DRM dominates conversation at NASB 2017

I just returned from another fun and interesting National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters conference, this year hosted by KVOH at Rancho Simi, California. Yet again, the enthusiasm for DRM was apparent with both the presentations being made as well as the conversations between sessions.

Full disclosure - I presented one of the DRM sessions. I covered the current status of DRM worldwide, the new DRM application Turms Tech LLC from New Jersey, the latest updates from Gospell on the GR-216 and a bit on the non-DRM topic of the VOARadiogram. 

George Ross followed-up with much anticipated details about the imminent release of the Titus II by PantronX. George is confident that we are about a month away from seeing production models become available. This receiver appears to be the game-changer we all have been waiting for.

We were also fortunate to have Jerome Hirigoyen of TDF in attendance. He offered us some details and insight about the SmartCast / NavCast development. He brought along a sample of one of the series of receivers under current development. Their ambitious project includes maritime weather and safety information as well as audio news and entertainment broadcasts via a system of MW and SW transmitters deploying DRM.

No NASB meeting is complete without a trip to a studio or antenna field, and attendees were not disappointed this year! Not only were the sessions held at the KVOH and 99.1 The Ranch studios (BTW original KHJ console seen in this photo!), but we all braved a death-defying van ride to the top of Chatsworth Peak, the home of the KVOH Transmitter! 

I rode in the van driven by KVOH's Ray Robinson. Mr. Robinson deftly maneuvered the curves, boulders and pot-holes to get us safely to the top and back again. 

JD Tayloe served as our MC for the conference and for our tour of the transmitter facility. He and his crew really took amazing care of us. A special shout-out to Bari and Ray for their fine organizational and driving skills!

As much as the technical topics and presentations are an attraction to attend NASB, I once again recognized that the friendships and camaraderie of this group are why I return. NASB members and enthusiasts alike come to share a bond and support one another in the thing they all love... Shortwave Radio! Of course we all love food too and the pair makes this small group inseparable.





We ended our adventure with a tour of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It really is a grand place. The Air Force One exhibit was truly the highlight for me. This Boeing 707 flew seven presidents, from Nixon through George W. Bush.

TDF to use DRM30 for SmartCAST data delivery

DRM has been in the spotlight lately for data delivery. French broadcaster TDF announced it will use DRM for a global SmartCAST service.

Checkout SmartCAST details on their Innovation page. You might read this Google translation of their info PDF on the subject too.

What I find intriguing is that many of us have touted the virtues of DRM for data broadcasting as long as DRM has been around. Only in the waning days of shortwave broadcasting does it seem that groups are beginning to catch on.

DRM developments at NASB 2015 in Washington DC

I have just returned from an excellent two days at NASB 2015 in Washington DC, hosted by RFA with on-site host Al "A.J." Janitschek . 

I was pleasantly surprised by the volume of DRM30 discussion this year. North American shortwave broadcasters are ready for DRM!




It was the 25th annual meeting of the NASB so Continental helped us celebrate with cake!

Specifically, there were three talks that featured DRM prominently. Below are just a few of the overall conference highlights:

Lauren Libby, President of TWR gave an impassioned plea for DRM receivers and for us to look to DRM for the future of international shortwave broadcasting. TWR trialed a DRM feature to Japan on KTWR Guam where they received a positive response from Japanese enthusiasts. 

On Friday, Cal Carter of Continental Electronics presented updates from the DRM consortium including the current status of the large scale Indian initiative as well as positive momentum in the Asia-Pacific region, Brazil and Southern Africa.

Of course, I took a crack at sharing the excitement by presenting my experience as a listener and logger. I enjoyed showing examples and playing audio from the user's perspective. I explained and demonstrated the strengths of DRM using Terje's DRM-Log Plotter software. My slides here and the audio clip here. I presented a reception time-capsule video at NASB 2014 which you can view here. Thanks to Terje for the great DRM-Log Plotter handout.

Here is a music sample from RNZI, recorded via DRM at my home in Oregon. That is about 7000 miles from their 25kW transmitter and received on my Newstar DR111 using an alligator clip-lead to a basement drain pipe as an antenna. Isn't DRM amazing?

We were very fortunate to have Jerome Hirigoyen in attendance from TDF. Their site in Issoudun, France currently has 2 high-power DRM transmitters in operation.

Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott presented VOA Radiogram and encouraged broadcasters to participate in the Radiogram initiative. VOA Radiogram is a weekly program whereby textual news with images can be transmitted on traditional, unmodified shortwave transmitters and likewise received using off-the-shelf, unmodified shortwave radios.

Gerhard Straub from IBB gave a worldwide update about their broadcast sites. Gerhard also indicated there will be an RFP out soon to develop an end-user app for decoding VOA Radiogram on smartphones and tablets. More info to follow on this exciting development!





During the NASB business meeting, the conversation got very interesting. A significant number of the broadcaster members showed interest in using DRM (sooner rather than later) and working together to make affordable receivers (USD 50 or under) available. This conversation was augmented by audience members including Ludo Maes from Broadcast Belgium and his extensive DRM knowledge. I was really excited to finally get to meet him, having enjoyed years of his work with TDP Radio and The Disco Palace on DRM.

