Digital Radio Mondiale

AnthonyUK

:beer: This new digital radio standard is a way of transmitting digital radio signals over existing MW/LW and SW bands and has significant advantages over analogue AM;

An immediate improvement in quality with near FM quality mono and stereo transmissions,

Reception is much improved over analogue AM and you don't get the familiar fading and whistling that is endemic to MW/LW and SW along with the interference/splatter etc,

You find stations by name and not necessarily by frequency(you pick your desired station name from the electronic programme guide and the receiver finds it for you),

If a broadcaster changes frequency/waveband through the broadcast the radio automatically follows it to the next frequency/waveband without you knowing,

Ease of use,

Programme/music etc information transmitted along with the broadcasts eg the type of music/the music and artist/the genre etc,

Multimedia images and text(if the broadcaster chooses to transmit and send it).

There is only one DRM/DAB/MW/LW/SW/FM multiband set on the market BUT it's NOT available in the shops;

The Morphy Richards 27024 DRM Radio which you can buy for £199.99 online direct from Morphy Richards on their website

www.morphyrichards.co.uk

OR if you want to get it cheaper at £149.99 then go to

www.igear.com

The only problem the Morphy suffers from is that you can't connect external antennae to improve reception leaving you to rely on the built in telescopic aerial and you can only use mains power to power it.

Roberts have a finished portable mains/battery/rechargeable battery DRM multiband set the MP40 which is based on their familiar MP30 DAB/FM radio BUT they keep delaying it's launch and putting off the launch;i've seen it at consumer electronics fairs and tried it out and it is generally very good.

To contact roberts and find out when this set is coming out

[EMAIL="information@robertsradio.co.uk"]information@robertsradio.co.uk[/EMAIL]

is the email address you need to contact.

There are lots of DRM SW transmissions across Europe and worldwide that you can receive (plus DRM stations in Europe that come into the UK at night on MW with the atmospherics and propagation that night-time MW reception tends to pull in)and a local DRM one that BBC Radio Devon are currently trialling in Plymouth Devon on 855kHz MW(351m).:j

buglawton

Since DAB covers my UK requirements I can see DRM being useful for receiving international broadcasts. The killer application to make me or my rels living abroad buy one is bullet-proof access to at least BBC world service a possibility. This means there's have to be auto tuning and a sort of database of which frequency is best at what time of day at various locations in world. There'd have to be loads of redundancy in case of atmospherics. If such a radio could practically be guaranteed to pick up BBC world service in any hotel room in Europe (for starters) then and only then would I be interested. Have the DRM designers and the BBC (or other broadcasters) set up such a system?

AnthonyUK

:beer: BBC World Service have regular transmissions in DRM to Europe daily on 1296kHz MW, and on various SW frequencies from various tx sites in the UK and on the European continent. Check out www.drm.org and click on live broadcasts schedule for details of BBC World Service/Deutsche Welle/Radio Taiwan International/KBS World Radio/RTL/Radio Prague/Radio Netherlands/Radio France International/Voice of Russia/Vatican Radio etc DRM MW LW & SW transmission frequencies/tx power/tx sites and their various broadcast hours(some of the tx details even have target area maps showing the reception areas the tx sites transmit to). Cheers! PS BBC WS have reduced a lot of their SW provision to various areas of Europe and other areas of the world so could well be increasing DRM output.

Sterlingtimes

Everything that is on DRM can be received on WIFI radio.

Except for portable operation, it appears to be pretty pointless which is why manufacturers have so far been uninterested.

buglawton

It's 2008 and you cannot do the following with any ordinary/highly portable consumer product:

1. Listen to good quality stereo radio reception of local & national stations as you walk, cycle, queue at the airport or use public transport (DAB completely fails to provide this on a wearable device).

2. Listen to major international broadcasters ANYWHERE and RELIABLY in your car (or on a portable device). This would attract me as I could do language practice driving to work.

DRM has the potential to solve these things but the current offering is not a fully designed system - after making the expensive investment in a bulky portable radio, you might or might not be able to pick up that major station during some or another hours of the day in some or other places around the world. DRM could provide a fully designed global network coverage but does not. So just not worth the investment for the consumer. As OP says above, we'll end up using WiFi (or 3G) radio for purposes (1) and (2), long before DRM gets it's act together, more's the pity.

AnthonyUK

...wifi isn't available everywhere as aren't 3G services. Roberts Radio have their MP40(to be released) to take a look at it go to www.radioeng.co.uk click on DRM receivers. It runs on 4xLR20/R20 batteries plus mains and an optional rechargable battery pack,has a built in telescopic antenna,external antenna sockets,SD card recording from analog plus DRM/DAB wavebands,and it has MW/LW/SW/FM wavebands in addition to DRM on MW/LW/SW and DAB(DAB is a poor quality method of delivery in the UK). The radio can also playback your MP3 and Windows Media Audio file collections on SD card as well. It is a far better bet than the Morphy and is the only receiver at present that is truly portable. It's sister receiver Sangean DRM40 which is basically the same is supposed to be released at the same time as the Roberts but like Roberts keep delaying launch dates.:D

buglawton

I can believe that the receivers are very sophisticated... but what about the actual services and the networking concept... Good old RDS means your car radio will automatically store a list of frequencies for each station and tune to the strongest at any one moment. It transformed in-car FM. Does DRM do anything similar?

AnthonyUK

Digital Radio Mondiale receivers have a similar RDS type display to normal DAB/FM radios and car-radios, and can also show complete information for the station you're listening to;genres/tracks/artists/station name and time and can, if the broadcaster allows, show multimedia images and text, and if the broadcast changes frequency/waveband during the broadcast,the radio follows it exactly so you don't have to retune. When you first switch on the DRM receiver it will automatically do an autotune to all receivable stations on all the wavebands. You select your favourite stations from an EPG on the receiver and the receiver will find it for you, and retune as necessary, say if a station changes frequency/waveband during the broadcasts(this does happen with DRM services on SW;ie change of frequency/target area).