The Di-Wave receiver from UniWave Development SAS, France is expected to make its debut March 25, 2009 at the DRM General Assembly in Germany. This is a SW/MW/LW/FM radio with DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) on SW, MW and LW. More information on this page. It will also be the first consumer DRM receiver authorized by the FCC for sale in the USA (though approval has not yet been granted). When authorization is received, the UniWave Di-Wave will be available from Universal Radio.
(Source: 26MHz.us)
on Feb 24th, 2009 at 18:50
Why don’t they present it at CeBIT? There would be so many more consumers and journalists around than at the DRM General Assembly.
on Feb 24th, 2009 at 19:13
Looks very interesting! I just hope those behind it realise that due to a complete failure to apply EMC regulations and to properly classify Power Line Technology such as Comtrend home plugs supplied by BT here in the UK.
Those who use the shortwave spectrum may find they can not tune anything in.
Visit the web site for more information but its so sad that a very long awaited and anticipated radio advance (DRM) could be killed off before it starts due to home computer networking using the power supply cables!
Its madness, hijacking another radio service used to be called piracy!
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:05
Also, what’s up with the FCC not licensing DRM receivers? I smell a trade barrier here. Not that it would have been necessary.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:25
DRM is a nightmare for the USA. On the medium wave band another system is being usesd HD Radio.
This shows that all digital radio is nonsense and rubbish
Internet radio is the digital future, please leave the analogue bands analogue for a long transition period.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:25
Mark, that is not a correct interpretation of the story. The FCC cannot issue a licence if the manufacturer has not requested one. I am not aware of any company that has previously applied for a sales licence in the US for a DRM receiver. This appears to be the first one. If anyone knows different, please tell.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:39
Andy, thank you for your clarification.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:45
Ruud, HD Radio is used on FM as well as AM in the States. But DRM is an international standard for shortwave, so there will be an interest in this radio amongst the (admittedly small) number of people in the US who still listen to shortwave. Universal Radio, the company that will be selling this radio, has been specializing in this market since 1942.
BTW I think your statement that “all digital radio is nonsense and rubbish” is a bit over the top. There are hundreds of digital radio stations broadcasting on satellite that enable people like me, living and working outside my home country, to listen to the same stations that my family can hear back home, many of which I cannot receive terrestrially, or with poor quality on mediumwave. I guess you were actually referring to digital terrestrial platforms, and there you have a point
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 14:46
Here we go again as soon as new DRM sets come to the notice of interested bodies like myself digital radio criticism by the doubters who put it down comes up as always. If countries and broadcasters want to try and use and introduce digital radio systems that piggyback onto AM/FM bands like DRM/DRM+/FMXtra etc then let them. It is NOT for ANYBODY to tell broadcasters/set manufacturers and the people behind these revolutionary technologies to give them up. Why have several SW broadcasters given up their analogue transmissions and why have several MW/LW broadcasters in various parts of the world given up MW/LW analogue broadcasts?
The reasons that broadcasters have given up and are giving up their transmissions on analogue MW/LW and SW are;
Falling audiences,
Inferior reception/quality,
Costs of running existing AM infrastructure
And a general decline in listenership to these wavebands(that should be explanatory enough).
Those same arguments were used by local and national radio in the United Kingdom against R.Luxembourg and that is part of the reason why it closed on MW1440/208 on 30th December 1991, and on satellite and 15350/6090kHz Shortwave a year later. R.Luxembourg were fighting a losing battle with a poor fading signal on MW1440/208 that made it difficult to listen to, which also impacted on their advertising revenue as advertisers started turning away from it disgruntled that their advertisements were not being heard at all or very well due to the fading. Even with that massive 1200kW erp radiated from those famous masts at Marnach Mountain,Luxembourg,Europe reception was not particularly good.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 17:03
The argument that Luxy 208 interrupted their English service for poor reception is completely new to me.
In 1991 FM was the dominant platform, and Radio Luxembourg could only use MW and only during evening and night, for propagation reasons.
We all know that you can’t make money at all nowadays with radio during TV time.
