This is huge (Score: 1) by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-04-21 17:29 (#7H96) I'm probably one of the last shortwave fans out there. Not the only one, obviously, but we are certainly a dying breed. And I've lived the last decade in the poorer parts of Africa, where you'd think shortwave and similar would still be big hits. Nope. Not only is there precious little on the shortwave bands anymore (except for some Chinese and way too many evangelists) but even poor Africans aren't listening to it.What Africans ARE listening to is FM on their feature phones or smartphones. As a shortwave fan, this is hugely disappointing to me.I've been on the mailing list of the DRM group for ages now - unfortunate acronym, it actually stands for Digital Radio Mondiale and I wish they'd change it. And it's been really interesting to watch them progress. Dig Radio replaces your radio with what's basically a small computer that processes the digital signal at relatively low expense. This was unheard of a decade ago when all we had were Pentium IIs, but modern systems on a chip make it possible and not that expensive, either computationally or economically. Dig Radio promises the propogation qualities of shortwave with the audio quality of FM. That's really huge, when you think about it.By the way, I think this has implications for democratic promotion and the like. Despite jamming wars, it was possible at one time to beam a broadcast into a nation, where people could essentially listen to it without being tracked. TCP/IP as we all no know too well doesn't offer that same anonymity.Will this new tech get coopted by the likes of ClearChannel and their buddies? Maybe, but Dig Radio offers huge promise, I think. The BBC and some other stations are experimenting with it; this move by the Scandinavians is promising. Maybe teh USA will wise up and give it a try too (maybe not).At any rate, this is good news. Re: This is huge (Score: 1) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-04-21 18:43 (#7HE3) I really should get into shortwave again. My grandfather used to spend hours trying to get different stations. I used to do the same when I had a shortwave radio, but I think it broke when I was a teenager and never had the money to get it replaced. Digital radio in the US is primarily limited to large metro areas. I don;t know when if ever they will try to switch over completely to digital. We still have AM going strong. I absolutely love the sound of AM radio. It has a certain fuzz around it. You can still hear everything well, but its not crystal clear uncanny valley effect you get with high quality FM these days.
Re: This is huge (Score: 1) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-04-21 18:43 (#7HE3) I really should get into shortwave again. My grandfather used to spend hours trying to get different stations. I used to do the same when I had a shortwave radio, but I think it broke when I was a teenager and never had the money to get it replaced. Digital radio in the US is primarily limited to large metro areas. I don;t know when if ever they will try to switch over completely to digital. We still have AM going strong. I absolutely love the sound of AM radio. It has a certain fuzz around it. You can still hear everything well, but its not crystal clear uncanny valley effect you get with high quality FM these days.