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from the elites-with-flawed-data-making-choices dept.
El Reg reports
With digital reaching its audience targets, the government set a 2017 date for the death of analogue FM radio in [Norway].
[...]However, the Norwegian Local Radio Association disputes the communications ministry's figure, pointing instead to Norwegian Government Statistical Bureau data that "listening to DAB radio is presently limited to 19% on a daily basis."
In an e-mail sent to Vulture South [El Reg's Australian operation], the association says the Minister of Culture's announcement swept up DVB-T and Internet radio to claim that "digital listening" had hit the 50 per cent target that triggers an FM switch-off.
The association also notes that an all-DAB nation would provide a lot less service to motoring tourists without digital radios in their cars. "This proposed change means that most visitors will not be able to listen to national channels or public radio for emergency alerts, traffic or other important information", the group said in a media release e-mailed to El Reg. It claims that a focus on large broadcasters would leave FM investments by community radio stranded.
The local broadcasters are backed by the Progress Party, a partner in the coalition government in Norway, [as well as by] the Greens.
Related: Norway to be First Nation to Switch Off National Analog FM Stations
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fauxlosopher on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:25AM
Analog is better than digital in at least two areas, then. Analog transmissions degrade much more gracefully than digital. A fuzzy or hissing analog transmission could very well be completely capable of perfect data transmission, whereas in the same circumstances a digital transmission would be completely inoperable. Cell phone calls and over-the-air television are two examples of this.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by GDX on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:43AM
Also there is other advantage, simplicity to build a transmitter or receiver, the simplest receiver is the crystal radio, mostly associate with the AM modulation but they are also designs for FM modulation (http://solomonsmusic.net/FM_CrystalRadio.html), also the transmitters aren't that complex as a +1wat FM transmitter can be build with no more than 20 components, same for AM regardless of the frequency.
Even if 1wat sound flimsy is possible to make contacts of more than 100km with the right antenna and in a suitable band without difficulty, one contact record that I know was using 5w 27Mhz AM with a distance of more than 2000km and is not that impressive compared to CW or SSB records.