It had to happen sooner or
later. QSLing has finally come of age. In the world of DRM you can not
only send your reception report to your favourite broadcaster but you
can also email them screen shots of your reception!
Below are a collection of
screen shots from the various DRM stations that I've received. They
have all been received here at G7LTT in Randolph, NJ. Some of
them have audio files attached for your listening pleasure. Just click
the picture to hear them.
CVC is a religious broadcaster from
Australia. This broadcast was caught on a Saturday afternoon during the
Rugby world Cup. It came from Moosbrunn in Austria and was aimed at the
UK.
RCI's
Sackville transmitter is my local DRM site. They sublet their airtime
every day to other broadcasters such as Radio Sweden, Vatican etc.
I got this from DW's Sines transmitter in Portugal. Note that they are sending a Journaline text broadcast too.
This
is DW's Journaline broadcast. The blue coloured headlines are actually
web links which will open up the story in DReaM's mini web browser.
I got this one from Moosbrunn in Austria. Notice that there is no Journaline with this broadcast. this is unusual for DW.
This broadcast starts with the Call to Prayer. It comes direct from Kuwait and does very well here on the East Coast of the US.
In
the DRM world these guys rock!! Not because they have lots of flashy
stuff embedded in their data stream or because their programming is
excellent (which it is!) but rather because they are a low power
station running a mere 4KW. Yet despite their low power they are able
to reach their target audience with a 100% decodeable signal. This
broadcast was bagged whilst they were aiming their antenna towards
Europe.
Unfortunately
many SW stations don't seem to respect the fact that they share the
bands with other broadcasters. In this picture we see an AM carrier
right in the middle of the DRM carrier. The AM station clearly thought
that the DRM noise was just that; noise. So they popped up their
carrier thus trashing the DRM signal I was listening to. Click the
picture to hear the result.
China
Radio International comes from Radio Canada's Sackville site.
It's an English language service aimed at North America.
Radio
Sweden is another Sackville client. Indeed they even mention during
their sign-on that they are being broadcast from Radio Canada
International's Sackville transmitter. I really like their magazine
programme "60 Degrees North".
This
is RFI's offering from Montsinery in the Caribbean. It was a special
broadcast to the NAB show in Las Vegas which is held every April. It
was actually aimed at the West Coast of the US but was very well
received here in NJ. Despite the English speaking target audience it
was in fact a French and Spanish language output.
RNW
has a number of DRM outputs that reach us here in the US. This one was
on 9800KHz from Sackville. They also have one from their Bonnaire
station in the Caribbean. On good propagation days we can also get
their 5865KHz output from Luxembourg.
Radio
New Zealand International is a bit of a stretch for me. They must the
the absolute farthest DRM station from my location. I can usually hear
their carrier but can rarely decode their data. However, over on the
West Coast they come crashing in.
Just
like it says! I bagged this one directly from Italy on 11630KHz.
Vatican radio are a major player in the DRM world. They have outputs on
SW and MW all over the world. They are also a lessee on Radio Canada's
Sackville transmitter.
This
is another tough one for me. This is RFI's 1KW station on 3695KHz
from Issodoun in France. It's a local French broadcast that seems to
get out here to the East Coast very well at night. The tough part is
that it's in the middle of the US 75 meter ham band. Both RFI and DW
have an output in this band. I've heard many a comment from an ignorant
ham operator complaining about the 10K wide "noise". They just ignore it
an park their conversation on the top thus killing the DRM transmission
stone dead.
Again,
another tough one. This is Bayern RundFunk's news headlines output "B5
Aktuel" (B5 Notices). It's a 100W local output on 6085KHz. It's really
only available when the band conditions are favourable. Note that they
are sending some multi media as well as the audio stream. I was not
able to get any better signal that this so couldn't decode the audio or
multi media.
Another
European capture. This one is from Radio Romania International
(30KW Kvitsoy, Norway). Local broadcasters were to blame for me
not getting this one also.
Damn
those God bothering religious shortwave broadcasters! I had an S9+40db
signal from Radio Prague (100KW Wofferton, UK) but couldn't decode much
of it. Just 5kHz below them was one of my local God bothers prattling
on about the book of Galations and he was spilling over his channel
allotment something awful! So much for "love thy neighbour".
Sometimes
getting up early in the morning pays off. I bagged this Spanish
broadcaster at 3:45 in the morning on 9730kHz. It appeared to be a
current affairs programme but I'm not sure as my Spanish is about as
good as my American.
I
snagged this one totally at random. It's a 100kW signal from Woofferton
in the UK. VT are one of the big players behind DRM and act as an
airtime wholesaler. They own/manage a bunch of transmitters in the UK.
This particular broadcast was on 9850kHz at 1230UTC. It was a relay of
a Radio Taiwan Intl programme.
