BC-DX 789 05 Jan 2007 Private Verwendung der Meldun

(wb, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 18)
ZIMBABWE 3396 R. Zimbabwe, Guineafowl, 2217-2232, 18 Feb, Vernacular,
AfR. Songs & tunes; 53342, adj. QRM de annoying racketing signal.
(Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 21)
DRM
DRM in Africa.
Broadcasters welcome new DRM Technology.
Broadcasters from across Africa gathered in Rwandan capital Kigali
beginning of December to propose new plans for the transition to digital
for their hundreds of millions of listeners. Co-hosted by Rwanda's
broadcaster ORINFOR and Germany's official voice to the outside world, the
Deutsche Welle (DW), the first-ever Pan-African Conference on Digital
Radio Mondiale (DRM) included special DRM test transmissions as well as a
wide variety of lectures from various representatives from large
international broadcasters and the transmitter industry.
"The conference is mainly for African broadcasters," said Peter Senger of
DW. Senger is also chairman of the DRM consortium. "The ones coming in
from overseas will be there to explain the benefits of this technology."
Live DRM Transmissions on 26 MHz.
In cooperation with DW, Thomson Broadcast & Multimedia provided test
equipment and a specialized transmitter engineer for around-theclock DRM
pilot transmissions on 26 MHz DRM low power shortwave.
The use of DRM in the 26 MHz shortwave band is an interesting option for
local broadcasting, especially for broadcasters with limited space within
the existing network or for those who wish to transmit a digital service
without impairing the existing one. This under-used band is available for
transmissions on DRM standard since 2004.
The 26 MHz test system for the Pan-African Conference was installed at the
DW Kigali shortwave relay station. Each of the delegates was presented
with a Hong-Kong assembled digital radio receiver from the company
Himalaya to listen to the special broadcast. "They'll be hearing for the
first time digital shortwave with FM quality", said Sengen The receivers
were sponsored by the Society for the Development of Democracy and Human
Rights.
New DRM Receivers.
"The receivers are more like computers than radios, and have a little
display screen overwhich someone can read the news headlines. Listeners
can also see the name of our station on the screen," reported Senger.
"Audio can be stored on a memory card.
It offers completely new opportunities for schools and universities in
Africa. Educational programs can be stored, played back later, discussed
and analyzed. It also incorporates an MP3 recorder and can store 100 hours
of Podcasts."
Excellent Reception.
Equipped with a DRM World Traveller together with DREAM software and a
Himalaya DRM 2009 receiver, Thomson and DW engineers drove around the
vicinity of Kigali to verify the quality of reception at different sites.
Receiver antennas included an active antenna set as well as the wire
delivered together with the World Traveller. The Thomson transmitter was
broadcasting on 25.740 MHz with 80 Watt DRM mean power and using a
provisional omni-directional antenna. The DRM signal provided good
reception up to 13 km beeline from the transmitter site with an excellent
SNR of around 25 dB. The average MER (Modulation Error Rate) of the