NASB NEWSLETTER www.shortwave.org
April 2008
IN THIS ISSUE:
2008/2009
NASB-USA DRM Annual Meetings
HFCC
News
DRM
News
HCJB
News
Galcom International
VT Communications
Beth Shalom
WHRI
KAIJ
KTWR
EDXC
NASB
Mailbag
All Set for 2008 NASB-USA DRM Annual
Meeting
Our
2008 annual meeting will take place May 8 and 9 in Cary
(just outside of Raleigh), North Carolina, hosted by NASB member Trans
World Radio. Here is the agenda for the
two days of meetings, as well as conference hotel and other information:
Agenda
Meeting
Venue: Trans World Radio - Cary, North
Carolina
Thursday, May 8, 2008 – USA DRM Annual
Meeting
8:15-9:00
am – Trans World Radio Staff Meeting
– moderated by John Summerville, with the participation of NASB personnel. Is shortwave radio viable today in the midst
of all the new technologies? Meeting is
open to all.
9:00-10:00 am – Tour of Trans World
Radio headquarters
10:00-10:30 am – Welcome Remarks from Thomas Lowell, TWR Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board of
Directors; and an update on TWR's global ministry from Tom Tatlow, TWR Global
Media Services Officer
10:30-11:00 am -
Coffee Break, courtesy of Trans World
Radio
11:00 am-5:00 pm -
USA DRM Group Meeting at TWR
headquarters building
11:00-11:15 am -
USA DRM welcome remarks - Adil Mina (Continental Electronics), Jeff White
(WRMI), Mike Adams (FEBC)
11:15-11:45 am – DRM Consortium Update from Adil Mina
and Don Spragg of Continental Electronics
11:45 am-12:15 pm
- DRM Diversity Receiver Project -
John Wineman - HCJB GTC. A joint project
of HCJB Global
Technology Center
and LeTourneau University
in Longview, TX, this project seeks to develop a high
reliability DRM capable receiver for use especially in the Tropical
Bands. Reliability is increased through frequency and antenna polarity
diversification and signal recombination. This has potential for low cost
program distribution for rebroadcast, especially in the tropics.
12:15-1:15 pm - Lunch at TWR headquarters, sponsored by
Media Broadcast (formerly T-Systems
Media & Broadcast, www.media-broadcast.com). On the menu today are traditional North Carolina
favorites: barbecue pork sandwich, slaw,
potato salad, fruit cup, cookie and sweet tea.
1:15-1:45 pm - HCJB DRM transmissions to Germany and Brazil
- Charles Jacobson - HCJB
Global Technology
Center. Over the last year Radio HCJB in Ecuador has carried out regular DRM
transmissions to Germany,
and begun a regular transmission to Brazil. This report will
summarize those broadcasts and the results.
1:45-2:15 pm - DRM SDR Monitoring Receiver/Spectrum
Analyzer - John Stanley, HCJB Global Technology Center, will talk about a
low-cost spectrum analyzer/shortwave monitor that HCJB has developed using a
computer sound card and free Winrad software.
2:15-2:30 pm – Introduction to WWCR – by Jason Cooper
and Brady Murray (subject to confirmation)
2:30-3:00 pm -
Coffee break, courtesy of Trans World
Radio
3:00-3:30 pm – IBB Greenville – Presentation about the
U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau's shortwave station in Greenville, North
Carolina by Station Manager Wilfred Cooper and Deputy Manager Walter Konetsco.
3:30-4:00 pm - Experiences with Radio Frequency Exposure
Measurements at Shortwave Facilities Worldwide, by Stephen Lockwood and Matt
Folker, Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers
4:00-4:30 pm –
Presentation by Tim Ayris of VT Communications about their latest
shortwave and DRM activities (subject to confirmation)
4:30-5:30 pm - Mike Adams, FEBC, leads open discussion
about plans for the USDRM platform and DRM in the United States during the coming
months
5:30 pm - USA DRM
Meeting ends. Departure from TWR
headquarters to Comfort Suites hotel.
7:30 pm - Dinner at O'Charley's
restaurant, adjacent to Comfort Suites.
Sponsored by Thomson Inc., Comet North America and WMLK/Assemblies of Yahweh. Tonight's
menu includes a selection of appetizers, your choice of any two entrees (the
list includes bite-size fried shrimp, barbecue ribs, grilled chicken breast,
Chicken O'Tenders and butcher's cut premium steak), served with salad or soup
(overloaded potato soup or soup of the day), beverage and a scoop of caramel
pie ice cream for dessert.