RTL was involved in the Atlantic 252 project, but also this was stopped, and this time indeed for no good reception in the London market (never understood why they did not use 171 from Holland as a gap filer)
Yes, of course DRM is fine for SW in the States, but it is getting messy with a different system for MW , (no LW in USA) and SW. Keep it simple and analogue.
It is about content, not technology. That is why people dont listen to MW and SW, however, analogue MW (AM) is not doing too bad in the USA with News/Talk radio.
In Holland some AM’ers also do a better job for audience figures then some of their FM colleagues.
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 19:09
> Also, what’s up with the FCC not licensing DRM receivers? I smell a trade barrier
To my knowledge none of the tiny handful of existing DRM receiver makers has attempted to market such radios in the USA. They are barely marketing them at all. And with the cancellation of the Radioscape / TI DRM module on which current models depend, the future for existing designs is questionable.
The notion that the U.S. government has something against authorizing DRM receivers for market is not correct.
UniWave has simply made assurances that it will submit this radio for Federal Communications Commission authorization as is done routinely for thousands of consumer RF products subject to FCC rules.
Presumably UniWave will hire a lab to make a competent application for authorization at some point. The Far East has accredited independent labs that do this work to FCC standards all the time.
I don’t believe this product is intended specifically for a U.S. market, but the U.S. would be one of the market countries.
on Feb 26th, 2009 at 08:00
But R.Luxembourg couldn\’t get FM in the UK because it is a European english language commercial radio station. It broadcast from the Astra 1A satellite on channel 13 in stereo over much of Europe firstly a Scandinavian targeted station called RTL International then when cable carriage fees proved too much RTL decided to put the full R.Luxembourg service on initially at night 7pm-3am as with the AM 1440 service then expanded it to 24h a day on satellite with the 7pm-3am slot still on MW and supplemented this by additional relays of the 24h English Service broadcasts on the French Service\’s SW frequency of 15350kHz in the 19m band during the day and through the early evening switching to the German Service SW frequency of 6090kHz in the 49m band between 01:00CET and 04:00CET (00:00-03:00UK). In 1991 CLTUFA decided that the MW had to go because of reception and quality issues so closed the 1440kHz frequency down at 3am UK(4am CET) and broadcasts of the English Service continued for a further year on satellite and shortwave, BUT later that year CLTUFA and RTL as a whole saw that they were heavily losing money on R.Luxembourg\’s English Service with sharp fall in advertising revenue;it is true that satellite reaches much bigger areas and in a much better quality with a decent level of reception but it is difficult to know how many are listening via this method so armed with that sad fact they closed it down on 30th december 1992 at midnight UK (1am CET) on that caveat. They did the recent revival of the R.Luxembourg English Service with a new Classic Rock format using DRM-SW7145 and 7295kHz at 40kW from German SW transmitters aimed on a directional beam at the UK but the lack of receivers in the marketplace forced RTL to withdraw the transmissions.
on Feb 26th, 2009 at 13:16
I wonder what the advantages of this DRM radio over previous ones might be.
Without being a technical person, the only things I notice are the colour screen…which possibly isn\’t the most important feature of a radio. The fact sheet doesn\’t seem for example to mention anything about recording broadcasts. (Though I don\’t quite see the point of an SD reader otherwise.) It would be interesting to know if they learned anything from the experience of other DRM radio manufacturers like Morphy Richards and TechniSat. Neither of them seem to have had good experiences so far.
on Feb 26th, 2009 at 13:58
I find the banter hereon about Radio Luxembourg most amusing.
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 16:55
DRM is near dead technology. What ever fancy radios appear now and how ever more sensitive they might be over previous models will not make any difference. Internet radios are the future and there are a whole plethora of them out there. I knew when the first one from AE came out 3 years ago they would catch on and they certainly have big time. The UK has zero interest in DRM and never will have it seems. By now we could / should have at least a dozen DRM tests on MW to prove how well suited the mode is for MW but it will never happen…this is why DRM is a non starter there is nowt to listen to near enough anyway and not in the UK and for the UK
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 18:40
Sorry Dave but you obviously dont live anywhere near Plymouth otherwise you would have heard the DRM tests on Radio Devons AM outlet, which by the way seem to get out reasonably well for a local signal. BBC use DRM on AM MW 1296kHz as well to Europe.
