"Kristoff Bonne" wrote in message
...



DRM has two major advantages:
- it does away with fading, which is one of the things people find most
annoying about LW/MW/SW.

DRM cannot do away with fading. I have no doubt that a DRM listener won't
notice minor fading, but major fading will cause drop-outs, rather than fade
outs. I think most listeners would find drop-outs more jarring than fade
outs. Either way, it will still be an annoyance.

Every once in a while, there just is no SW signal progagation at all. DRM
signals won't get through any better on those no signal times than analog
signals do.


The "audio-quality" aspect is a bit mood as it all depends on what mode
you are using and I think for most people is not the most important
element. But if you produce a stable signal without fading, this would
make LW/MW/SW broadcasts quite acceptable by most people.

LW and MW analog broadcasts are usually quite acceptable within their ground
wave coverage area. Skywave progagation is sometimes a problem. DRM may,
or may not, reduce those problems.

People will know a particular radio station is on SW whenever it drops out
or just never shows up. Or they will blame the radio station. Or their DRM
radio.

I really don't think SW radio will ever achieve mainstream popularity,
whatever modulation scheme is used.



(The term "near-FM" is marketing talk, just ignore it).

Why do the DRM proponents make such a big issue of "near-FM" audio? Is that
really one of thier best arguements for DRM?




- It allows broadcasters to break into certain markets by broadcasting
from abroad. BCE (RTL's broadcasting arm) plan to use it to broadcast
using DRM on LW, MW and SW towards different countries.

I suppose there might be signal to noise advantages in fringe ground wave
areas on LW and MW. There would be economic advantages if they can get the
same signal to noise ratio at reduced power. Reducing power on LW and MW
should reduce interference areas where the radio landscape is crowded. So,
DRM might have some advantages on LW and MW in such places as Europe.

I still don't see any strong advantages on SW, which will always have uneven
propagation.


The new frequencies on LW and MW they have requested at the ITU are 279
Khz (Junglinster towards Germany), 567 Khz (Clervoux towards the
Netherlands), 783 Khz (Beidweiler towards France) and 1098 Khz (Clervoux
towards Belgium).

For SW, they have asked the HFCC for coordination for two frequencies:
5990 and 6095 Khz.



Cheerio! Kr. Bonne.

Frank Dresser