Dab Car Radio – What is it
Dab stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting. DAB radio uses MPEG technology which converts analogue signals to digital signals. Dab radio will give a much clearer signal that its analogue counterpart with no hiss and interference. This will be particularly noticeable in a car radio ,more so than a dab home radio because as the car is moving it passes additional sources of radio interference and tall buildings. In a moving car you will also get the nuisance of programs fading in and out.
How does DAB Car Radio work
Analogue radio is distorted by multipath disturbance which is caused by the radio signal echoing off tall buildings hills and several signals arriving at your radio at a slightly different time or there may be electromagnetic interference . Digital Signals take samples of the audio signal and convert them into small packets of information. Many copies of these packets can be sent in a small space of time so if a few of the received copies are faulty the signal can still be reconstructed from the good information received. Dab radios have processors which will examine the successfully received copies of each packet, piecing together any missing bits of the signal, and create a single good packet from even the worst signal. The packets are then added together to rebuild the original signal which will be as interference free and as good quality as when it was sent from the radio station. This is particularly useful for a DAB car radio because unlike home radio you aren’t able to decide where to position the arial for the best reception
The processing required by a DAB radio does take some time and if you stand a DAB radio next to an ordinary analogue radio you will hear that there is a small time lag. Don’t rely on the time signal from your dab car radio if you are launching the next space mission! you should be near enough for most other things though.
Much More information can be transmitted with a digital signal and the radio companies can use this to supply additional data along with the audio signal. A Digital car radio will normally have a text screen that can display the programme information, the name of the song, the singer or even sports results.
Other DAB Car Radio Benefits
With DAB radios there are lots of radio stations for free. There are up to 40 available in some areas and the radio will auto tune and simply let you cycle through all of the available channels. In a car radio this is a particularly useful feature as you do not have to continually retune to find another station when you move out of the area of a previous one. This has got to be much safer than trying to continually adjust for new frequencies.
with dab radio you can pause the programme and continue playing later. If you’ve ever used the television equivalent (sky+ etc…) you already know the benefits of this feature.
Being digital most dab car radios will allow you to attach your own iPod or MP3 player and play your own music and favourite tracks and many are also Blue Tooth connectable.
In the UK the BBC were the first to broadcast DAB radio in 1995. the first commercial stations did not broadcast until 4 years later.
Digital switchover in Britain is scheduled for 2015 and at his point FM radio will be switched off. It has been suggested that FM may continue to be broadcast for local radio stations but this remains to be seen. There are claims that Dab digital broadcasting uses less than 7% of the electricity required to send analogue signals and I would imagine that these cost savings will ultimately play a part in the decision to switch.
motoring organisations and experts are suggesting that if you are purchasing a new car you haveit fitted with a dab car radio rather than an analogue one as this will make it easier to resell in the future, plus you wont find yourself without a radio when the switchover comes.
DAB Car Radio Adaptors
For existing cars to get the benefit of DAB you will either need to purchase a new DAB Car Radio or one of the adaptors now available such as the PURE Highway.
The PURE Highway is an add on Digital radio that you can easily fit into your car. I allows you to plug in your MP3 player or iPod and sends out an FM signal to which you can tune your existing analogue car radio.
Pure-Highway
Click to see see some of the DAB Car Radio options available from Amazon and Halfords.