Digital radio compatibility between UK and Germany

I'm thinking of buying a digital radio from Media Markt as a present for my bruver in England. Does anyone know if it will work in the UK or do they have different radio frequencies?

Hi Joe,

DAB is set to become european standard, so you should have no problems with the the DAB frequencies.

However... DAB is much more advanced in the UK, so the prices and quantity of models available in the UK should be better than the current offerings in Germany.

Germany & DAB is currently caught in the hen or the egg situation, radio stations are not interested in the switch because there are so few DAB radios available at prices attractive enough to woo in the listening market.
The manufacturers, on the other hand, are not interested in the switch because there are not enough radio stations broadcasting in DAB to woo in the listeners.

If I were you, I would buy the radio in the UK.

Many thanks for the tip Maisflocke.

i am reviving this thread as i have a question regarding digital radios.
i am getting a digital radio in november and i was wondering whether i can receive UK radio stations in munich. (this might be a daft question but i have no clue about this kind of stuff)
thanks
m

DO NOT DO IT...

I bought a DAB radio Sony Walker for £100 and they are shit. (Cheapest at Medimarkt was 150 Euros).

1. You can't receive UK radio stations in Germany - it's a local thang not SW equivalent.
2. But you can retune it as you travel between the UK and German to pick up local stations or save them to your favourites.
3. They consume so much power that a normal A size battery literally lasts about 4 hours (funnily enough I can continue with the normal radio function thereafter!).
4. The noise pollution is terrible (both UK and Germany) so when it fades out it really fades out so you can't listen to music without feeling like topping yourself...whilst analog just has the hissing sound in the background but you still hear the music and talk.
5. In Munich there are only 7 stations - Deutsche Welle which you can get on AM anyhow...there is one good house station but for £100 I'd forget it.

If you want you can buy my Sony Walker DAB for £75 and then I can go buy a analogy radio for £10...really what a waste of money and technology...SHIT SHIT SHIT.

actually I was just thinking about posting the same question! Hopefully this fits with your question ...

Basically I've heard about satellite and world radios, but have no clue about how well they work or where to start. Preferably a portable battery-operated radio for use in the middle of nowhere...

Is there a specialised shop in Munich that sells satellite radios, preferably with enough patience for loads of questions?

thanks. good to know. i am talking about a Sound 102 DAB Lextronix (it's a present from someone but we have been waiting for the delivery) which supposed to have an excellent sound quality.

World Radio works on Short Wage and I've been a fan for years but to be honest you have to be a real devotte to keep up with the frequency changes.

The best are the analogy since you can tune them better the worst are the ditigal Short Wave radios. I had both and preferred the analogy as I got a better signal. They tend to be better at night when the airwaves become clearer (not sure why)...and it is fun listen to Radio Moscow in Spanish but in my imho Internet Radio has surpassed SW...and DAB is not equivalent...

As far as I know not many Countries broadcast on it as before...since the Cold War - there is less need to pump propoganda thru the Short Waves...

Mine is a portable DAB radio but I spoke with another consultant here and he has a DAB stereo at home and we were both bitching saying what a waste of money...can't remember what his complaints were but good luck...

Look here at a good UK site on world wide DAB

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/

Utter nonsense!

You can get upwards of 80 UK radio channels Incl BBC Radio2 and Radio4 on a 100€ Receiver and a 45cm Dish
Plus a few TV channels that are worth watching! (All in English!)
A dish this small can be installed very discretely..

G

Grinner, from what I understand, you were talking about a fixed receiver dish. Do you know where to get a portable satellite radio, and would you have any recommendations?

I dont know of any such service here n Europe.. But there is the "Sirius" satellite radio srvice in the states..

But that dont help..

ah well, it was worth a try. Thanks for replying anyway!

Maybe Worldspace Satellite radio is the kind of thing that you are looking for.
You can get Virgin Radio, TalkSport, BBC World Service, Fox News, Radio Caroline etc. etc. It's a subscription based service though (like XM or Sirius).
I used to own a Worldspace radio and it works fine in the Munich area. It's similar to a standard FM radio, just that it comes with a small dish. You obviously need to have clear line of sight to the satellite though and there are no ground repeaters (like with Sirius/XM), so mobile reception isn't possible.

It's a good alternative if you don't have UK Satellite TV nor Internet or if you want to listen to i.e. Virgin while sunbathing at Starnberger See

hope this helps

Dan

Has anyone listened to First Friday on The Breakfast Show on Virgin? Is it any good? What's the format of the show like? Unfortunately, I can't listen to the podcasts at the moment. Not quite sure where else to put this query.

I've heard random short clips on various occassions. But the Virgin site has a 'listen again' function - so why not try it and find out?

Cheers, that was quick I found the live player, but it seems they archive the shows as podcasts.

I listen to virgin a lot, I get it over sky satellite, through itunes on my Mac at home and through the virgin website at work. The first friday thing is just a bit of the Christian O'Connel breakfast show where people text or mail the name of the first record they ever bought to the show and if they like it they play it. I like the Christian O'Connel show, he's pretty funny, but this thing is nothing special, it's just mildly entertaining.

Link

Brilliant, apparently I'm on some time next week because of a mail survey about first singles I replied to, some lad who went "woohoo" a bit interviewed me and it was all a bit Alan Partridge. What should I tell these people? I have a vague idea involving inflatable Germans. But any nonsequiturs of the most random hue would be more than welcome.

This I have got to hear. If they can actually broadcast any of it.