03-10-2021, 02:33 PM
I wrote an article in 1986 about how broadcasting, communications systems in general and computing had originated and would converge. Oddly some things I wrote about did happen and then essentially died. Most current TV broadcasting networks assume fixed TVs and most locations need a fixed outdoor aerial. Pocket colour TVs were a short lived market and phones with a built in broadcast TV receiver even more short lived (DVB-t and DVB-h). Many phones and tablets only have an FM radio because the function is built into the WiFi & Bluetooth chip. Phones with no earphone socket have it disabled. Tablets that could have built in VHF aerial only work with the headset as the aerial. I've used an €10 DVB-T USB stick on a phone and a tablet (Android has drivers and app on the PlayStore) and the issue is signal strength even though our local TV multiplex TX is about 13 km away. Same with using the radio stations on DVB-t (DAB was turned off last May, only had RTE and best bit rate was 128K MP2 with about 43% coverage). The stick can be used as an SDR from 42 MHz to 1.4 GHz (any mode including DRM and DAB, people sell 100 kHz to 30 MHz upconverters too). A USB2Go adaptor is needed.
