From today, SBS and ABC audiences in Hobart will have access to a range of new digital radio (DAB+) services.
The SBS Radio digital offering includes SBS Radio1, SBS Radio2, SBS Radio3, SBS Arabic24 and music stations – SBS Chill, SBS PopDesi and SBS PopAsia, while ABC Radio services include Double J, ABC Jazz, ABC Country, ABC Extra, ABC Grandstand Unearthed and ABC KIDS listen.
SBS (Acting) Director of Audio and Language Content, Pip Spilsbury said: “We are thrilled to be launching permanent digital services in Hobart and extending SBS’s reach to more audiences. With the permanent installation, our audiences will now be able to enjoy the complete range of services provided by SBS Radio.”
Director of ABC Regional & Local, Michael Mason, said: “The introduction of digital radio in Hobart is an important milestone for the ABC as it coincides with the launch of the latest addition to our digital-only channels, ABC KIDS listen. We are sure that the pre-school audience in Hobart will enjoy this new channel as much as children have in other parts of the country since its launch several weeks ago.”
The reception is not as great as these executives infer.
http://reception.abc.net.au/Reception.aspx shows most of the coverage is out to sea. The transmitter channel is surrounded by those for TV. https://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au/ shows a much more detailed coverage map. TV is 2.5 times more powerful and the receiving antenna can be up to 10 m above the ground for reception. The mountainous terrain of Tasmania blocks reception which is why there is many TV translators. DAB+ will need repeaters on each site. An alternative is Digital Radio Mondiale (www.drm.org) which operates at much lower frequencies which are unaffected by the terrain, allowing continuous reception when driving cars anywhere in Tasmania. Each DRM+ transmitter can cover much larger areas than DAB+ and can carry 3 audio programs and there are 178 transmission channels compared to the 8 available for DAB+.
DRM30 is also available which uses the AM and High Frequency (Short Wave).