9:00 pm - NASB
Board of Directors meeting in lobby at Comfort Suites
Friday, May 9, 2008
20th Annual Meeting of the
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters
9:00-9:15 am - Welcome remarks by
Jeff White, NASB President; and Mike Adams, NASB Vice-President
9:15-9:45 am - Fundamental Broadcasting Network - A
presentation by representatives of NASB member FBN, which operates shortwave
stations WTJC and WBOH in Newport,
North Carolina
9:45-10:30 am - Responding to Disaster - panel
moderated by Mike Adams, FEBC.
Participants will include Scott Hollinger of Trans World Radio and Allen
Graham of HCJB. This panel will look at
how international broadcasters respond to natural disasters and crises, such as
Hurricane Katrina.
10:30-11:00 am -
Coffee break, courtesy of Trans World
Radio
11:00-11:30 am - Monitoring Times - presentation by
Rachel Baughn, editor of this popular publication geared to shortwave and other
radio listeners
11:30 am-12:00 pm
– Audience Research for International
Broadcasters – presentation by Tom Tatlow, TWR
Global Media Services Officer; Curt Detwiler and Bill Damick, also of TWR
12:00-12:15
pm - Galcom Update – The latest
receivers, transmitters and other equipment from Galcom International. Presentation by Allan McGuirl.
12:15-1:15 pm - Lunch at TWR headquarters, sponsored by
Continental Electronics. Today's menu features Italian dishes: meat lasagna, caesar salad, garlic bread, tea
and tiramisu.
1:15-3:00 pm - NASB Business Meeting. Members, associate members and visitors are
welcome and encouraged to attend. Reports from NASB personnel who have attended
recent shortwave conferences around the world.
Allen Graham of HCJB will talk about his program “DX Party Line” and
other programs especially for shortwave listeners.
3:00-3:30 pm -
Coffee break, courtesy of Trans World
Radio
3:30-4:30 pm - NASB Business Meeting continues
4:30 pm - Official
closing of NASB Annual Meeting
4:30-4:45 pm - NASB Board of Directors Meeting. This is a brief closed session for the
newly-elected Board members.
Hotel Information
The conference
hotel for the annual meetings is the Comfort
Suites hotel, located at 350
Ashville Avenue in Cary,
North Carolina (a suburb of Raleigh), zip code 27518. This hotel is located near Trans World Radio
headquarters (about five minutes by car), and TWR will be assisting us with
transportation for those who need it between the hotel and TWR. Therefore, we strongly suggest that you stay
at this hotel. We have arranged a block booking for the group at a price of
$82.00 per night, single or double occupancy. To make your reservation, please
contact the hotel directly by phone or fax:
Telephone +1-919-852-4318
Fax +1-919-854-4398
When making your reservation, please specify that you are with the
"NASB-TRANS WORLD RADIO" group. By mentioning "NASB-TRANS WORLD
RADIO," you will get the lowest available rate of $82.00 per night, and
you will have until 24 hours prior to your arrival date to cancel your
reservation if necessary. (If you cancel less than 24 hours prior to your
scheduled arrival, they will charge your credit card one night's
accommodation.) The rate of $82.00 per night will be available to NASB/USDRM
meeting attendees for a few days before and after the meeting as well, in case
you want to arrive early or stay late.
Our block booking will be held until April 21, 2008, or sooner if all rooms are
reserved earlier. Reservations will be on a space-available basis only after
April 21, or before April 21 if we exceed our block booking. So we urge you to
make your reservation as soon as possible. You can always cancel it until a day
before arrival if you need to do so.
Please note there is a local tax of 12.5% on hotel rates in Cary. The hotel offers a complimentary hot
breakfast buffet each morning, free wireless Internet access in all rooms, and
an indoor pool/spa and fitness center.
Getting to Cary
Cary is located about 20 minutes by car from the
Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RUD).
From the airport, you can take a taxi to the hotel in Cary (fare is approximately $18.50), or you
can rent a car at the airport. Note that
the hotel does not provide transportation from the airport. The following rental car agencies have
branches at Raleigh-Durham Airport:
Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise,
Hertz, National and Thrifty.
