Back in their days as bitXpres on 15896 kHz I actually heard them here in New Zealand, though only a few seconds of decoding. Still one of my best DRM catches ever though. 15785 is a much worse frequency with CRI on it :-(
Re Radio Purga. After a flurry of activity a couple of months ago, I've heard absolutely nothing from them recently, despite checking regularly. Disappointing!
I can see Radio Romania International's DRM signal on 7220 kHz on my waterfall (0507 UTC) but it's much too weak to decode. (This is par for the course here in San Diego. Only occasionally can I decode any DRM signals, though a few are often visible if I look around.) The decoder can't even sync, but I can tell it's DRM by looking at the waterfall:
It's 10 kHz wide.
There's a gap in the center of the channel (DRM avoids that to reject AM carriers)
I can see the three unmodulated pilots in the high half of the signal. They're at +750 Hz, +2,250 Hz and +3,000 Hz.
I happened to receive Ceske radiokomunikace on 954 KHz ("not verified" in drmrx.org list) since abt. 16:00 UTC. But I don't know whether it is test or regular transmission, although it sounds like the latter. Kiwi QTH: abt. 80 km northwest of Berlin; software version: 1.573.
Time 15:28 UTC, not sure the start and finish times.
AAC 9.80 Kbps
Sounds very bad, why such low bitrate, why can't they choose even 16 Kbps ? why always choose the worst possible quality. Analogue would sound so much better.
Signal S8 S9 here in Ireland picked up on my EFHW 134 feet long.
Kuwait on 15110, not started yet according to the Kiwi Schedule, obviously changed the time and as usual can't decode it what a waste. S20 signal here in Ireland.
You guys need to understand that for DRM signal strength isn't the only determining factor in getting successful decodes. Just as important is the degree of selective fading (those dark ripples you see in the DRM waterfall if the waterfall colors are setup correctly).
If too much of the spectrum has faded at a particular point in time, and the DRM FEC and other redundancy measures can't compensate, then the MSC indicator will go red and you'll get audio drops. Try another Kiwi where propagation conditions are better.
The DRM station can increase the resistance to selective fading (and other issues with shortwave) by lowering the bitrate or changing other parameters. No free lunch..
There does seem to be a genuine problem with Radio Kuwait.
I have a good stable signal with 20dB reported S/N margin, but no decodes.
It's always been very slightly off frequency too.
I don't know why these stations are wasting their electricity bills on pumping out DRM. As a technology I don't think it is going anywhere, unless someone thinks of using it in a different way, such as carrying data, such as for HF trading.
Lowering bitrates isn't really a good solution, as 8 Kbps sounds absolutely terrible and I can hardly listen to it. I'd rather an analogue station at S5 signal than that horrible digital noise because at 8 Kbps that's all you're left with after most of the audio has been removed due to severe compression and I do not know why this is advertised as being quality digital audio because it's as far from quality as you can get.
Listening to RRI at 20 Kbps is just barely acceptable, xHE-AAC at 20 Kbps would sound pretty good even better then funklust, funklust sounds decent but there appears to be too much bass and not enough treble now that could be down to the sound engineers preference or it could be the nature of xHE-AAC I don't know.
>As a technology I don't think it is going anywhere, unless someone thinks of using it in a different way, such as >carrying data, such as for HF trading.
The HF trading people use their own propriety modems to send the financial data. Using the DRM process for this type of data would add too much latency to make it useful.
If DRM is set up correctly, it works well. The best configured DRM station is Funklast on 15785 kHz. I've received its low power signal with excellent quality in the Atlanta area.
Comments
500 km is too close for 15+ MHz.
Back in their days as bitXpres on 15896 kHz I actually heard them here in New Zealand, though only a few seconds of decoding. Still one of my best DRM catches ever though. 15785 is a much worse frequency with CRI on it :-(
73 Chris
And at 06:05 UTC even some signs of it again here in NZ, battling it's way through CRI!
Disclaimer - this is on my old FRG-100 not my Kiwi's 😀
73 Chris
In Kotka, Finland, about 1500km from Erlangen the reception is good 😁
http://flydog.psokiwi.net:8073/?f=15785.00drmz9
Awesome, thanks for the feedback! Obviously I misinterpreted my observations and what I read on their webpage. Sorry.
Decoded from Masset today at 19:19 UTC 29 September. Non-stop music. I'm pleased with this catch at approximately 7978 km. Power?
Re Radio Purga. After a flurry of activity a couple of months ago, I've heard absolutely nothing from them recently, despite checking regularly. Disappointing!
Was 100W in the past.
Pyongyang 3205 signs off at 18:00 sharp. Confirmed this week on Tuesday via my Masset Kiwi site.
