What functions does a radio need so that I can listen to an internet station

[Harry Bloomfield]

It would be nice to have a satellite radio, no reason can't be done,

If you mean the version where a dish is not needed, then it is being done. Mostly it seems a subscription service, encrypted and mostly for third world countries.

If you meant where a dish is needed, then it is rather pointless having a dish just for radio reception, as an adjunct to satellite TV reception then OK.

 

[ericmark]

Maybe because of where I live, where the freeview service does not include many commercial channels, so nearly everyone has a dish, I know mine has 6 outputs, being a hybrid 2 to Sky Q and 4 for standard satellite receivers, I am not using 2 at the moment, so there is already a dish and LNB, and since at side of house easy to run cables without having to go on roof or in loft.

So 11 National BBC programs, then the local programs, and unlike freeview or DAB I can if I wish listen to BBC radio Scotland, even when I live in Wales, never counted them all but likely looking at 200 programs. So at home there seems to be no point in freeview or DAB as all covered by satellite, but once one goes mobile that is no longer true, we need a rather directional dish for satellite and we need in the car, bike or walking a non directional aerial.

So now frequency matters, and the lower we go the more likely it will travel long distances, and so we don't need 1000's of broadcast stations likely the MW is about best, but we already have FM on VHF and to stop the volume problem with AM we need FM so yes for speech AM is OK, and with a BFO even side band, but I have tried working side band VHF when mobile and not really a success, Sizewell where I worked to Cambridge at 30 watt was not bad really, but don't really want to listen to Donald duck.

So in real terms it seems VHF FM wide band is about the best option. It uses more band width to DAB, and the transmitter needs to be bigger, but the receiver uses far less power, so with a simple PP9 battery the radio will work for months, and if mobile this is important, so we can even have a wind up radio the DAB radio is too power hungry, not seen any wind up versions, and the battery radio may be available but this one

it says "Rechargeable battery provides up to 10 hours of listening" I think that is rather poor, even my pocket transceiver lasts more than that.

 

[Lucid]

<SNIP> I am sure @Lucid could tell us exactly what needs to go in the loft and what needs to go in the living room to get all the range, but to get the DAB signal into the room is not easy in mid Wales, on the Cheshire plan it is likely much easier but the big question is why bother </snip>

There are plenty of knowledgeable people here who could put together an aerial and distribution system for DAB signals, but your last point "why bother" hits the nail on the head for me.

IMO the UK's DAB and DAB+ service quality just doesn't cut it. I can't justify spending the money on an aerial and the rest of the gear if the signal is going to end up coming out of anything better that a £100 stereo system. That won't stop me installing DAB reception gear if a customer asks for it, but if they ask for a recommendation then I'd point them towards radio as part of Freeview/Freesat/Sky or the internet in preference to DAB every single time.

Did you know that DAB has been kicked in to touch in the Rep of Ireland? Farewell DAB, the radio technology we didn’t need (irishtimes.com)

The basic technical premise of DAB/DAB+ is good. The problems though are that people's listening habits are changing with the advent of streaming via smart tech. That, and the broadcasters and whoever controls the network for bandwidth allocation all engaged in a race to the bottom for quality.

 

[winston1]

Did you know that DAB has been kicked in to touch in the Rep of Ireland? Farewell DAB, the radio technology we didn’t need (irishtimes.com)

Not only Ireland. Canada setup DAB in L band as band 3 was full of TV. It closed after a few years. Singapore has also closed DAB. Hong Kong and Malaysia had tests for a year or so and closed.

But Norway has closed its FM services and gone over to DAB.

 

[JP_]

I used to connect my phone to the car radio by Bluetooth and then listen to internet radio via the 3/4G mobile connection.

You can buy (I have one) radios (CD player, tape, DAB, FM, etc) with Bluetooth. I stream music and radio over Bluetooth. This is the one, from Currys:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/audio...b-fm-bluetooth-boombox-grey-10155880-pdt.html

I really like https://internetradiouk.com/ too - very clean, easy to use website, and now not just UK but global radio. Play that on a phone and bluetooth to your speaker and you have international radio for free.

Another option is get a Chrome Cast for your TV and install a radio app. I never do this though, as I just use the internetradiouk website.

 

[winston1]

If you mean the version where a dish is not needed, then it is being done. Mostly it seems a subscription service, encrypted and mostly for third world countries.

If you are referring to Worldspace that is long gone. (if anyone wants a now defunct Worldspace receiver I am open to offers). Although it didn't use a dish it had a directional patch antenna which had to be correctly orientated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1worldspace