The following
airlines offer service to Raleigh-Durham
Airport from numerous cities
throughout the United States: Air Tran, American, America West,
Continental, Delta, Express Jet, Jet Blue, Midwest Connect, Northwest,
Southwest, United and US Airways. Air Canada
has service from Toronto to Raleigh-Durham, and
American Airlines serves Raleigh-Durham from London-Gatwick (but this will be
changing to London-Heathrow on March 29, 2008) with connections to/from many
cities throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa via London.
Directions
from Raleigh Durham International
Airport (RDU) to Comfort
Suites:
Exit
airport onto Airport Blvd.
From Airport Blvd merge onto I-40 East towards Raleigh. From I-40 take Exit 293A
(US 1 South / US 64 West towards Sanford.)
Follow US 1 South for about four miles to Exit 98A Tryon Road East. Merge onto Tryon Road.
It’s only a short distance to Ashville
Avenue on the left. It’s a small street just
before the WakeMed
Cary Hospital.
O’Charley’s restaurant is on the corner. Follow Ashville Avenue around to Comfort Suites.
Directions
from Comfort Suites to TWR:
Ashville
Avenue to Tryon Road.
Turn right. Tryon Road
becomes US 64 West on the other side of US 1. Turn left onto Gregson Dr.
(There is no street to the right, but there is a traffic light on the
corner.) It’s only about 1.5 miles from the hotel. After you turn
you will see a BP gas station on the right, but it’s not visible from the main
road so there is no landmark to tell you where Gregson Dr. is—just the street
sign. It’s MacGregor
Business Park.
Just follow Gregson Drive
around until you come to TWR on the right.
Bids being accepted for 2009 NASB
Annual Meeting
We
urge any NASB member or associate member who might be interested in hosting the
2009 NASB-USA DRM annual meetings in your locality to submit your proposal to
us before or at the 2008 meeting in Cary. Thanks very much.
------
NASB Present at HFCC A08 Conference
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
George Ross
KTWR Trans World
Radio
On
Feb.4-8, 2008 the 5th Global Shortwave Coordination Conference took
place in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. There were 160 shortwave
frequency managers, the largest delegation ever to have been present. They were
from various countries representing the ABU (Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union),
ASBU (Arab States Broadcasting Union) and HFCC. They represent 85 percent of
the world's shortwave radio broadcasters.
NASB members present were Glen Tapley, ETWN and George Ross, KTWR.
Brian Coombes, VT Communications Director Broadcast, welcomed again those who
were here in 2000. In 2008 there is a record number of participants. He said
high frequency broadcasting is not going away. The importance of this type of
coordination is equally important when DRM takes effect.
Mr. Yousef Ghadaksaz of the ABU added his welcome to the 5th Global Shortwave
Coordination Conference. He mentioned the importance of this coordination was
shown in how it brought coordinators from five different continents.
Oldrich Cip quickly gave a greeting, and then had to skip his usual opening
remarks due to almost completely losing his voice. He asked Geoff Spells to MC
the conference in his behalf.
David Astley, the Secretary General with ABU extended a warm welcome to
delegates of the Global Conference. The inaugural global conference originally
took place right here in 2000. Shortwave reaches beyond borders and great
distances prior to satellite and internet. He stated that propagation
conditions have always raised doubts previously of the service reliability on
the receiving end, as well as the congestion of broadcasters. However,
collisions are much less now than in years past thanks to the efforts of the
frequency managers in their planning and coordination. He also mentioned the
increasing involvement put in now by ABU and ASBU as part of the coordination
process. HFCC has nurtured the participation of these other organizations. ABU
is thankful for the assistance of HFCC and looks forward to a closer working
relationship.
Jan Willem Drexhage speaking for the group of experts discussed the old
requirement files from last season that were in the coordination database
(because certain broadcasters had not submitted an up to date schedule).
They are of no use in the scheduling from today. Their requirements will be removed
from the schedule. (The schedules of Monday morning were the only ones that had
these frequencies listed.)
He also made mention of at least two undersea Internet cables that had been
severed. This was having an adverse impact on Internet connectivity. He asked
for individuals to be considerate in their use of the Internet.
Norbert Schall gave a presentation of his upgraded wplot 2000 software for
frequency coordinators. The software currently uses the REC533 prediction
method. It primarily uses point to point calculations. He covered the way to
work through plotted calculations of wanted transmissions in target zones and
unwanted transmissions in the coverage areas. Specific antenna design is a key
to getting accurate analysis. The aim is to visualize the configuration and the
interference situation as accurately as possible. It shows coverage area in
either CIRAF zones or by a grid of determined points called a polygon.