This has to be a far better technology than AM but needs to be supported by the manufacturers who seem to have sat on their hands. I look forward to hearing more about this particular receiver.
on Feb 28th, 2009 at 01:56
Dave is right. Internet Radio is on its way, and as digital radio was invented before the internet, and the new Internet Media Device Alliance has only recently been formed, one would expect that it will be the winner especially with the power and might of the people who have founded it, which includes the BBC :
vTuner, BBC, Frontier Silicon, PURE, Global Radio, Reciva, AwoX, Orange (France Telecom), TerraTec , Audiovox
http://www.imdalliance.org/founders.php
on Mar 1st, 2009 at 06:25
Hello People,
Keeping an eye on the younger generation and their behaviour in electrical retail shops, there is very little interest in DAB radios and will probably display scant interest to DRM tuners!
The new generation who are tomorrow\’s consumers are into personal computers, ipods, docking stations for small hi-fi, mobile phones that also play music, stream films and take 5 megapixel photographs!
So, the future for broadcasting must be landline wired broadband and 3G wireless broadband. That is, for consumers in the developed world.
Why bother forking out £200 pounds for a DRM tuner, when the radio you want to hear is available for free of charge on internet or satellite?
The audio quality of BBC World Service and the international service of Radio Netherlands on satellite will probably blow the socks off a decoded but compressed digital audio version of a short wave signal, courtesy of DRM!
Digital terrestrial television and radio on Freeview, along with satellite television and radio may become \’\’stepping stones\’\’ broadcasting platforms on the path to the digital arcadia!
Piggy backing radio services on multi-user digital platforms is a thing of the future!
If potential advertising starts flowing to the internet, thus by-passing DRM or DAB, radio station owners will soon drift to broadband or be left with the crumbs..
Kind Regards..Willie Bone in Scotland
on Mar 2nd, 2009 at 23:19
John KIpping :-
Yep I know about the tiny small powered test from Radio Devon, this came to nothing, it had about I should imagine 0.000000001% listernship and this is being positive
No MW tests have appeared and will not either any time soon. Wake me up in 5 years time and I bet nothing will have changed !
Meanwhile HD radio in the states is booming - I wonder why ? Broadcasters actually use the system perhaps… hmm ?!
Steven Allan :-
Internet radio is here now,though very much here. I am very impressed at the large number of internet radios now available and it\\\’s only taken 3 years, what has the DRM consortium produced in that time 2 radios, wow !
DRM is clever technology granted… but it\\\’s too late in to the market place for anyone incl broadcasters to care, everyone has got fed up with waiting
on Mar 3rd, 2009 at 21:52
Sorry, Dave, but you’ve spoilt things by going too far.
Internet radios are necessarily deficient because the technology we need to facilitate their takeover from all other systems is not here yet. Also, although many radios have a facility for receiving the internet radio so far available, that doesn’t mean that a lot of people are using it.
The predominant way of listening to the radio is the same as it has been for a long while and, although I expect internet radio to win in the end, it most certainly hasn’t done so yet.
on Mar 3rd, 2009 at 22:05
One problem with Internet radio is that it is always narrowcasting. It is great for small audiences spread over the whole world, but how much would you have to spend for reliable live streaming to one million clients? Then there is peer to peer technology, but I am not sure whether it can ensure reliable live streaming.
Major radio stations using the Internet as their primary transmission medium is a bit like publishers printing a bestseller on demand.
on Mar 3rd, 2009 at 22:45
Yes. As I just said, the technology isn’t here yet. Once it is, expect internet radio to take off as fast as the internet itself did.
on Mar 4th, 2009 at 00:09
For what it’s worth I just bought a Squeezebox Boom
Now I can listen to the radio stations I want to. I am in Melbourne and waiting for DRM has just been too slow. I’m that impressed that I’ll probably also get a Pure Evoke Flow to be the “portable” around the house.