6040 kHz Radio Romania International @ 22:55 UTC
3965 kHz Radio France International @ 23:22 UTC
7220 kHz RRI Galbeni strong DRM signal at 05:00 UTC today in Moscow:
I can see Radio Romania International's DRM signal on 7220 kHz on my waterfall (0507 UTC) but it's much too weak to decode. (This is par for the course here in San Diego. Only occasionally can I decode any DRM signals, though a few are often visible if I look around.) The decoder can't even sync, but I can tell it's DRM by looking at the waterfall:
WINB Red Lion 15750kHz, 16th March 2022, 1445UTC. Too weak to get full audio.
Why is this left and right side different look?
Maybe it is some military signal covering the lower half of WINB´s DRM. There are all sorts of strange signal nowadays.
Scroll down through the thread for the explanation.
see also a discussion earlier:
https://forum.kiwisdr.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/9456#Comment_9456
I happened to receive Ceske radiokomunikace on 954 KHz ("not verified" in drmrx.org list) since abt. 16:00 UTC. But I don't know whether it is test or regular transmission, although it sounds like the latter. Kiwi QTH: abt. 80 km northwest of Berlin; software version: 1.573.
Good catch. Might want to add your report here (account required): https://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3068
Or on Twitter using tag
#drmlogI confirm this reception from Italy too, it began at 15:30 UTC.
Fading peaking 9+10dB
Radio Ceske on 954 kHz is regularly heard and decoded when conditions are good. Location Oslo a fair distance from the tx site.
KTWR on 12055 Khz
Time 15:28 UTC, not sure the start and finish times.
AAC 9.80 Kbps
Sounds very bad, why such low bitrate, why can't they choose even 16 Kbps ? why always choose the worst possible quality. Analogue would sound so much better.
Signal S8 S9 here in Ireland picked up on my EFHW 134 feet long.
Kuwait on 15110, not started yet according to the Kiwi Schedule, obviously changed the time and as usual can't decode it what a waste. S20 signal here in Ireland.
WINB 15755 Khz, no decode,
Kiwi Schedual 15750 Khz
Signal S6 S7
Audio AAC 8.28 Kbps, again shockingly low bitrate.
Same here, can't decode Kuwait 15110 anymore although signal is fairly strong (S9+20). In the past this was never a problem.
WINB 15755 is significantly weaker (S7), but decoding works sometimes.
Location: abt. 70 km northwest from Berlin.
Radio Romania International 5955 Khz no decode despite S20 signal and this seems to be common with RRI, big signal no decode ?
RRI 7235 Khz perfect decode S35 signal. or 35 over 9.
20..96 Kbps is one of the better sounding DRM stations, I can actually listen to it, I can only imagine XHE-AAC at 20.96 Kbps.
You guys need to understand that for DRM signal strength isn't the only determining factor in getting successful decodes. Just as important is the degree of selective fading (those dark ripples you see in the DRM waterfall if the waterfall colors are setup correctly).
If too much of the spectrum has faded at a particular point in time, and the DRM FEC and other redundancy measures can't compensate, then the
MSCindicator will go red and you'll get audio drops. Try another Kiwi where propagation conditions are better.The DRM station can increase the resistance to selective fading (and other issues with shortwave) by lowering the bitrate or changing other parameters. No free lunch..
There does seem to be a genuine problem with Radio Kuwait.
I have a good stable signal with 20dB reported S/N margin, but no decodes.
It's always been very slightly off frequency too.
I don't know why these stations are wasting their electricity bills on pumping out DRM. As a technology I don't think it is going anywhere, unless someone thinks of using it in a different way, such as carrying data, such as for HF trading.
Lowering bitrates isn't really a good solution, as 8 Kbps sounds absolutely terrible and I can hardly listen to it. I'd rather an analogue station at S5 signal than that horrible digital noise because at 8 Kbps that's all you're left with after most of the audio has been removed due to severe compression and I do not know why this is advertised as being quality digital audio because it's as far from quality as you can get.
Listening to RRI at 20 Kbps is just barely acceptable, xHE-AAC at 20 Kbps would sound pretty good even better then funklust, funklust sounds decent but there appears to be too much bass and not enough treble now that could be down to the sound engineers preference or it could be the nature of xHE-AAC I don't know.
>As a technology I don't think it is going anywhere, unless someone thinks of using it in a different way, such as >carrying data, such as for HF trading.
The HF trading people use their own propriety modems to send the financial data. Using the DRM process for this type of data would add too much latency to make it useful.
If DRM is set up correctly, it works well. The best configured DRM station is Funklast on 15785 kHz. I've received its low power signal with excellent quality in the Atlanta area.