DAB radio sudden poor reception on one station only.

wilkinss77

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Absolute radio keeps erratically cutting out on my hi-fi system after years of uninterrupted reception. All the other DAB stations including the Absolute 70s, 80s, 90s, 20s & Classic rock stations are fine, just Absolute's main station. If it's a fault my hi-fi has developed, how come other stations are unaffected? Ditto if it's a reception problem?.
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Does anyone have any ideas?
Please don't blind me with science or technically complex solutions that involve DIY work on the system, as I know little about any of the tech jargon.
 
Absolute Radio (the main station) is broadcast separately from the 80s and 90s stations. Absolute Radio 70s, 10s and Classic Rock are on separate transmitters again. Are you in or near London to be receiving those?

There were some changes to the Absolute stations in London a few weeks ago and I think one of them is using DAB+ now instead of the original DAB format. Maybe the hi-fi was tuned into Absolute Radio - London rather than the national version?

Have you tried doing a re-scan / autoscan to see if that helps?

Absolute Radio is on the Digital One multiplex. Do other stations on the same multiplex like KISSTORY and talkSPORT sound OK?
 
Absolute Radio (the main station) is broadcast separately from the 80s and 90s stations. Absolute Radio 70s, 10s and Classic Rock are on separate transmitters again. Are you in or near London to be receiving those?

There were some changes to the Absolute stations in London a few weeks ago and I think one of them is using DAB+ now instead of the original DAB format. Maybe the hi-fi was tuned into Absolute Radio - London rather than the national version?

Have you tried doing a re-scan / autoscan to see if that helps?

Absolute Radio is on the Digital One multiplex. Do other stations on the same multiplex like KISSTORY and talkSPORT sound OK?
I'm in Benfleet, Essex- that's near Southend. Tried rescanning & it still randomly cuts out. Not tried KISSTORY or TalkSPORT as they aren't my thing, but will try them now you've mentioned them just as a reception test.
 
I would think near Southend that you could be receiving the London version of Absolute Radio on DAB. Does the hi-fi display have an option to toggle through the information about the station (e.g. signal strength, text, time, frequency?).

If it says 'London 1' or '12C' that is the version that seems to have changed recently.

If KISSTORY sounds OK the national version of Absolute should too. The national version will be 'Digital 1' or '11D'.
 
Some time ago I bought a DAB+ receiver from Lidl for the kitchen. Normally listen to Smooth Chill, no issues. This evening I find it dropping out every 30 secs or so. One option on the menu is a display of the number of signal errors and comparing it with BBC R2 both normally have about 12-15 errors. However the Smooth Chill channel shoots up to 70-80 errors every so often, coinciding with the dropout. Assuming both channels come from the same location I don't think this is down to propagation as the BBC is not affected, unless they are running higher power levels? And yes, I have rescanned with the same result.
 
I live in Chatham, Kent and I listen to Absolute radio in my car. Its a 2011 Jaguar XF. A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd listen to another "logged" station on the screen. Since then Absolute is absent! No station at all. I've tried a res-can but its just disappeared altogether.
I'm used to it going blank when I travel up through Essex but I can't get it at all now.
If I google "DB radio in my car" it tells me that the good thing about it is that I don't need to re-tune going through areas as the broadcast is national on DAB. What a load of tosh!
Someone said something about DAB+. I suppose that now we've all gone to DAB they've changed it, and we now need to sell our cars to get the upgrade?
 
As has been mentioned above, Absolute Radio is supposed to be on the national Digital One DAB multiplex, frequency block 11D, which you should be picking up from your closest transmitter:
RadioDNS.uk - Digital One Multiplex
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For Chatham, it looks like the map suggests that would be the Blueberry Hill (TV) transmitter.


Are any of the other radio stations on the same multiplex (eg talkSPORT. LBC UK, Magic Radio, etc) appearing on your car radio?

Does your car radio have the ability to manually tune in DAB by multiplex frequency block, 11D in this case?
 
You've got me there Cebolla. This Jaguar XF has a lot of gizmo on it but I've no idea if they had what you are stating in 2011.
I've been looking about on the forums and apparently there was a later audio module for this car plus a patch lead to plug it in place of the older module. I can find the module ok but the patch lead is no longer available. As soon as I find the lead I'll purchase the later module and fit it.
It is strange though that I've been listening to Absolute since I bought the car four years ago and as soon as I stray away to another station it disappears. It did always disappear in the middle of Essex but always came back when I got back to Kent.
 

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