My conclusion from working through this software tool is that it is very
effective and a great resource in the coordination process. It is a much more
powerful tool and has many new fields added from the original software. It is
able to use quite a few different variables to show actual coverage situations.
It also has the ability to determine new desired broadcasts and changes. The
majority of coordinators are using this software as a tool in the coordination
process. It is quite possible that this software may become the standard for
use by HFCC.
Monday
night the delegates were treated to a banquet sponsored by RTM (Radio/TV
Malaysia). David Astley of ABU welcomed the delegates and gave a brief overview
of RTM. He mentioned that RTM is in the process of testing DRM.
Brian
Coombes gave a presentation on February 5. He mentioned that VTC does 5% of all
SW broadcasts globally. They have been broadcasting for 70 years and are doing
1000 hours daily, keeping a worldwide HF presence. Below is an outline of his
discussion of challenges to broadcasters:
* Audience behavior is changing.
* There are more platforms to manage.
* There is increasing pressure to do more with less.
* Shortwave is less fashionable yet still critical (183 million listeners per
week to BBC). He said, “I can’t accept that shortwave broadcasting is a dying
art!”
* The infrastructure is aging. (There seems to be less opportunity to invest in
this infrastructure.)
* There are reducing levels of expertise. This is a specialist market and needs
succession planning. Is the age of people in this room going to get younger
or continue aging?
He then gave his own responses to the challenges:
New media services mean IP distribution. It also means content aggregation and
management -- archiving/multiple platform/content management system/DRM.
The nature of broadcasting says we of necessity have to go digital. DRM is not
just necessarily a swap out of analog to digital. It does utilize the HF
part of the food chain as well as the logistics of the digital audience.
We need Global Infrastructure Solutions (look at it as industry sites and
individually done sites…).
* Global capacity utilization
* Consultancy/ project management
* Design build operation
* Network /service management (what are the investment plans around the world?)
* Partnership
Brian concluded: “International broadcasting is definitely changing.”
From my discussions during the meetings, a couple of points about DRM bear
mention:
* Global initialization is at a standstill. The reason for this is there are no
affordable receivers available. This has proven discouraging to broadcasters.
There are a few broadcasters that see analog as not being diminished in the
near future.
* It is however worth noting that broadcasters are still preparing for DRM
implementation. The general feeling from quite a few broadcasters is that DRM
is here, and is a natural progression from current analog broadcasting (note
Brian Coombes' comments.) Gary Stanley of VTC mentioned their DRM broadcasts
are diminishing until there is a change in the receiver distribution. He said
when they upgrade transmitters it is to DRM-compliant ones. It is a consensus
that new transmitter implementation is with DRM-compliant transmitters. Mr.
Jacques Gruson of TDF mentioned that France has fully implemented DRM.
The conference took place during the Lunar (Chinese) New Year celebrations. On
Thursday evening the HFCC delegation was invited to a Chinese New Year Banquet
at the Saloma Bistro & Theatre Restaurant. This was a Malaysian style Lunar
New Year dinner that was preceded by the traditional Chinese Lion Dance. During
the meal we were also treated to some Malaysian cultural dances.
Notes from the plenary meeting:
Next conferences:
The B08 conference should be in Russia,
25 – 29th August 2008
The A09 conference has been confirmed to be in Tunis
02-06th February 2009
Articles of Association
A proposed revision of the Articles of Association had been approved at the Birmingham meeting. Since
then, there had been minor amendments to take account of. The revision was
necessary to bring the Article of Association into line with current practices
and to introduce a new level of membership of Associate Membership. GFC raised
a concern about the wording of Section 8:1. The steering board will be meeting
with them after the conference to look at revising the wording of that
paragraph if necessary. Once this is completed, it would be assumed that the
articles could be approved by the Plenary. There were no objections to this.
Finance and Membership Fees
The Czech Koruna became much stronger against the Euro, and inflation rose in
the Czech Republic
as well. The result is that the increased expenses almost used all of the
savings up. The conclusion is that a 10% increase in fees is necessary. This
was approved and membership fees must be raised immediately by 10%. There
will be a second stage in the increase of membership fees in 2009.
Elections
Vice Chairman: Horst Scholz (re-elected)
Finances: Geoff Spells (re-elected)
Group of Experts Meeting (GOE)
HFCC has had a new web server online. It has proven to be much more reliable
and guarantees speedy access. Navid Homayouni (IRIB) has continued work on the
new procedure for S/I calculated collisions. Norbert Schall has also proposed
some improvements in calculation methods. These should be implemented soon.