But I cannot get BBC Radios 1,2,3 and 4 which is a bit disappointing. So RTE 1 and 2, Veronica, 10-Gold, MiAmigo-192, Caroline, WINS-1010 are my six presets.
And the quality is fantastic.
But I did have to upgrade my internet connection and get an “N” router to be able to this.
on Mar 5th, 2009 at 08:24
Phillip Devlin wrote:
But I cannot get BBC Radios 1,2,3 and 4 which is a bit disappointing.
And I add…
Phillip I am in Sydney and can receive all the BBC domestic services in high quality. What you need is an internet radio that can handle the BBC Real Audio 64kbps streams. Any of the Reciva based internet radios will work for you - Locally in Melbourne you will find some in Jaycar, and just the other day when in Melbourne (Bridge St Richmond - Near Epworth Hospital) I saw a Hi-Fi shop with a large number of the beatutiful Tangent Quattro Reciva radios in-stock. I almost picked one up - but I already have two AE\’s.
on Mar 5th, 2009 at 08:31
Oh yes - and my comment on DRM…
It\’s time has passed. I even have internet radio applications running on my iPhone and iPOD Touch. I can listen to over 10,000 stations from all all the world in much higher quality than FM or DAB anywhere I have either WiFi or a phone signal.
on Mar 5th, 2009 at 23:07
Mark Fahey wrote:
>>Phillip I am in Sydney and can receive all the BBC domestic services in high quality. >>What you need is an internet radio that can handle the BBC Real Audio 64kbps streams.
Mark, do you have any idea if the “Pure Evoke Flow” will pick up the BBCs that we speak of.
That radio has FM (with RDS), and DAB+ (not sure if it has AM).
All those things would be handy to use it as a “normal” radio too.
on Mar 6th, 2009 at 10:15
Domestic broadcasters are NOT going to give up ground based terrestrial MW/LW/SW/FM/DAB transmitters and other methods like DTT/DSat/Dcab etc and abandon it for internet only broadcasting, it\’s kind of like saying “if you don’t have the internet by the time we changeover to internet only broadcasting then you can’t listen to us.”
on Mar 6th, 2009 at 14:58
Plus…there will STILL be people without internet connections and who don’t want internet radio like me who will still want to be able to tune into their favourite stations via other non web based means so we won’t see the death of radio via satellite/DRM/DAB/FMXtra/IBOC etc just yet!!!
on Mar 27th, 2009 at 16:57
Anthony,
correct. There will alway be listeners of AM/FM/DAB+/DRM stations.
You don’t need to have any kinds of subscribtions of 3G phones.
DRM covers all surface of the world, dessert, open sea, the mountains, the wilderness.
If a lot of net listners are on one site (mast) it can be lot of dropouts.
When broadcasters want to pay a lot of money to get a FM/AM licence, there is still the best market for advertisers.Sweden and Germany will issue national DAB+ licences within the next 12 months.
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 06:38
Market capitalization of DRM in the developing countries like India? Any idea?
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 13:21
I bought a pocket dab receiver , I am not impressed wiht the audio quality and totally unimpressed with the battery life (less than 2 hours) this is just not practical all that computing power in the DAB radio eats batteries. I can buy an AM/FM pocket radio for £10 and the batteries can last a month (all that computing power eats batteries). O.K. so thats DAB rejected. Internet radio. If you use a wireless network (some dab radios have an ethernet connection) the radio and wireless router are constantly talking to each other. Yes, there is a similar power transmitter to the wireless modem inside the radio! Do you really want to be fried by hi-level digital transmissions when you sit next to the radio? So that leaves good old am Long Wave, Medium Wave, and Short wave, FM and DRM if it ever gets off the ground.
on Apr 23rd, 2009 at 10:30
A word about DAB/DAB+/DMB: at the end DMB will win and for a simple reason.
Its receivers are built in Asia and this means they are readily available and CHEAP.
on May 19th, 2009 at 03:50
I think in the long run DAB has got to be the future for the radio industry internationally. Until someone comes up with an inexpensive portable internet receiver- that can penetrate 3rd world economies- a simple DRM/analog portable may be the best way for the industry to transition into the future.
