Digital Audio Broadcasting

Posted at 11:34 PM on 27 October 2002

Picked up a DAB radio card from Maplins earlier today and (so far) it's completely ace. Digital radio has been the province of the seriously rich for far too long, but one el-cheapo "Modular Technology" Radioscape 200 PCI card later and Bob's yer Uncle - crystal clear radio reception and digital recording facilities in a box. Albeit a PC running Microsoft Windows.

It's actually very neat. After a few installation problems (getting a "the data is invalid" error whilst trying to install the drivers under Windows XP SP1 - eventually solved by running regedit, navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Enum/PCI, right clicking on the string beginning "VEN_104C&", selecting "Permissions" then applying "Full Control" using the check box and re-establishing your complete lurve of Windows in the process), everything finally began to work.

It's really good. DAB? FAB, more like! Crystal clear reception, MP3 recording, downloadable (over the radio) schedules enabling you to select specific programs for recording (like Tivo for radio) - dragging and dropping radio programs to your iPod/mp3 player becomes a reality! Very, very cool indeed.

Regardless of the loss of hair during installation, I'm very pleased. It's a whole lot better than fiddling around with a second hand/eBay Psion Wavefinder and all it's associated problems (something I was considering, but there are more problems than you can shake a stick at if you consider this route).

Recommended, for people in DAB-enabled areas (e.g. the UK and Europe, although seemingly Canada).

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