As demonstrated by Norbert, the coverage area can be significantly influenced
by the antenna design frequency so this should be included in requirements.
Only a few requirements include the antenna design frequency. All coordinators
are urged to include the antenna designs in their requirements.
Because CIRAF zone classification is sometimes too large for actual
coverage/target areas, Norbert Schall has proposed a solution using a polygon
to describe the wanted service area and to use a regular grid of points inside
the polygon for calculation.
As discussed at the Birmingham
meeting, it is now possible to go ahead with managing DRM Service. HFCC has set
up a web server to coordinate the uniqueness of DRM IDs.
New Language codes: The ITU will be implementing ISO693-3, the most up to date
language coding. This is to provide area for more language codes.
The Steering Board is putting a great effort into eliminating wooden
frequencies. It was noted that a part of the HFCC database requirements are
still either wooden or alternative frequencies.
Monitoring (IRUS)
There has been a lack of monitoring data for this season. There will be more
effort put into the IRUS monitoring. There is hope of more consistent data
coming from the new monitoring system now in the Asia Pacific region.
WRC-07:
Geoff Spells gave a summary of the outcome of additional spectrum for HF
broadcasting. There was no outcome! Usually there is a spirit of compromise to
reach an outcome acceptable to all. There was no discussion or willingness to
do so. There was such strong opposition from administrations who were opposed
to HF broadcasting that it was thrown out. The only support for the article
came from the Europe region. The rest of the
world was against it. The amount of antagonism against broadcasting was
incredible! Broadcasting service was the only one that had a detailed
requirement, but it wasn’t even given a consideration. Other services are
actually out to take spectrum away from broadcasters.
As a consequence of the decisions taken at WRC-03 Article 12, from 29th March
2009 the band 7100-7200 kHz is allocated to the amateur service so cannot be
used for broadcasting. However, the band 7350-7450 kHz becomes available to the
broadcasting service but the use of this band in some countries is subject to a
number of footnotes in Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations. This needs to be
taken into account when planning the A09 schedule. Much of the bandwidth from
7350-7450 kHz is already being used by HF broadcasters!
Oldrich said a rather grim picture has been painted regarding any additional
spectrum and the difficulty we continue to have in our process.
Membership Issues
There
is a new category of Associate Membership. They won’t have any part in the
coordination process. (For example, BBC would like to participate, but
VTC does the frequency management.)
Applications for membership:
Mr. Sigitos Ziliones from Lithuania
applied. Oldrich explained that he would be submitting frequency requirements
for ZRC
Jaap van der Leest from the Radio Communications Agency of the Netherlands
(RCA) had applied for membership.
New applications from Russia:
1) GFC is an official government organization and will be the only
representative for VOR. 2) VOR applied for associate member. 3) TRC
(works with VOR) applied for associate member. 4) For some reason TRW is not an
official member though they have been coordinating, so it was proposed to make
them members today. 5) Russian TV and Radio Network (RTRN) applied for associate
membership.
WRTH have asked to become an Associate Member. As they are not a broadcaster,
their request was questioned as to what reason there would be for membership.
At the conclusion of the conference, Sharad Sadhu Technical Director of ABU
made mention that one individual, Oldrich Cip, had put a great deal of effort
into making the coordination process work. In honor of appreciation for his
pioneering contribution to the regional co-ordination process for shortwave
radio broadcasting, he presented Oldrich with a plaque from ABU.
------
Upcoming HFCC Conferences
B08 – Russia (exact site not yet determined), 25-29
August, 2008 hosted by GFC and Voice of Russia
A09 - Tunis,
Tunisia 2-6
February, 2009 hosted by Arab States Broadcasting Union
NASB members who
might be interested in representing the Association at either of these meetings
under the standard partial reimbursement plan should contact us as soon as
possible.
Other News from the HFCC
Vladislav Cip of
the HFCC Secretariat informs us of the retirement of colleague Honorio L.
Llavore of Radio Veritas Asia in the Philippines. After thirty years of service to Radio
Veritas Asia, Honorio Llavore retired on April 1, 2008. In view of this, his duties as representative
to the HFCC have also been terminated. “I would like to take this opportunity,”
said Honorio, “to thank all our colleagues at the HFCC for extending to me all
the help and wonderful moments at the conferences I have attended.”
