C.M. Obrecht broadcast from Brazil

 

Report from Brazil DRM test

 

It is in Portuguese, but has some great images and a post from Brother Zyg included! Check out the PDF here.

Rádio Nacional da Amazônia resumes DRM testing

Per Brother Rafael on DRMNA group: "tx is back!"

VOACAP plots for Rádio Nacional da Amazônia DRM Test

Brother Zyg has graciously provided us with VOACAP plots for the ongoing test. We are starting here with 20:00 UTC.Thanks Zyg! 

Rádio Nacional da Amazônia is on air with DRM on 11910 kHz

EBC & Brasília University running tests now on 11910 kHz DRM kHz from the transmitter site at Parque do Rodeador. Currently it is operating an average power of 1.12 kW into an HRS dipole curtain 4/4/0.5 at azimuth 320 degrees.

See previous post for further details. 

Details on Rádio Nacional da Amazônia DRM tests

With the recent excellent news coming out of Brazil, I took a few moments to contact our longtime DRM friend Rafael Diniz. He filled me in on some of the aspects of the upcoming DRM tests there:

Rafael, what is the current national status of DRM for digital broadcasting?

The digital radio discussion is stuck, mostly locked by the commercial broadcasters which publicity expressed against the digitization of the radio (citing, for example, the ongoing expenses of the broadcasters with the AM to FM migration, the crisis, and so on). Digital Radio seems a treat to the commercial broadcasting sector, but I will not elaborate more about it, as this discussion would take at least a 15 pages introduction.

 Can you tell us a little about the broadcast chain for this upcoming test? 

The broadcast chain will be a Brazilian BT Broadcast Transmitter 2.5kW HF tx, The exciter is a Digidia one, and the CS we'll experiment with different configurations, including Digidia and Fraunhofer options. The antenna is a huge HRS one beamed (with reflectors) to the north (good for US!), with between 16 and 20db of gain (Rodeador Park has many huge HRS antennas).

Will there be experiments similar to the recent work at KTWR using different parameters to see what works best? What about xHE-AAC?

We plan to use the best possible audio, which, if equipment permits, will be xHE-AAC audio and multimedia content. The idea is to also test 20kHz bandwidth, which will allow more than one audio program over the transmission, together with multimedia content.

 What will the content be?

Rádio Nacional da Amazônia content, the same of broadcast in 6,180 kHz and 11,780 kHz.

Is there any long term plan, or is this simply a feasibility test?

EBC is the process of purchase of two 100 kW DRM transmitters, to be delivered sometime in 2021 to really provide a steady digital reception even with the smallest battery powered receiver in all parts of the Amazon rainforest region. Concerning the long term - is the hope that this DRM transmission raise awareness of digital radio in the country and can change the minds of the commercial broadcasters about digital radio... and also save the MW band, which is getting empty - which is good and bad at the same time... with clear channels DRM nighttime reception can be fun again.

Thank you Rafael for your time and such great news. We look forward to more details and even more to signals making it to North America! Rádio Nacional da Amazônia is often heard here with great signal level and quality.

Francisco Braccini - DRM hero!

Brazilian DRM enthusiast Francisco Braccini gets his moment to share the DRM gospel with President Bolsonaro. I only wish there was a translation. Well done Brother Francisco!

UPDATE 20191205: The following was posted to the DRMNA list by Alan in Australia this morning. Not sure about the accuracy, but you will get the idea!

Talk to President Jair Bolsonaro

Good morning President, we are looking forward to the approval of Digital Radio in Brazil at technologic Digital World Radio.

Is it a bill?

It’s underway with the Ministry of Commons, I’ve even been talking to the people there. We support the technology. Who did you talk to there.

I spoke with Secretary Flavio. Stay for two and a half hours talking to MCTIC Secretary Flavio?

That there should be a lot of project going on then, to send to Congress, it is not That

Yes, I even walked proposal to use this technology in this area that I studied until the DRM. We Cheer. It’s not my beach but the idea sounds good to me. HeHeHe

China, Russia, England Already have it?

Already have it, is already well consolidated. It has come at an important moment of standardisation, at a very good time.

Via internet signals it?

Not necessary. It fills all terrestrial broadcast bands in Brazil Short Waves, Medium Waves, FM And she doesn’t need satellite either, she goes straight through For example a radio from China can be received in Brazil. Write it down Flavio MCTIC Digital Radio Mission, call him I want to talk to this guy

Yes sir

Thanks, value, Where are you from, man?

I’m from Porto Alegre, Rio Grand do Sul Bah has lost male here!

Tomorrow, I will be where there in Rio Grande do Sul>

Bento Goncalves

Excellent president

Thank you very much President!

Congratulations

---

Conversa com o Presidente Jair Bolsonaro

Bom dia Presidente, estamos na expectative pela aprovaçã do Rádio Digital no Brasil, na technologic Digital Rádio Mundial

É Um projeto de Lei?

Está tramitando Ministério das Comumicações, até estive conversando com o pessoal lá. Torcemos pela tecnologica.

Falou com quem lá?



