A DRM Radio enthusiast seeking for information

Dear friends,

This is my first time in this forum, so please be a bit patient with any mistakes I possibly make. I promise to improve later on.
I am a 35 year old user from Greece who has been a very dedicated shortwave radio listener ever since there childhood.
However, nowadays I sadly realise that the traditional SW band hosts fewer and fewer publicly funded stations and in addition to that, the numbers of regular listeners and hobbyists have dramatically fallen.
The advent of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) has made me hope that we could possibly be heading towards a revival of international radio listening, without having to depend on a computer or an Internet connection.
Having this is mind, I am really interested in buying a DRM capable radio receiver.
Among other radios, I have seen one named Morphy Richards 27024, which appears to be the most affordable and promising solution, as it combines old-style FM/MW/SW listening together with DAB/DRM and it can also be used as an MP3 player through its SD card socket.
Please let me know if anyone has ever used that radio in Europe or elsewhere, and mainly if it has been possible to tune into DRM signals with it. Any correspondence from listeners living in Greece would be largely appreciated.

Thank you very much for your attention,
A humble white cat from Greece
.
P.S : Which of the following two spellings is correct ? Realise or Realize ? I have seen them both being used here and there and I do not know which one is better to use.

Realise is UK spelling - realize is US...

While there are a few folks that DX DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale, for those that might now know) SW broadcasts, this is a mode that has never taken off here in the States partly because there are so few such broadcasts beamed this way. In addition, those radios that are DRM capable are marketed mostly in Europe and Asia, where such markets exist.

The very few people I know the do use this mode are using Software Defined Radios (SDRs) like the WinRadios, some ham radios or a modified desktop radio

These radios like you described are really the bottom of the barrel. They're marketed to the general public who probably doesn't know much about how shortwave broadcasts work - consequently their performance with standard analog stations would likely be rather suspect..

Frankly I'd avoid them like the plague. You should, and can, do better....several Software Defined Radios now have DRM as a mode they cover, and with a little work, many of the better portables and desktops can be modified to handle it. Even the now-discontinued TenTec RX320 PC receiver (it's not really a SDR) had a version (the RX320D) that worked with DRM.

You can find such links at the bottom of (links are always in blue)

DRM - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

from our wiki

Mike

Your best bet is probably this SDR (see URL below) which plugs into your computer. The manufacturer provides free software updates. It has a DRM decoder built into the software and is also a very capable HF receiver. This little box can rival some of the high-dollar receivers costing thousands. The only required item on your end is a HF antenna. This can be something a simple wire antenna to an amplified loop antenna.

SDR Link: ELAD FDM-S2 SDR Receiver

Wellbrook Loop: Loop Antennas

Despite the size of the loop (1 meter) these are incredibly sensitive HF antennas!

White_Cat said:

The advent of DRM has made me hope that we could possibly be heading towards a revival of international radio listening, without having to depend on a computer or an Internet connection.

Click to expand...

To follow up Mike's post: this belief is more like fantasy. DRM has never really caught on like its inventors have hoped. It's virtually dead in the USA and since it requires expensive infrastructure, a lot of SW broadcast facilities (that once supported it) have since dropped it since the DRM receivers are so costly that not many end users can upgrade. There are so many (good) low-cost SW portables for under 50 USD that DRM is a hard to sell as a global standard.

DRM will likely be around for a while but I'm not sure you'll see a huge investment in stand-alone DRM receivers.

Here's one I found that is fairly new.

Digital Radio - Digital Radio Exporter, Manufacturer & Supplier, New Delhi, India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJtAjCO0ZeI

There are a few other SDRs that also do DRM natively besides the FDM-S2, apart from the various WinRadio models. I just added their links to the DRM article I mentioned in my post

If I missed something (entirely possible), please feel free to add it to the list

Mike

ka3jjz said:

There are a few other SDRs that also do DRM natively besides the FDM-S2, apart from the various WinRadio models. I just added their links to the DRM article I mentioned in my post.

Click to expand...

Mike, the Winradio models do not do DRM natively. They require optional add-on licensed software.

I mentioned the Elad S2 only because it has built-in support. I don't know about the other models on your list, so I cannot comment.

There are other ways of getting DRM to function but it's beyond the scope of this thread.

OK I will fix the article. Thanks...Mike