------
BBC World Service Appointed Chair of DRM
Consortium
News
release from Fanny Podworny, DRM Consortium (pressoffice@drm.org)
Bonn, Germany– Every two years, the Digital
Radio Mondiale TM consortium holds elections. This year the members of the
Steering Board, the key players of the DRM Consortium, were elected. After 10
years as Chairman of DRM, Peter Senger retired from both DRM and his position
as Deutsche Welle’s Director of DRM. His successor comes from another well
known and respected international broadcaster, the BBC World Service in London. Mrs. Ruxandra
Obreja, Controller Business Development, BBC World Service, has been
unanimously elected as new Chair of the DRM Consortium and DRM Association.
The
voting took place in Bonn
at the premises of the long time DRM member and broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
There was a great round of applause from the members of the Consortium for Mr.
Peter Senger who as Chairman of the Consortium for the past ten years made an
enormous contribution to the development of the DRM standard.
The
new Chair, Mrs. Ruxandra Obreja, introduced her vision to the members in a
short presentation. She stated that: “DRM is on the threshold of a new era.
Thanks to the brilliant work of our technical colleagues over the past ten
years, the DRM standard is now mature. The challenge for all of us is to ensure
that in the next few years the DRM standard is taken up on a mass scale. I see
this as both the biggest challenge for the consortium and me personally.”
The
DRM consortium greatly appreciates the offer of the BBC to take the lead in
this enterprise announcing that it is ready to host the DRM Project Office in London.
DRM
also elected two Vice Chairmen – Jochen Huber of TRANSRADIO SenderSysteme
Berlin AG and Giuseppe Allamano of RAI
Way. Michel Penneroux of TDF was re-elected as
Commercial Committee Chair. Lindsay Cornell of the BBC was re-elected as
Technical Committee Chair. DRMs Treasurer and EB Chair, Albert Heuberger of
Fraunhofer Institut IIS, stepped down from his DRM role. Alexander Zink of Fraunhofer IIS was elected
as Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the DRM Association.
Jochen
Huber of TRANSRADIO SenderSysteme Berlin AG is now the Executive Board Chair.
DRM elected five new companies to its Steering Board: Analog Devices, Dolby
Laboratories, RAI Way,
SWR Südwestrundfunk and TDP. They join the re-elected Steering Board members
BBC, Continental Electronics, Deutsche Welle, Fraunhofer IIS, Hitachi Kokusai
Electric Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, RIZ Transmitters, TDF, Thomson Broadcast
& Multimedia, TRANSRADIO SenderSysteme Berlin AG, VT Communications and
WRN.
Axión Launches DRM Spanish Website
Geneva, Switzerland – The broadcast operator
Axión, a Spanish subsidiary of the DRM
Member
TDF, has launched a Spanish website dedicated to DRM at www.drm.org.es. Several
of DRM's Spanish members participated in the creation of the website, which
displays DRM promotional activities in Spain. This is the Spanish
extension of the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium website (www.drm.org.)
The
launch of a Spanish DRM website is a key Internet source for all those
interested in
discovering
information in Spanish about DRM. This will not only increase the understanding
of the DRM system but will also describe its commercial roll out in Spain. Besides detailed technical information on the
system, the website has the facility for visitors to listen to the excellent
quality of the DRM digital sound and to compare it with the traditional
analogue sound. The Internet user can view the latest developments in DRM radio
receivers and download the DRM live, on air, broadcast schedule. The DRM
Consortium and the Spanish Platform, in which Axión actively takes part,
provide the Internet user with complete and up-to-date news about Digital Radio
Mondiale. Click and view the new DRM
website in Spanish on www.drm.org.es.
Axión
is a broadcasting and transport networks operator and a service provider for
both digital and analogue radio and television, mobile and fixed phone, as well
as other communication services. Following its parent company, TDF, Axión has
collaborated in the impulse of Digital Radio as the only independent operator
who possesses a mediumwave broadcasting network.
Last
year, Axión took part with Cadena Ser, the University of the Basque Country and
the equipment’s supplier Vimesa in broadcasting DRM tests. These began last
June from Pozuelo tower (Madrid)
in order to evaluate the benefits of the technology. In cooperation with COPE
radio and the University of Vigo, Axión initiated broadcasting in DRM at Zamora, simulcasting in analogue
and digital. Further information on
Axion is available from http://www.axion.es/.
------
Decision Extends HCJB’s Shortwave Broadcasts; New DRM Service Starts
73s from Harri Kujala