Falei com o secretário Flávio. Fiquek por duas horas e meia falando Secretário Flávio, do MCTIC?

Isso

Lá deve monte de projeto tramitando então, pra mandar para o Congresso, nã0 é

 Isso?

Tem sim, emcaminhei até

 Proposta para emprego dessa tecnologia, nesta área que estudei até, o DRM. Torcemos

Não é minha praia, mas a ideia me parece boa hehehe

A China, a Rússia, a Inglaterra

Já tem isso?

Já tem isso, já está bem consolidado e

Chegou num momento importante lá de padronização, num momento que está muito bom

Via sinais de Internet isso?

Nao presisa. Ela preenche todas as bandas de radiodifusão Terrestre do Brasil

Ondas Curtas, Ondas Médias, FM

E também ela não necessita de satélite, ela tramita direto

Por exemplo uma Rádio da China pode ser recebida no Brasil

Anota aí Flávio MCTIC, Rádio Digital , Missão, liga pra ele que eu quero falar com esse cara aí

Sim senhor

Valeu, value. Tu é da onde cara?

Eu sou de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul

Bah tem um macho perdido aqui!

Amanhã eu vou estar aonde lá no Rio Grande do Sul?

Bento Gonçalves

Excelente Presidente

Muito obrigado Presidente!

Parabéns

More news on Brazil DRM test

From our colleague in Brazil on 20150702:

Hi people,

Next week Ataliba (a friend of DRM-Brasil) will go to Brasilia with his HF rig (IC-725 modified to DRM signal input which goes directly to the PA.). The idea is to use his rig to be the first amplifier stage, as the past pre-amplifier we used was unacceptable with regards to MER, according to the Ministry of Communications engineer.

Ataliba is carrying for some time very successful DRM transmissions in ham radio 40m band. Sometimes with stereo audio content with 4W tx being decoded hundreds of kilometers away.

The idea is, if we get a good quality signal with ~150W on air, the official Brazilian SW digital radio trial will be able to begin,  There is no need for very high power tx for the measurements take place.

The trial will happen on Tuesday.

Cheers,
Rafael Diniz

Brazil test report from the DRM consortium

The original release is here:

"On May 28th Brazil experienced  the first DRM broadcast in short wave originating in Brazil mainly for Brazil.

The public broadcaster in Brazil, EBC, with the collaboration of partners broadcast in DRM in the afternoon of the 28th with 130W in DRM in the frequency of 9755kHz. The coverage area is predicted to encompass North – Amazonia as well as the south of the country, the richest part of Brazil and other neighbouring countries.

Despite the low power used the DRM signal has been already received successfully in parts of the country, being audible in quality in the Sao Paolo State at about 800km away from the transmission site in Brasilia. The audio of the Amazon National Radio was received there in excellent digital quality.

The transmission system was put together with Brazilian know how and with the assistance of EBC and key members of the DRM Brazilian Platform like Rafael Diniz, researcher at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Staff of the EBC and the Ministry of Communications chose to broadcast using one antenna system at Rodeador Park (EBC’s High Power SW Broadcast Centre). The antenna used has 16dB gain and north-south radiation pattern.

Tests are continuing and more measurements and feedback are to come in the next days and months."

Great news from Brazil

Update 20150602:

"Today arrived other amplifier made by a DRM-Brasil member, all without involving money (this is why things walk so slow). So EBC people will carry some tests with it, and after that transmission should restart, with a signal with better MER.
As the setup has little power, the crew involved is trying optimize the quality of the signal. So no signal today, and nothing happened yesterday also..."

This is not only good but triumphant news! Thanks to Brother Rafael.
---
"Tests will resume on Monday (1st June).
We'll inform the frequency soon.

Btw, on Thursday happened the first DRM SW transmission in Brazil! With 130W signal at 9755kHz was received by Claudio 780 km far away.

Big thanks to Michael Feilen, all guys at EBC and Ministry of Communications
involved in the trial.

Next week we'll be able to get another final stage amplifier in order to check if
we can get more power out."

Amazonia test reception

From Claudio PY2GVY: 780 km, from Brasilia, (GH64ah) to Limeira, SP (GG67hk), 100W, 9.755 KHz.

Radio Nacional da Amazonia on DRM soon

UPDATE 20150528 22:13 UTC: Test is reported to be on-the-air now - on a different frequency: 9775kHz.

Rafael also reports: "...in the end we used my Diragen30 instead of the USRP."

From Brother Rafael Diniz we received this hopeful note in our DRMNA Yahoo Group mailbox:

"On Thursday, 28th May, I'll try a broadcast at 9755kHz from Radio Nacional da Amazonia. We hope the new amplifier built on purpose works. We expect to have 60W RMS DRM30 on air (plus the antenna gain).

We'll use one of the north-south antennas (not north-only, as Radio Nacional da Amazonia). The setup will be Spark (w/ full feature HE-AAC encoder) as CS / modulador + USRP + some stages of class A amplifiers (we'll see what works).

