Purpose of this forum?

[DRM-OM]

Hi,

being back to this after nearly 2 years (using a holiday) I notice:

The same handful of people posting graphs over and over
This forum being a one-way-presentation
This forum still running after - to my knowledge - the DRM consortium stopped its support some time ago

which leads me to ask myself:

is there any practical relevance to this at all?
especially: does anyone care about the posts here?
is there any feedback (I cannot notice any) from people for whom this could be valueable?

[drmdab]

Hi,

There are some new members here in the forum which joined in the past months. And I noticed sometimes broadcasters listening to the DRM-freaks here (yeah, really!).

Edit: Oh, and it was sometimes usefull for me to see the other's reception results and comments to evaluate my DRM setup and learn more about propagation and all this stuff.

[CT4RK]

Hi
For mi is very valueble. I not very active on the forum in the last time, but frequently I read the reports from the listners. Is important for my work in Sines station. Trought the forum I was able to see some situations that canot see "in loco".

regards
Carlos Mourato

[DRM-OM]

Thanks for your reply.
Let me just explain what led me to this posting:

More than two years ago I, according to my oppinion that a professional system needs some professional monitoring, I decided to set up two listening posts, one on my workplace, the other at home.
For the first one I set up a timetable and did 24/7 logging for several weeks, the second one I used to do comparative logging from time to time to see possible effects of antenna and receiver etc.

The reason why I did that was my belief that it's not that valuable for broadcasters to get reports randomly (concerning time and location) but they should be continuously (that's why I chose to log the same frequencies at the same time with the same equipment on a daily basis).

I posted the results here, but could not find out

if the results were read
if they were of use for anyone

In contrary I noticed stations reducing their DRM broadcasting hours.

Since that kind of monitoring takes a lot of effort (getting permission to have the equipment run unmanned during nighttime and weekends and instructing the security personal how to proceed in case of irregularities etc.) I stopped this after a while.
Since I had to deal with other projects.

Last weeks I used my holiday to return to the subject of DRM by reinstalling my relatively new linux multimedia machine (including DREAM :) ) and posted some results.
I was reading for some time and came to the above questions I asked myself.

During the last few days I noticed some other things:
Some people just posting, not reacting to anything - not even reading PM
some people reacting strange on others posting results and conclusions they do not like
but also finding people who deal with those matters and also offering support to bring things further :)

I'd especially like to thank those people, they motivate me not to forget about that DRM altogether but to continue watching it and contribute the way I can do that (my knowledge is RF engineering, not Digital Signals Processing).
It's my belief that (potential) problems need to

be named
be investigated
be solved

to get the system to a success. Ignoring them and only posting - in Germany we have the expression "Hurra-Parolen" - onesided positive comments doesn't help anyone.

Hope to have made my point clear and again thanks to the people who seriously deal with those matters.

[drmdab]

I posted the results here, but could not find out

if the results were read
if they were of use for anyone

I think the "big stations" (like "BBC & DW") have their departments for frequency planning etc and think they "do not need" to read our entries. There is many useful advice for them I think, e.g. adjusting their optimods to increase the audio-quality but they don't react. It's frustrating if you send your reports via e-mail to the stations or in this forum and nothing happens. I think it's right to say that "it seems like there is no real love in some stations like BBC&DW", I hope you understand what I want to say.

But in contrast to that, I see many stations like KFBS, TDF, HCJB, BNR reading the reception results and sometimes reacting to them with adjustments in their transmissions. So it really depends on the station you write to if and how they react.

Ignoring them and only posting - in Germany we have the expression "Hurra-Parolen" - onesided positive comments doesn't help anyone. That's perfectly right, sugar coating the whole thing does not help.

[Ager]

Yes indeed, I agree with drmdab. I had a newsfeed on my web site from DW for many years (with the idea of supporting drm). It was recently disabled by Dw. Why, I did try to ask them, but they did not answer. Then I just thought, that drm is, so far, marginalized by DW. For folks like me it is the easily accessible digital radio.

[Digger]

...many stations like KFBS, TDF, HCJB, BNR reading the reception results and sometimes reacting to them with adjustments in their transmissions.

...and VoR, CVC in Chile, REE, and R. Rwanda could be added to the list of stations above. Most of the stations mentioned above have reacted positively by answering to my e-mails. I believe DW, for example, has access to receivers placed around Europe, where they can collect data on signal strength and interferers etc. I agree with drmdab that DW probably don't need "us".

Personally speaking, I think it is interesting to compare the results of my logs with other Forum Member's logs, as the different logs show differences in propagation into the various regions of our part of the world.

Also, I wish that DRM-OM could try some different setups so that his DRM experience would bring him less upsets. Hi.

[DRM-OM]

Also, I wish that DRM-OM could try some different setups so that his DRM experience would bring him less upsets. Hi.

So what kind of complex equipment do you expect the average radio listener to use in future as a precondition to get satisfactory results?

[CT4RK]

Hi
Yes! DW have a lot of remote controled stations around all Europe that are 24:00 a day colecting and record data. Normaly composed by two SDR receivers, with a R&S active antenna and a computer. This is conected with DW tecnichal service trought a modem and a phone line, or via internet.
I said again. For me this forum is very valuable. And also like DRM OM, I`m not a software expert. I`m RF technician, and it is my interest. I`m looking for news in the transmitter side...In the RF field. The software is another field that is only marginal for me.

regards Carlos - Sines