Re: Radio Notes
That is interesting. I would be interested in knowing what frequencies are used as some of them could, at times make it to North America but it would be very rare. For anybody else reading, the DRM Dane is speaking about is not Digital Right Management although one might be able to include that in the protocol. It is Digital Radio Mundial which was a name coined that would work in many different languages. It is a method of digital audio encoding that makes short wave sound like a high-quality AM or maybe even a FM broadcast station. None of that selective fading and static crashes that give short wave its characteristic sounds as we know them. There's even DRM for amateur radio though I don't know any more than that. I've heard some demo recordings from DRM and they sound wonderful until a deep fade comes along and then it is just dead silence like all digital media. In other words, it's really good until it shuts off. Dane Trethowan writes: School Of The Air is still broadcasting on Shortwave apparently, someone's just sent me a frequency guide so I'll take a listen. According to the information I've just received, School Of The Air are planning to use a mode of DRM on shortwave, now that will be interesting. === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml ---
Re: Radio Notes
I'm trying to get more information on the type of DRM School Of The Air or the Flying Doctors may use, from what I understand its another variant on the DRM protocol, a DRM version of a trunking network, if that's the case then it would be near impossible to listen to without a particularly radio. On 21/12/2011, at 1:25 AM, Martin McCormick wrote: That is interesting. I would be interested in knowing what frequencies are used as some of them could, at times make it to North America but it would be very rare. For anybody else reading, the DRM Dane is speaking about is not Digital Right Management although one might be able to include that in the protocol. It is Digital Radio Mundial which was a name coined that would work in many different languages. It is a method of digital audio encoding that makes short wave sound like a high-quality AM or maybe even a FM broadcast station. None of that selective fading and static crashes that give short wave its characteristic sounds as we know them. There's even DRM for amateur radio though I don't know any more than that. I've heard some demo recordings from DRM and they sound wonderful until a deep fade comes along and then it is just dead silence like all digital media. In other words, it's really good until it shuts off. Dane Trethowan writes: School Of The Air is still broadcasting on Shortwave apparently, someone's just sent me a frequency guide so I'll take a listen. According to the information I've just received, School Of The Air are planning to use a mode of DRM on shortwave, now that will be interesting. === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml --- === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml ---
Radio Notes
Hi! I purchased a Sangean ATS909X World Band receiver quite some time ago and I'm now only putting the set through its paces. I could write pages and pages about this unit and I'll do that on my blog in the future I'm sure but I do feel that this set deserves praise for its SSB reception. Tuning round the 8-9MHZ frequency range this morning I was able to listen to the Flying Doctors service, the reception wasn't brilliant but I was able to identify the organisation and Julia Creek, that's a town in Central Australia. Now I've never received this before and - whilst Its obviously possible to receive the service as I proved - I always thought you'd need a bigger aerial than I was using, I just used the built-in telescopic whip of the radio which is around 6 feet long. Perhaps what makes things different these days is the absence of a lot of traffic from the SW bands. For those interested in this radio I recommend it as it is one of the few these days to offer both dual conversion circuitry and a variable RF-gain control across all frequencies from 100-2KHZ. The set also comes equipped with a very nice DSP which brings the radio alive! when listening to medium-wave broadcasts where a strong signal is next to a waker one, the DSP allows the weaker signal to be heard intelligibly. Just a few first thoughts for what they're worth smile. === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml ---
Re: Radio Notes
