Is DAB bad for your health?
Are DAB+ frequencies safe for me to have a radio set next to my bed at night?
An interesting question from a listener in Adelaide, Australia...
I had a question regarding digital radios, and DAB+ frequencies, I recently bought a DAB+ digital radio to keep by my bedside table and I'm wondering if having such a device within close proximity potentially harmful? How safe are DAB+ frequencies in close proximity in over long periods of time?
A mobile phone by your bedside broadcasts every few minutes or so to the nearest cell site to tell Vodafone, or whoever, that it's still there. It also has a connection open to your wifi router, which means every so often it's broadcasting to that, too. Your wifi router is a stronger signal, and your bedroom is probably full of that signal, too.
A DAB+ receiver is just that - just a receiver. It's picking up very low-strength broadcasts and turning them into sound. It's no more scary than an FM radio or equivalent.
How safe are DAB+ frequencies in close proximity in over long periods of time?
You're not in close proximity of them - in Adelaide they're broadcast from Mount Lofty, which is a good 15 or 20 km away from the city. And they're passing through you right now, irrespective of how close you are to a DAB+ receiver.
DAB+ broadcasts are at around 200MHz - similar to your FM set at 100MHz. Up at Mount Lofty there are twelve FM broadcasts. DAB is broadcast at lower strength than FM, and there are only two DAB transmitters up there; so you can see that the amount of energy radiated is significantly lower than FM broadcasts (at least a sixth of FM, if not even smaller).
If you're holding the DAB+ transmitting element in your hands, that's probably not too good for you. Otherwise, you should be fine: we've coped happily with high-power FM transmissions for long enough, after all.
Note: DAB+ and DAB both use the same frequencies. Mount Lofty is a typical example of a large transmission site; London's Crystal Palace operates in much the same way.