I'm sure that attendees will agree, this was an enjoyable and informative gathering. For me the opportunity to "talk shop" with shortwave broadcasters and enthusiasts is unsurpassed. To those I met for the first time and for those I have known, it was my great pleasure to be in attendance.

As I flew home, I snapped this gorgeous view of Mt. Hood near Portland, Oregon. It was a perfect way to sum up my trip - "the sky is the limit" for DRM in North America. I would like to thank the NASB, RFA and all those in attendance for making this such a great conference. Special thanks go to Dr. Elliott for serving as my local host. It made my trip even better!

Guest post by Brendan in AZ

This was posted to the DRMNA Yahoo Group but is too heart-felt not to be posted here too! Do we have an answer for Brendan's final question? Who will spear-head our regulation change request with the FCC? -Regards, Fibber admin for DRMNA.

"For those of us who have logged TDF transmissions from Montsinery, this 
is a sad day. Yesterday was the final DRM transmission from there, The 
Disco Palace on 17875 at 2000UTC. Yesterday would have been the final 
day for any analog transmissions as well, since we have been listening 
to the last broadcasts of any type from there.

DRM from Montsinery has been like having the beam directed towards me - 
which is the truth actually. On both the TDP Radio and Disco Palace 
transmissions the azimuth of their signal was only a few degrees off, 6 
in fact, of being pointed directly at my location. Most days the 
propagation gods smiled on me, and reception was perfect no matter what 
equipment I used. Even going up in frequency for experiments was not a 
problem, all I had to do was re-tune, and there they were, booming in. 
It was DRM as it is meant to be, "armchair" copy, bringing the world a 
little closer and in higher fidelity.

North American "Blow Torch" to be extinguished

Sad news indeed!

http://www.franceguyane.fr/regions/guyane/mauvaises-ondes-a-montsinery-153123.php

Translation here. 

See our previous stories about this site.

Use of DRM as a utility mode

I don't know if you have been following the digital tests going on over The Mighty KBC, but they have gotten me to thinking of other uses for DRM. I've always felt that some transmissions on HF such as NAVTEX, SITOR, WEFAX and VOLMET could be incorporated into robust DRM transmissions instead.

Although there have been some tests (TDF sending photos and BBC's use of Journaline) I have never seen or heard true utility broadcasts being tried or tested.

Moreover, it seems that many of these traditional services are showing their age. Recently USCG threatened to eliminate some of their weather related HF services to which they received significant hate mail. The need is still there!

I recently read that the German military (their equivalent to AFN) were considering DRM for ships at sea and remote military installations. Why not and perhaps AFN might consider the same thing, as they seem to be phasing out the SSB feeders they have used for so long.

So once again, DRM offers the technology for service replacement, yet it is being largely ignored. OK, there is only one stand-alone receiver on the market. That could change if manufacturers thought they'd have a market. Any ideas how we can encourage these entities to investigate some of these options?

DRM-Brasil goes English!

Rafael Diniz and crew recently ported their website to English. This is such a wonderful development for us (mostly monolingual North Americans!) to keep up on the largest DRM development in the Americas.

Rafael promises article translations as well. We are so fortunate that many in the DRM community are so spirited in the premise of the "open source community". Thanks Rafael, we are excited to read about the wonderful developments and great strides Brasil is making implementing DRM as the national digital broadcasting standard.

Target Brazil : Montsinery with Radio Nacional de Brasilia

Gorgeous reception and music! This is what DRM is all about. What was the bitrate (16.56 kbps, AAC+, P-Stereo)? Thanks for the video Rafael.

Brazil update from Rafael Diniz:

" It's clear that Brazil will choose it's Digital Radio Standard soon. Sandro Alex, a Brazilian deputy member of the Digital Radio comission said the standard will be announced in the first semester of 2012. In this context the French Guiana TDF station is conducting DRM trials on different frequencies with the transmissions beamed to Brazil. The trials are using "Radio Nacional de Brasilia FM" audio and also Brazilian related images in a slideshow service. It's great to see that the signal can be received by consumer DRM receivers inside my home. Some DRM enthusiasts all over Brazil are able to catch dropout free DRM reception with superb audio quality. Here are some videos of TDF reception made this week (using consumer receivers or SDRs).

Using consumer receivers (Morphy Richards): [see video above]

Using SDR-based receivers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfsloYG69-c

http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/hamdream/DRMtdf.htm "

Thanks Rafael. We are all pulling for you! It is nice to have some conclusive evidence (in the form of reception videos) why DRM is a great solution for Brazil's digital plans!

UPDATE: Find even more links about this at Digital Radio Mondiale - Brasil

Crop Circles? No, our DRMNA Blowtorch!

I'd like to offer a shout-out to those at the controls (and pulling the strings) of the TDF, Montsinery, French Guiana transmitter site....

In my few free moments to play DRM each week, the Montsinery transmiter site is consistently solid signal-wise and always rockin! Through that site, TDP Radio (and Disco Palace for that matter) really put in a heck of a signal and fun tunes into my piece of the Northwest part of the USA.