Internet radio has its place- but hey…who want to have to rely on broadband and/or a router and or an expensive dial up service, just to hear the world news??? i don\’t! The whole internet has been largely oversold imho:-)…..give me a good shortwave and an old fashion newspaper with my coffee….haha
on May 21st, 2009 at 10:43
Stevo - Dab is already outdated technology. Some countries such as Australia and Ireland have recognised this and will not use it , The BBC has spent a lot of money promoting and impementing the system, they quote the number of receivers sold but you will still find most people listen to non Dab stations on ordinary radios. Like Compact Disc it is close to being obsolete. Because of the need to get more chanels onto the dab system, the bandwidth for each dab station is limited and the lower the bandwidth the poorer the audio quality . Because of this DAB is not easy on the ear and FM is a preferable option while it is still operating. I am in a strong signal area and even so Dab reception is unreliable. I am confident that the dab radio you buy today will be useless in less than 15 years.
on Jul 26th, 2009 at 02:25
Does anyone know for sure that internationally-sourced DRM broadcasts on the standard SW broadcast bands can be received on a simple SW-MW converter and fed to
a US HD receiver? There are places in North America where there is little or NO radio
reception: Being able to tune in the EU-sourced [and perhaps other SW broadcasters,
like the 'North Service' of CBC and a few Canadian stations? A number of SWLs wud be pleased to be able to down-convert SW digital signals into their HD mobile and portable radios...I know the Eureka doesn't work like this but does DRM play properly on North American HD rigs?..Put a 5-ft [150 cm] ‘Lowband whip’ on a vehicle and use low-loss
RG8/U or RG6/U as a feedline and enjoy?!..Aaron..
on Jul 26th, 2009 at 13:38
No, DRM and HD Radio are not compatible with each other.
And orrect me if necessary, but it is my understanding that Ibiquity rules ban the inclusion of any other digital radio system into HD Radio sets. If so the battle appears to be lost before it even started.
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 23:35
dear friends, I ve a licence to work a tropical short wave here in brasil and I need the information confirming the bands of 120,90,60 meters will continue in the dial of drm receiver and if it will continue receiving analogic system or I
have to change my atual transmitter to a digital transmitter.
If anyone here has this information please contact me I will be thankful
obrigado in portuguese thanks
paulo roberto
on Nov 12th, 2009 at 10:47
Paulo,
I wouldn’t worry about DRM being a future technology in Brazil. It won’t be coming into mainstream use in your part of the world for a long time, if ever. But starting a station should because you have a great story to tell or something different to share. Too many projects on shortwave have been technology led and ended up as a hobby with disasterous financial consequences.
on Feb 20th, 2010 at 19:25
An interesting discussion to be sure! As far as DRM not being a technology of the future in Brazil, I wouldn’t be so sure. Are you aware that Brazil produces almost all their own energy, in country? Brazil is one of the most advanced technologically in the western hemisphere. As to DRM vs. HD vs. DAB etc., please let me throw in my two cents worth as a citizen of the USA and chief engineer of a shortwave broadcast station… I don’t know anything about DAB because we don’t have any such thing here. HD is not exactly tearing up the airwaves. On FM it sounds slightly inferior to standard analog FM, most stations can’t seem to get the delay (between analog and digital) exact so if one is in a fringe area there are constant \\
on Mar 1st, 2010 at 19:26
I disagree. The HD Radio FM stations sound better than any FM station to me. FM analog audio is over-processed in an attempt to cover up the multipath noise, and with the pre-emphasis the highs are really shrill. I’ve heard some really great audio on HD Radio stations where they have turned back the audio processor for a more natural sound. On the other hand, some stations are just plugging their FM processed audio into their HD channel, so it sounds just as bad. The quality is only as good as the station’s implementation.
There are thousands of stations on the air in the U.S., and many FMs have put some great new programs on their multicasting channels. The receivers are becoming commonly available and inexpensive. I saw that Best Buy has a portable on sale now for $40.