Drm

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oceans777

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I am listening to the DRM signal from Sackville NB, Canada 9790 kHz - wow! Using a WiNRADiO G305 with M-Audio desktop speakers the sound is so good you wouldn't know it from FM.

So far I've only heard a few DRM stations and it is all or nothing but very impressive when it does come in.

Wondering who else is monitoring DRM and what results you've had?
 

ka3jjz

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Of course, it would help if you told them what you were talking about!

DRM stands for Digital Radio Mondiale. It is a mode that is somewhat similar to IBOC in intent - it provides more fidelity to a HF signal, giving it an almost FM type sound. It's being touted as the way to bring SW to the masses - we all know that under normal conditions, a HF signal, even if it's very strong, is limited in that department.

As such, a DRM signal tuned on a regular receiver is nothing but noise. Therein lies the problem for folks that tune for weaker stations that are sometimes nearby - the sidebands tend to completely clobber them. In addition, with the exception of the Winradio series, there are no mass-produced radios currently in North America that can receive this mode. RadioIntel has had news in the past of portables set up for this, but they are generally coming out of China, or one of the Euro markets. There's no market for DRM here in the States yet, and without some education and heavy marketing, it's not gonna happen.

To receive a DRM signal, you need to tap the detector output (sound familiar? Yes, it's not unlike tapping a discriminator off a scanner to run programs like UniTrunker). There are software packages available to copy this - one called DReaM has been floating around for some time, another used by the WinRadio folks (I believe there is more than 1 version...).
Some WinRadio receivers are already set up for this, and can run their software without modifications. Anyway, not all radios seem to have the ability to feed a signal correctly, even with a detector tap.

For more detailed information and descriptions, see the bottom of:

http://www.radiointel.com/radioinfo.htm

Look at the center of the page for the DRM resources. And pray it doesn't come to a station near you.....

73s Mike
 

oceans777

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I didn't realize there were no receivers with DRM other than going through all that.
It sounds good but I can see how badly it would affect other non-DRM signals. Lets hope it stays out of the US - looks like it will.

Next I plan to ask if anyone here has flown the space shuttle and how the stereo sounds...:roll:
 

radio50

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Yup, I'm listening to DRM

I've been using a WinRadio 313e USB external software-defined receiver for a few months to listen to DRM. It has pretty amazing sound quality, but, as with many types of digital signals, if it starts to fade, it just goes away completely.

I have found the best signals into the Midwest USA to be from Sackville in Canada, in the evening. Attached is an example from a few minutes ago. I just have the little antenna included in the radio box, and really need something better. As you can see, the signals are not bad, but could be better. My biggest problem is electronic noise from inside my house.

The DRM signal appears to extend about +/- 5 kHz from the assigned frequency, so as other posters have mentioned, if there's something 5 kHz away, it's going to have one of its sidebands clobbered. A synchronous demodulator could receive a normal AM SW station on its other sideband, perhaps.

So, there are a few of us out here listening to DRM, to answer your original question.
 

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xe2kaf

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Hello everyone,
I'm a beginner in decoding DRM with Dream software. I have downloaded it but it does not work correctly and when I detect a station (in 7.214.910 Mhz) it tells me that I do not have "codec available" I've been trying to search a lot about this program but every time I find it more complicated because according to what I read I need to make some compilations and modifications to the program. Anyone know anything about this?. I'm using Windows 10, SDRplay 1, SDRuno with VB cable. I detect but can not decode anything
Thank you in advance of Jesus
xe2kaf
 

KE5MC

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Old thread... :D

Check the attached link if you have not already seen it. My quick scan of that webpage suggest you have all the pieces you need. I believe the complications and modifications you speak of are really just typical setup and configuration to get all the pieces to work with each other.

It will NOT auto configure and plug-and-play without your hands on selections.

A brief overview using DSD+ to decode digital Public Service & Business which likely is similar to your needs.

On the Air Signal <-- Tune SDR to correct frequency
SDR radio <-- Select bandwidth & radio's internal demodulation
SDR radio <-- redirect radio's demodulated audio to input of Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)
VAC <-- output of VAC redirected to DSD+ (this is the codec)
DSD+ <-- codec displays information in various windows (digital information)
DSD+ <-- decoded audio is redirected to your computer's speakers

Your setup will likely be similar, but I'm not familiar with Dream or DRM and your computer setup will impact which path the audio will take.

