23:23
Has anyone compared a good dedicated digi tuner to a good FM tuner then?
Honestly, I'm not being confrontational & this is a genuine question - what are the good digi tuners - has 'good' been done yet?
Honestly, I'm not being confrontational & this is a genuine question - what are the good digi tuners - has 'good' been done yet?
AVI made one, but it didn't sell. Don't ARCAM make one?
But there is not a lot of point. DAB bitrates are too low and they use MP2 coding.
Freeview (DVB-T), both Freesat and Sky (DVB-S), and Cable all carry streams at higher bitrates (192Kb/s) albeit still in MP2 coding. If you can get a clean digital out (S/PDIF) from their various tuners you will better any DAB tuner. DAB+ may be a little better, when (if) we see it.
Streams off the internet (either on demand or Multicast) offer best quality. For those you need a computer set up to deliver a clean digital output, or you need streaming hardware like the Squeezebox.
Bitrates at 128 MP3 will match the 192 MP2 streams available on Freeview, Freesat and Cable. You will find internet streams up to 256 and even 320 coded variously MP3, WMA, AAC(+) and OGG.
Once over 128 the quality of the transmission depends on how much Digital Signal Processing (DSP) has been applied as much as on the bitrate and codec.
The best I have heard internet radio is from an east European station streaming OGG at 256Kb/s transmitting a live concert of classical music. (It may have been a time slipped live concert recorded cleanly with minimal processing.)
So is there a decent digital radio tuner out there? Maybe, but in the UK there is nothing worth tuning to. Go for streams off internet.
The Grand Wazoo
06-07-2009, 07:17
Brian,
Yes, I know about the other ways of getting digital radio & I regularly use internet streams but I didn't know if there was a 1/2 decent (given what they've got to work with) DAB tuner. I was going to type 'hifi DAB tuner', but I can't be party to perpetuating the idea that DAB in any form can be hifi . I wouldn't mind being proven wrong, though.
the idea that DAB in any form can be hifi .
Well, we will have to see what DAB+ achieves. I am not optimistic.
The BBC is being particularly annoying at the moment. The AAC+ streams are only available via a computer - they are wrapped up in Flash, so, at the moment, hardware streamers like Squeezebox cannot access them.
Mind you, its does not matter too much to me. I only listen to Radio 4. The Classical Radio streams from abroad give better and more variety than Radio 3.
Magna Audio
06-07-2009, 12:14
I think the above state of play makes all the more reason to complain and try to keep FM.
I've just signed the petition, but there is a paltry 3,000 odd signatures only on it. I think we are going about this the wrong way - most home users don't really care about the quality, in fact many will prefer the convenience and increased choice of channels with DAB at home (2 of my best mates "rave" about DAB, and they haven't got particularly "cloth ears" but through a Pure box in the kitchen do you really notice it's MP2?)
However, in the car, it is a different matter - very few cars have DAB tuners, and more and more systems (mine included) incorporate satnav/dvd options, making replacement extremely expensive, or adding some form of "Heath Robinson" way of receiving DAB - not ideal. I would have thought many more people would be unhappy losing FM in their cars than at home - I'm going to draft an email "advertising" the FM switchoff and "spam" all my contacts, urging them to sign and pass the message on. Other people could do the same, I am sure it could soon spread far and wide...
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