[nathnz]

Hi,
I have a PURE Tempus - 1S DAB radio I was given as a present in the UK about 6 months ago. I have recently moved to Australia (Sydney), where DAB has only just been released (I believe approx one month ago).
I am hoping I can use my DAB in Sydney, but when I plugged it in yesterday, it didn't pick up any stations in the auto-scan.
Does anyone know if a UK DAB radio should be compatible in Sydney, and if not, why?
Many thanks in advance for your help !
Nathan.

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by nathnz

Hi,
I have a PURE Tempus - 1S DAB radio I was given as a present in the UK about 6 months ago. I have recently moved to Australia (Sydney), where DAB has only just been released (I believe approx one month ago).
I am hoping I can use my DAB in Sydney, but when I plugged it in yesterday, it didn't pick up any stations in the auto-scan.
Does anyone know if a UK DAB radio should be compatible in Sydney, and if not, why?
Many thanks in advance for your help !
Nathan.

Your problem is that Australia has adopted the newer DAB+ system and, as such, you need a DAB+ enabled radio to receive it. I don't know if your set can be updated or not, you would need to contact Pure and ask the question.

More information about DAB in Australia here.

Cheers,

Martin.

[MikeyUK]

Looking at other forums, you will need an unlock code to use the radio in other countries. Maybe a good idea to contact PURE and see what they say.

[LPspinner]

Originally Posted by MikeyUK

Looking at other forums, you will need an unlock code to use the radio in other countries. Maybe a good idea to contact PURE and see what they say.

Hi guys:

It is definitely not a question of “unlocking” the set for a different world region.

In Australia we went strait in with DAB+ so standard DAB receivers won’t work. While a standard DAB receiver will read the signals meta-data and station ID a regular DAB radio can’t decode the DAB+ audio, silence is all you will get.

If you want to receive a DAB+ signal you need a DAB+ receiver.

LPSpinner.

[chriswyatt]

Originally Posted by LPspinner

Hi guys:

It is definitely not a question of “unlocking” the set for a different world region.

In Australia we went strait in with DAB+ so standard DAB receivers won’t work. While a standard DAB receiver will read the signals meta-data and station ID a regular DAB radio can’t decode the DAB+ audio, silence is all you will get.

If you want to receive a DAB+ signal you need a DAB+ receiver.

LPSpinner.

You're a little bit misinformed. Some, but not all Pure sets can be unlocked so that they can receive DAB+. Definitely worth checking with PURE in any case.

[Cable Monkey]

That is just a matter of phraseology so I would not describe it as 'being misinformed'. That smacks of something like region encoding in DVD and DAB/DAB+ certainly does not need that. It should be a simple firmware upgrade if the hardware is DAB capable, the key is to find out if your kit is capable.

[LPspinner]

Hi Guys:
DAB and DAB+ hardware was never intended to be region coded. If a music distributor or broadcaster wants to restrict access of a particular release or artist to any particular region they just don’t broadcast that material in that region. Region coding of radio hardware seems kind of pointless in my books.

I think what is actually being referred to in this instance is a firmware patch or upgrade that installs the DAB+ / AAC codec’s. There was a period of time during the early adoption of DAB+ when the hardware was available but the software standards were still being finalized. As a consequence, manufactures released the newer DAB radio models early with older software and then provided facility to flash or upgrade the internal software when the DAB+ standards became better defined. A quick email to PURE should confirm whether this set is one of these units.

Like I said, in Australia all our broadcasters are required by law to use the DAB+ standard. An older DAB only set will display the station ID’s and metadata but no sound can be produced if the set does not have DAB+ capabilities. I know this for a fact as I have a rather expensive Arcam DT91 (which uses the older Radioscape RS200L DAB/FM module) that is good for FM only if used in a country that has adopted DAB+ for its DAB broadcast standard. I can see that there is a DAB+ signal but I can’t hear it….

Britain and parts of Europe with a fully developed DAB networks are likely to become dumping grounds for the older DAB radios as manufactures seek to offload all there existing stock of DAB only hardware while the rest of the world rolls out the newer DAB+ networks. So my advice to any one in the market for a DAB radio is if you wish to keep your new DAB radio for a long time, make sure it is DAB+ capable before you hand over you cash.

LPSpinner.