There is only one correct way to setup and maybe 10 places to make the wrong selection/setting and nothing heard.

Good Luck,
Mike

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tutorial-drm-radio-using-rtl-sdr/
 

xe2kaf

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Thank you very much for the tips mcscanner and EricCotrell.
I've installed faad2_drm.dll and added it to the Dream software folder.
In my Dowloads directory I have other folder called:
faad2-2.7 and this includes other folders as:
aacDECdrop
common
frontend
include
libfaad
plugins and files like: AUTHORS, bootstrap, ChangeLog, configure.in, COPYING, faad2.spec.in, in_mpeg4aac.nsi, Makefile.am, NEWS, README, README.linux, TODO.
What should I do with this program that apparently is the version 2.7? I must also included it in the Dreams folder or not ?. So far I have come to detect the broascast in 7.214.910 (TSR Tiganesti E2) as I said but now it don't appear "no codec available" any more, and it detects it well, but I do not have audio from the station yet , apparently I need a stronger signal. Anyway Thanks for the advice and tips of Jesus
xe2kaf
 
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KE5MC

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...snip...
as I said but now it don't appear "no codec available" any more, and it detects it well, but I do not have audio from the station yet , apparently I need a stronger signal. Anyway Thanks for the advice and tips of Jesus
xe2kaf

Your post suggest the codec is in place and getting input with the "detects it well" comment. The output (audio) of the codec should be connected / routed to you computer sound card speakers.

Again I am making recommendation based on my DSD+ setup. I expecting it would have similar requirements to your.

Mike
 

xe2kaf

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Sorry if I can not express myself well in English, but I will try to find the appropriate words:
Effectively the codec is already in place.
I mean that in the frequency I mentioned the program Dream detected the station I said but I no longer see the error message "no codec available" again, and the data of the broadcast data appeared (TSR Tiganesti E2) in Dream program (any data appeared before), but for the moment I do not hear the voices of the transmission (news or music etc) only the classic noise of the DRM carrier. In SDRuno I have VB cable and I have piped it to the settings of Dream in the sound card as it says in the web page that you sent me (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tutorial-drm-radio-using-rtl -sdr /) sound card --- signal input ---- device --- VB Cable. And I have set the Audio Output --- device --- speakers (Conexant Smart Audio)
(msscanner thanks for the suggestion of DSP +
I expect Eric's advice about Dream as well.
de xe2kaf
 

KE5MC

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Trust me that your English is way better than my Spanish. :D

Setting up Virtual Audio Cables can be a little confusing. You hear the sound of the raw audio and I draw two conclusions from that. SDR audio is connected to your speakers or the codec (Dream?) is connected but is not decoding the data stream for some reason. There might be two data streams, the text displayed and the audio not yet heard.

At this point I think with a little more work with the documentation you have and trying different configuration you will get it to work. For me Dream is a black box I know nothing about. Like is it the codec and if so is there something missing.

Take time to read over the link we supplied many time slowly and carefully. It is easy in technical writings to miss a significant point made, even for us primary English speaking person. :)

Mike
 

devicelab

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xe2k2af, here's my copy of Dream. Try using this one:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q305o7enwwxnsi6/dream.zip?raw=1

Also, it's possible your SDR software doesn't have a "DRM" specific mode -- which most that support DRM -- do have one. DRM requires specific settings for it to be used correctly.

Lastly, DRM decoding requires near-perfect signals. If you have a lot of noise and/or not enough signal strength, then Dream will not decode very well -- if at all.
 

xe2kaf

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devicelab:
Thank you, I downloaded it, I'll try it. As I said the software I use is SDRuno and Console V3 (mainly) with SDRplay 1, they detect more or less well the signal because I do not have a good antenna for now (I'm using a small active indoor antenna mfj-1022 but in Norway!), but this next Monday I will be in Mexico with better equipment. I still thank you very much.
I'll let you know 73's of jesus
xe2kaf
 

xe2kaf

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devicelab

I think the problem in Dream is in the settings, I am including 3 attachments files so you can see how it is configured, something wrong?. As you see Dream detect signal but I can not hear more than the noise of the signal carrier. Thanks and 73's de
xe2kaf
 

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