Broadcast Australia together with SBS had organized a DRM test in Canberra (Australia). Both parties were interested in an extension of the test phase with technology from TRANSRADIO.
In conjunction with a planned trip to Australia, Christian Hoerlle, project manager digital radio at TRANSRADIO installed a DRM DMOD 2 exciter at the Canberra station (Broadcast Australia’s Gungahlin site). Gungahlin is one of Canberra’s northern suburbs. The Installation took place in the early hours of 7. 2. 2007 from 0:00 to 5:00. Although the available transmitter was not DRM capable, SBS wanted to operate the transmitter in Multichannel Simulcast mode. For that reason the regular AM transmission is on 1440 kHz and the DRM transmission operates on 1431kHz. Programme content for the Canberra trial is provided by SBS Radio. Furthermore the TRANSRADIO DRM exciter is working in conjunction with a Harris DAX-3 transmitter operating at an analogue output power of 2kW.
The installation was completed in one night and the DRM transmission went on air complying with the ITU spectrum masks for AM and DRM transmission. The comprehensive corrective measures built into the DRM DMOD were found to be of great benefit when installed in this transmitter unsuited for DRM.
Darryl Fallow, senior transmitter engineer of Broadcast Australia, who also accompanied the previous tests, was enthusiastic about the simple and fast installation of the TRANSRADIO DRM system. In his words: „I have never seen such a fast DRM installation. For the most part Mr. Hoerlle was busy with measurements on the transmitter. The actual installation took place in less than an hour. Also the simplicity, the unproblematic switching between the modes pure DRM, Multichannel Simulcast and AM were impressive, one mouse click and no system crash whatsoever as had occurred with the systems tested so far.”
The senior transmission engineer of SBS Collin Elston accompanied the installation and was impressed with the good MER. His first receiver tests in the same night showed that although the same transmitter was used, a substantially better MER was achieved and thus the service area could be significantly increased.
Collin Elston said: „Now I understand why the Spanish, with so little power in Arganda, achieved a far better coverage compared to that in Vietnam.”
SBS is very interested in pursuing the test with a TRANSRADIO transmitter and with the same power achieving an even better coverage.
www.broadcast-transradio.com/html/company.html www.drm.org/ Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)
DRM is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to
providign digital radio on short wave (SW) and medium wave (MW).
Digital Radio Mondiale is a narrowband digital terrestrial system that
utilises an HF or MF channel only 9kHz wide to deliver 25kbs of data,
enough for a single service [Has radio a digital future?]DRM could
allow international services such as Radio Australia to go digital
without the cost of high power satellites, or it could be used to
replace wide-coverage AM services such as ABC regional radio [Has
radio a digital future?]]. At the last ABA Conference, the BBC's
Lindsay Cornell suggested a hybrid DRM/Eureka receiver might just be
the way to go for Australia, where lack of VHF spectrum threatens to
cripple Eureka in the bush.
DRM has the advantage of being used on upgraded AM transmitters and
their digital signal processing is simple compared to other digital
radio coding. The BBC and Deutsche Telecom have started DRM trials in
Europe.
-------------------------------------------------------
Australia prepares for Digital Radio Mondiale
Friday, September 29 2006, 15:19 BST
By James Welsh, International Editor
The Australian communications regulator has embargoed spectrum that
could in the future be used for Digital Radio Mondiale services.
The Australian Media and Communications Authority cited the country's
"interest" in the technology and ongoing international trials as the
reasons for the move.
"ACMA intends to plan for the introduction of Digital Radio Mondiale
but is also aware that international arrangements are still evolving
and that Australia is influenced by these arrangements," said Giles
Tanner, general manager of the ACMA's inputs to industry division.
"ACMA believes that a greater public benefit should be realised if its
introduction is planned rather than introduced prematurely while
international developments are still occurring. ACMA’s use of
embargoes and planning is intended to avoid the premature introduction
of unplanned services that may compromise the benefits to the public
that would otherwise result from the delivery of comprehensively
planned Digital Radio Mondiale bands."
No new frequency assignments will be permitted in the 5950–6200,
7100–
7300, 9500–9900, 11650–12050, 13600–13800, 15100–15600,
17550–17900,
21450–21850 and 25670–26100 kHz bands as a result of the embargo;
applications for DRM trials on the frequencies will, however, be
accepted.
DRM, unlike its DAB counterpart, is designed to deliver digital radio
services with FM-like quality sound over bands currently used for AM
broadcasts.
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