The idea to use an old tx (Continental Lensa or BBC) is abandoned.The motivation to use a north-south antenna in this initial trial is that most people that can receive DRM in Brazil is in the south of Brazil. But it's easy to change the antenna.Concerning the schedule of the transmission, we hope to keep it on, if everything works well, for a long time."

Radio Nacional da Amazonia DRM trial

From our friend Rafael Diniz: 

"We don't know the schedule yet. Just 100W... People from Ministry and EBC assembled something like the Sottens trial equipment (Spark + linear amps), but the antenna will be a very good one."

"...the trial will be at 9750 KHz on Friday, After 14:00 UTC (12h in Brasilia)" [That is 16 January 2015]

UPDATE: not much from my location...

Radio Nacional da Amazonia works toward DRM

Our man on the scene, Rafael Diniz reports about work ongoing at Radio Nacional da Amazonia.

"Hi there people,

Past week I visited the Rodeador transmitter site of RNdA. 

I'm helping EBC engineers to put a DRM signal on ar. 

We are trying to connect the USRP / Spark to excite the the Continental Lensa tx, but it's giving us too much headache, I think the better will be to use the 250kW BBC tube tx instead at 6180kHz (currently off-air).

There are some pictures of the txs and antennas (and me!) here:
http://www.telemidia.puc-rio.br/~rafaeldiniz/public_files/ebc_drm_trial/

Best regards,
Rafael Diniz" 

Here is the satellite view of the antenna field. Thanks Rafael for the update. Be sure to tell us more as soon as you have the details! (via DRMNA Yahoo Group)

Brazilian public broadcaster (EBC) plans SW DRM trial

Here is great news from DRM supporter Rafael Diniz:

"Good news, EBC (the Brazilian public broadcaster)
detailed their plans for the SW trial. They'll use
a Continental Lensa tx at power levels of 4kW, 1kW
and 250W with the antenna at Brasilia beamed to 
Amazonia (beamed to the north). They made reception
prediction using Voacap and the expected coverage
with be the centre and part of the north of Brazil
at 4kW. They'll start testing the tx in AM mode in
a few days at 6000kHz. Also, as soon as possible,
they'll change the tx crystal to 5990kHz (EBC's
Radio Senado frequency) and install the DRM30 exciter."  

Check out the public information presentation on these trial broadcasts. 

A notícia é excelente irmão Rafael!

Open Letter to Brazil's Board of Digital Radio

Rafael sent this to our attention. It is an English translation of the rationale for adopting DRM over HD/iBiquity for Brazil.

Not knowing all the ins-and-outs of decisions that have already been made, this document delivers a very convincing argument for moving ahead with DRM as a single, band agnostic solution for digital radio in Brazil!

"Technopolitical struggle" in Brazil

Diego Vicentin (Center for Information Technology Policy Graduate Student) at Princeton offers his take on Brazil's digital radio debate.

Let's continue to hope (and pray) that the Brazilian government "gets the memo" on the defacto open standard for digital broadcasting - DRM!

(Obrigado Rafael!)

Cool Thesis : DRM decode using mobile device architecture

I know little to nothing about this, and read as much as I could understand - but this seems to be the Thesis of a student that ported DReaM software over to an ARM processor used on a popular mobile platform device. This has huge implications for the development of cheap off-the-shelf DRM receivers.

If you understand more than I do about this (not a difficult task) post about it on our Yahoo Group. I imagine our friends in Brazil and India will be all over this like ants on leftover Halloween candy! Are any of our readers specialists enough to get the basics of this and come up with other ports to things like cheap Android tablets?

Brazilian Parliament wants to know more about DRM!

Here is a very cool piece of news from the DRM
Consortium via our friend Rafael. It appears that
some members of the Brazilian Parliament are
seeing past the "smoke and mirrors" that is the
iBiquity AMBC solution. Perhaps this will lead
to victory for Digital Radio Mondiale in Brazil?
Go Ruxandra - preach it sister!

 
Report Turned Down for now in Brazilian Parliament
09 Oct 2013

Dear All,

This is just a little update on the vote and discussion that took place in the
Brazilian Parliament/Chamber of Deputies during the public hearing yesterday.
For those interested in aprticiaption, what was said please click here:

http://www2.camara.leg.br/atividade-legislativa/webcamara/arquivos/recentes/videoArquivo?codSessao=45974

Brazil to test DRM head-to-head with HD

Read a translation of the story from a Brazilian website.

Some highlights:

""In the first test we had not defined assumptions desirable to Brazil, or at least that minimized any negative effects," he said. The standardization of equipment and some criteria for comparing both standards will also be considered in the review of performance of the two systems.
 
The reception of the digital signal into phones will also be a novelty in the new experiments. The need to expand the experiments to the platforms "mobile" was suggested by Abert, which integrates the Council.
 
Another change is the increased power radiated, which is 10% compared to analog. In previous tests were used between 1% and 2%, of which only one has reached the level of 9.6%. "We are increasing the power to perhaps have a better coverage area than the analog," said the director of the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Department of Electronic Communication Services, Octavio Pieranti."