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#1
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz
from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen |
#2
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
On Feb 23, 9:50*pm, bpnjensen wrote:
I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. *A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. *The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. *Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen This is a problem they had for a long time. My guess : equalization is way overdone. The low frequencies are dominant and human speech sounds like rumbling elephants. Some D.Welle transmissions used a similar technique over the years. May be V.of Nigeria is doing the same. On the other hand, overmodulation may cause something very similar,perhaps. It does make extended listening very uncomfortable. Just checked their live audio stream on the website and even that was not that great. The highs are attenuated significantly above 6KHz or so,and there is an annoying heterodyne[!] that is an obvious porblem in the studio equipment. |
#3
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
On Feb 23, 9:12*pm, wrote:
On Feb 23, 9:50*pm, bpnjensen wrote: I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. *A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. *The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. *Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *This is a problem they had for a long time. *My guess : * equalization is way overdone. *The low frequencies are dominant and human speech sounds like rumbling elephants. Some D.Welle transmissions used a similar technique over the years. *May be V.of Nigeria is doing the same. On the other hand, overmodulation may cause something very similar,perhaps. *It does make extended listening very uncomfortable. Just checked their live audio stream *on the website and even that was not that great. The highs are attenuated significantly above 6KHz or so,and there is an annoying heterodyne[!] that is an obvious porblem in the studio equipment. Thanks for this...I had not thought of it, maybe because I think this would seem rather obvious to an engineer, or maybe just because I'm me ;-). I did not notice the het on the b'cast, but I had on the autonotch to slice out some interference, so that might have banned it, too. My Icom R75 on AM-wide has a 6 KHz filter on it, generally completely adequate for every other station, especially strong ones; and come neither love nor money, could I get a decent top end out of the signal. Not be detuning, not by passband tuning, not on SSB either. Only on a handful of audio bits - all recorded interviews of people with high, mousey voices - was there truly intelligible voice. I have this problem only with one other station in my recollection - Radio Cairo, and that's not its only problem (RC's audio is so weak it is almost a whisper). Anyway, I wrote them a reception report (those program details were tough!), and in honesty had to explain my perception of this problem. Whether they choose to QSL or not, if they have received even a single other complaint of this type, I am not sure how they could ignore it. I just hope the engineers do not lose their jobs... Bruce Jensen |
#4
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
On Feb 24, 12:25*am, bpnjensen wrote:
On Feb 23, 9:12*pm, wrote: On Feb 23, 9:50*pm, bpnjensen wrote: I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. *A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. *The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. *Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *This is a problem they had for a long time. *My guess : * equalization is way overdone. *The low frequencies are dominant and human speech sounds like rumbling elephants. Some D.Welle transmissions used a similar technique over the years. *May be V.of Nigeria is doing the same. On the other hand, overmodulation may cause something very similar,perhaps. *It does make extended listening very uncomfortable. Just checked their live audio stream *on the website and even that was not that great. The highs are attenuated significantly above 6KHz or so,and there is an annoying heterodyne[!] that is an obvious porblem in the studio equipment. Thanks for this...I had not thought of it, maybe because I think this would seem rather obvious to an engineer, or maybe just because I'm me ;-). *I *did not notice the *het on the b'cast, but I had on the autonotch to slice out some interference, so that might have banned it, too. My Icom R75 on AM-wide has a 6 KHz filter on it, generally completely adequate for every other station, especially strong ones; and come neither love nor money, could I get a decent top end out of the signal. *Not be detuning, not by passband tuning, not on SSB either. Only on a handful of audio bits - all recorded interviews of people with high, mousey voices - was there truly intelligible voice. *I have this problem only with one other station in my recollection - Radio Cairo, and that's not its only problem (RC's audio is so weak it is almost a whisper). Anyway, I wrote them a reception report (those program details were tough!), and in honesty had to explain my perception of this problem. Whether they choose to QSL or not, if they have received even a single other complaint of this type, I am not sure how they could ignore it. I just hope the engineers do not lose their jobs... Bruce Jensen- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Now ,here is a station that obviously doesn't care at all as far as their audio quality goes!!! Not only the audio is nearly not hearable, but on top of it they had the worst hum (50Hz) . Talk about power supply signature... |
#5
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
"bpnjensen" wrote in message ... I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen They are using the Optimod processor. |
#6
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
On 2/24/10 02:50 , TJ wrote:
wrote in message ... I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen They are using the Optimod processor. LOL! |
#7
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
bpnjensen wrote:
I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Technical incompetence? |
#8
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
On Feb 24, 12:25 am, bpnjensen wrote: On Feb 23, 9:12 pm, wrote: On Feb 23, 9:50 pm, bpnjensen wrote: I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen This is a problem they had for a long time. My guess : equalization is way overdone. The low frequencies are dominant and human speech sounds like rumbling elephants. Some D.Welle transmissions used a similar technique over the years. May be V.of Nigeria is doing the same. On the other hand, overmodulation may cause something very similar,perhaps. It does make extended listening very uncomfortable. Just checked their live audio stream on the website and even that was not that great. The highs are attenuated significantly above 6KHz or so,and there is an annoying heterodyne[!] that is an obvious porblem in the studio equipment. Thanks for this...I had not thought of it, maybe because I think this would seem rather obvious to an engineer, or maybe just because I'm me ;-). I did not notice the het on the b'cast, but I had on the autonotch to slice out some interference, so that might have banned it, too. My Icom R75 on AM-wide has a 6 KHz filter on it, generally completely adequate for every other station, especially strong ones; and come neither love nor money, could I get a decent top end out of the signal. Not be detuning, not by passband tuning, not on SSB either. Only on a handful of audio bits - all recorded interviews of people with high, mousey voices - was there truly intelligible voice. I have this problem only with one other station in my recollection - Radio Cairo, and that's not its only problem (RC's audio is so weak it is almost a whisper). Anyway, I wrote them a reception report (those program details were tough!), and in honesty had to explain my perception of this problem. Whether they choose to QSL or not, if they have received even a single other complaint of this type, I am not sure how they could ignore it. I just hope the engineers do not lose their jobs... Bruce Jensen- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - wrote: Now ,here is a station that obviously doesn't care at all as far as their audio quality goes!!! Not only the audio is nearly not hearable, but on top of it they had the worst hum (50Hz) . Talk about power supply signature... 50 Hz if the hum -originates- in the audio chain or 100 Hz if in the power supply (presuming they are using full-wave rectification, single phase power supply). |
#9
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
"Joe from Kokomo" wrote in message ... 50 Hz if the hum -originates- in the audio chain or 100 Hz if in the power supply (presuming they are using full-wave rectification, single phase power supply). Most anything over 1KW uses 3 phase power. Full wave rectification of 3 phase 50 Hz power would have hum at a 150 Hz rate, IIRC... but shouldn't have much of it, since 3 phase power is much easier to filter. |
#10
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Voice of Nigeria - what's up with their audio?
TJ wrote:
wrote in message ... I was home sick today, so I was listening to V. Nigeria on 15,120 KHz from about 2000 to 2100z. A potent signal to say the least, would have been easy armchair copy except for one thing - their audio is terrible. The sound is either muffled, or overmodulated, or the high tones are omitted, or something, but the distortion makes an otherwise great African signal almost unlistenable much of the time. Any ideas what their problem might be? Thanks, Bruce Jensen They are using the Optimod processor. Optimod shouldn't do that. Bob Orban lurks. |
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