"Sidchase3" wrote in message
...
Has anybody built or bought a DRM capable receiver? I printed out a
schedule
of broadcastng times from the DRM website. It appears that there are
test
transmissions going on from participating broadcasters a good part of
the day.
One station transmits for an hour or two and then passes off to
another.

Has anyone heard these broadcasts? How was the clarity? As I mentioned
in
Future of shortwave, I think there is tremendous potential for
digital
shortwave particularly concerning the transmission of text. The
ability to
interface these receivers with a computer (PC, laptop, palm) coupled
with the
relatively high coverage to cost ratio would enable a greater variety
of
thought (political, social) from marginalized groups to the reach the
public.

Digital text transmissions are done all the time right now. Hams do it,
the military does it, utility stations do it. I suppose, if
broadcasters wanted to do it, they would. There was some thought given
to using the top 2 mhz(106 -108}of the US FM broadcast band for a
broadcast newspaper fax service. I have a 1947 magazine article showing
a prototype newspaper by radio fax service. It never caught on.

Morse code is already the simplest, lowest cost broadcast text option.

I can't see much advantage for broadcast text over text over the
internet. After all, internet text is available when the user wants it,
and not when the broadcaster wants to transmit it.


As far as the FCC banning domestic broadcasts, the law could be
challenged in
court--I admit I don't know what the cost would be. But more
importantly, I
think the ban needs to be challenged in the court of public of
opinion.

The FCC seems to have little interest in regulating speech on the
standard broadcasts, and none on SW. They certainly don't try to
enforce any distinctions between foriegn and domestic programming on SW.

The FCC does regulate frequency allocations and antenna patterns. But,
for practical purposes, when a station transmits to Mexico from Maine or
to Canada from Florida, they're also transmitting to the US.

I suppose one measure of gaugeing the interest the FCC has in
controlling what happens on shortwave radio is the low number of
enforcement actions they take against pirate broadcasters. They don't
seem to much care.

Given
the ridiculous situation today in which businesses can own multiple
stations in
one locality and enormous corporations control all the programming for
those
stations the FCC's rationale for the ban falls flat on its face.
Ironically,
domestic shortwave would represent the kind of programming diversity
that the
FCC claims it wants to promote.

-Bill

The ban isn't really enforced anymore. Several SW broadcasters sell
time for just about any kind of programming.

Frank Dresser