[cma-l] Ofcom announces trials to help small stations join digitalradio - 100w limit

[Associated Broadcast Consultants]

We challenged the 100w limit in the consultation - suggesting that the "no
greater than 40% of the local commercial Mux area" was an adequate limit.
 100w is roughly 5% of the average existing DAB transmitter power, so
presuming community stations don't deploy their DAB transmitters using
tethered balloons or satellites etc they unlikely ever to get near 40%
unless they deploy multiple numbers of transmitters (thus undermining the
low-cost aim).

The standard consultation deflection response was invoked (ie: address a
different question) - stating that "it is not necessarily the case that
allowing a higher power will in all cases reduce the number of transmitters
needed".  We never said it would in *all* cases, but were suggesting that
by removing the 100w cap you retain some flexibility when it *would* make a
difference in *some* cases!   Unfortunately though, consultations are
single shot - no possibility to clarify the point or challenge the response.

I think we can all imagine the real (unstated) reason why they are limiting
it to 100 watts ;-)

Don't get me wrong - 100w at 200MHz can still provide useful coverage if
planned correctly (other DAB coverage planning services are available!),
but in some cases more may be required.  Otherwise we risk repeating the
same problem that analogue CR has - the paltry standard 25w power is often
inadequate and quite literally blasted off the dial by much stronger
commercial and BBC signals.   And this problem is even worse with DAB (for
technical reasons that I will not go into here).

Glyn
-- 
Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant
Associated Broadcast Consultants <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/>
<http://www.a-bc.co.uk/index.html>
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