Dane Trethowan writes: I purchased a Sangean ATS909X World Band receiver quite some time ago and I'm now only putting the set through its paces. I could write pages and pages about this unit and I'll do that on my blog in the future I'm sure but I do feel that this set deserves praise for its SSB reception. Tuning round the 8-9MHZ frequency range this morning I was able to listen to the Flying Doctors service, the reception wasn't brilliant but I was able to identify the organisation and Julia Creek, that's a town in Central Australia. Now I've never received this before and - whilst Its obviously possible to receive the service as I proved - I always thought you'd need a bigger aerial than I was using, I just used the built-in telescopic whip of the radio which is around 6 feet long. A bigger antenna would bring in more signals, but sometimes, you run up against the issue of front-end overload where the receiver is overwhelmed by the level of the signals that the outdoor antenna brings in and any active stages in the front end begin to act like mixers which is not what they are supposed to do. Perhaps what makes things different these days is the absence of a lot of traffic from the SW bands. For those interested in this radio I recommend it as it is one of the few these days to offer both dual conversion circuitry and a variable RF-gain control across all frequencies from 100-2KHZ. That's very good. You should hear the ten-meter amateur band and probably a lot of illegal CB pirates from North America. The only thing I can say about CB pirates is that they are not on the amateur bands. They know better or at least most of them aren't that stupid. The set also comes equipped with a very nice DSP which brings the radio alive! when listening to medium-wave broadcasts where a strong signal is next to a waker one, the DSP allows the weaker signal to be heard intelligibly. With the increasing Solar activity, the Sun is making the frequencies between 20 and 30 MHZ come to life again after several years of nothing but cosmic hiss and static so you should enjoy a lot of good listening. You mentioned the Flying Doctor Service. I read about that some when I was in college as it was the platform that supported the School of the Air for kids who lived in the Outback. This was in the late seventies when I was studying about this topic so I think it was still in operation then. I think the School of the Air now uses satellite terminals which gives them a much better level of service than the short wave radios did, but what the Royal Flying Doctor Service did back then was pure genius. Martin === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml ---
Re: Radio Notes
School Of The Air is still broadcasting on Shortwave apparently, someone's just sent me a frequency guide so I'll take a listen. According to the information I've just received, School Of The Air are planning to use a mode of DRM on shortwave, now that will be interesting. On 20/12/2011, at 7:35 AM, Martin McCormick wrote: Dane Trethowan writes: I purchased a Sangean ATS909X World Band receiver quite some time ago and I'm now only putting the set through its paces. I could write pages and pages about this unit and I'll do that on my blog in the future I'm sure but I do feel that this set deserves praise for its SSB reception. Tuning round the 8-9MHZ frequency range this morning I was able to listen to the Flying Doctors service, the reception wasn't brilliant but I was able to identify the organisation and Julia Creek, that's a town in Central Australia. Now I've never received this before and - whilst Its obviously possible to receive the service as I proved - I always thought you'd need a bigger aerial than I was using, I just used the built-in telescopic whip of the radio which is around 6 feet long. A bigger antenna would bring in more signals, but sometimes, you run up against the issue of front-end overload where the receiver is overwhelmed by the level of the signals that the outdoor antenna brings in and any active stages in the front end begin to act like mixers which is not what they are supposed to do. Perhaps what makes things different these days is the absence of a lot of traffic from the SW bands. For those interested in this radio I recommend it as it is one of the few these days to offer both dual conversion circuitry and a variable RF-gain control across all frequencies from 100-2KHZ. That's very good. You should hear the ten-meter amateur band and probably a lot of illegal CB pirates from North America. The only thing I can say about CB pirates is that they are not on the amateur bands. They know better or at least most of them aren't that stupid. The set also comes equipped with a very nice DSP which brings the radio alive! when listening to medium-wave broadcasts where a strong signal is next to a waker one, the DSP allows the weaker signal to be heard intelligibly. With the increasing Solar activity, the Sun is making the frequencies between 20 and 30 MHZ come to life again after several years of nothing but cosmic hiss and static so you should enjoy a lot of good listening. You mentioned the Flying Doctor Service. I read about that some when I was in college as it was the platform that supported the School of the Air for kids who lived in the Outback. This was in the late seventies when I was studying about this topic so I think it was still in operation then. I think the School of the Air now uses satellite terminals which gives them a much better level of service than the short wave radios did, but what the Royal Flying Doctor Service did back then was pure genius. Martin === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml --- === The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml ---
