RTE to cease their DAB service at the end of March 2021

The Irish state broadcaster RTÉ have announced that their DAB digital radio service will cease at the end of March 2021. The DAB service was only transmitted from five sites near major cities and only covered 54% of the Irish population.

Sites: Three Rock (Dublin - 14kW), Clermont Carn (5kW), Kippure (15 kW), Spur Hill (Cork - 10kW), Woodcock Hill (Limerick - 10kW).

A recent JNLR report, Radio in a Digital World, compiled by Ipsos/ MRBI, found just 0.5% of adults listened to DAB. 77% of adults in Ireland listen to radio on FM.

Analysis... I'm sure there will be some people outside of Ireland who will look at this story in terms of a digital DAB V analogue FM narrative and conclude incorrectly that the attempt to replace FM with DAB failed in Ireland.

The reality was that DAB as a service was never really rolled out in Ireland and nearly half the population couldn't receive it. The radio stations on the DAB platform were the usual RTÉ suite of stations on FM as well as a few more like RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ Pulse, and RTÉjr Radio. There were no commercial radio stations so the choice was extremely limited.

DAB really offered very little incentive to buy a digital radio as nearly everything of interest could be heard nationwide on the FM service which has saturation coverage. As a service, it might have been interesting back in say the 90's but in todays world of podcasts, audio books, streaming services, smartphones, etc, a DAB radio looks like an antique.

I remember showing a DAB radio to someone back around 2005. The first question I got was 'Can I get BBC radio on it?'. Answer no, just the usual RTÉ stations plus a few more. No wonder it failed.

Maybe there will be a new digital standard like DAB+ introduced in Ireland in the future but it looks like the analogue FM service from 88 to 108 MHz is going to be around for a long time.

Timeline of DAB in Ireland
On-Air (tests): January 2006 to June 2006
On-Air (tests): December 2006 to November 2008
On-Air (public service): December 2008

On-Air (tests): to March 2001

Closure: April 2021

EU Directive Requires All Cars To Have Digital Radio By 2021

In terms of radio broadcasting on the VHF Bands, FM still reigns supreme as it is firmly established and many people find little reason to upgrade to digital DAB / DAB+ services.

All that may be about to change though as a new EU directive says that all new cars must have radios capable of receiving digital radio broadcasts by 2021.

As of December 2019, each EU member country has two years to introduce national legislation in accordance with the EU directive. It is therefore expected that all EU member countries will put in place their respective national laws requiring all new car radios to be capable of receiving and reproducing digital terrestrial radio broadcasting by the end of 2020.

In Europe, the most common form of digital terrestrial radio is DAB/DAB+ and the new directive will mean that these new radios are more widespread.

In Norway, the first country to have switched off national FM services, 98 percent of new cars are equipped with DAB+ radios. In Switzerland, this figure stands at 85 percent, with a digital switch over scheduled to be completed no later than 2024.

Despite the new directive, it's likely that FM broadcasting will remain the mode of choice for many listeners and it's unlikely to be turned off any time soon.

Multiple DAB signals heard under lift conditions

About 10 years ago in 2008 when the first trials of DAB radio (Digital Audio Broadcasting) began in Ireland, I purchased a PURE EVOKE-2XT to listen to the transmissions. This radio had the added feature that it has an aerial socket on the back which allowed me to connect a 7 element log-periodic, an old TV aerial that covers 175 to 230 MHz.

At the time, this allowed me not only to hear the local Irish DAB signal but also signals from North West Wales under very good lift conditions. From what I remember, DAB hadn't rolled out to the South of Wales or Cornwall yet in 2008.

Considering that most of the local Irish DAB signals can be heard already on Band 2 FM band, I didn't really bother with DAB for years.

I tried it out again over the last few days and the DAB signals from the UK have been really strong. Most of the signals I have heard were around 230-350 kms distant in West Wales, South Wales, Devon and Cornwall.

In total, I managed to pick up 11 different DAB muxes...

MUX Mux ID
10B 211.64 MHz Somerset
10C 214.36 MHz Devon
10D 215.07 MHz ????
11A 216.92 MHz SDL National
11B 218.64 MHz Cornwall
11D 222.06 MHz D1 National
12A 223.93 MHz Swansea SW Wales
12B 225.64 MHz BBC National DAB
12C 227.36 MHz DAB Ireland Mux1
12D 229.97 MHz Mid & West Wales
12D 229.97 MHz Plymouth

I counted at least 60 radio stations that I could listen to when conditions allowed. In contrast to FM signals from the UK which have to compete with strong local signals, the DAB signals are completely clear and the quality is excellent when the signals are strong.

With the signals up around 220 MHz, it also seems to be a good way to keep an eye on how good tropo conditions are.

The list of radio stations received via DAB is shown below...