<div dir="ltr"><div>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).<br></div><div><br></div><div>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 <u>all</u> cases, but were suggesting that by removing the 100w cap you retain some flexibility when it <i>would</i> make a difference in <u>some</u> cases! Unfortunately though, consultations are single shot - no possibility to clarify the point or challenge the response.</div><div><br></div><div>I think we can all imagine the real (unstated) reason why they are limiting it to 100 watts ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>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).</div><div><br></div><div>Glyn</div><div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant<div><a href="http://www.a-bc.co.uk/" target="_blank">Associated Broadcast Consultants</a></div><div><a href="http://www.a-bc.co.uk/index.html" target="_blank"></a> </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div>