It’s highly unlikely you ever will in any meaningful way. That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom though
I know that Digital Radio wouldn’t get me back listening regularly, especially if it remains a closed shop to new voices. I can pick and choose the radio content I want to listen to thanks to streaming and podcasting
I personally listen to DAB a lot (in the car). Also a lot of FM but not the mainstream stations. I’m on Breeze, Rebel and community stations on FM a lot. But I know a lot of my friends don’t listen to radio much at all anymore. I also stream UK stations a bit, particularly BBC R2. That pretty much does me.
I do also stream Breeze at my desk when working.
I didn’t say that although I’d argue (and a very large proportion of the population would agree) that 1 billion would be better spent on improving both fixed and wireless internet delivery throughout the country.
As others have mentioned above and I’ll repeat for you the cost to setup a SiriusXM type service for Australia would never be recovered back given the size of our population.
And for honesty I would have liked to have seen a satelite radio service in Australia but technology has moved on.
Worldspace radio tried to cover Asia, Africa, Middle east and India and they didnt survive with over 500,000 subs and they existed before XM or Sirus
85.1 to 87.4 maybe used for DRM Broadcasting.
According to The Australian, the ABC recently conducted a two-year trial of DRM technology, the findings of which have not been made public, and now plans further trials using HD (hybrid digital) radio and satellite radio transmission, both of which are predominantly used in cars in North America.
The move by the ABC to test-drive the technologies was prompted by concerns about the future viability of AM radio and whether it would still be accessible in modern vehicles in years to come. The broadcaster has not disclosed how much trialling the new technologies will cost, nor when and where the technologies will be road-tested.
The DRM trial results aren’t exactly public, but they have been reported on & noted by a number of regional commercial broadcasters & the CBAA as being very good options & successful.
They’re wasting their time trialling HD Radio, the US stations wouldn’t use that if they had another option, was good in theory, but crap in practise, it’s okay for FM but the AM stations in the states are turning the HD back off.
Until analogue AM is totally turned off, HD Radio isn’t a workable replacement option, the digital creates too much interference into the AM signals, putting even more crap in the background of what’s already there due to modern day noise.
And I believe turning on AM Stereo where there equipment allows cause of the ability of some HD receivers been able to decode C-QUAM
How does that compare to DRM being transmitted side by side with analogue AM? The only experience I have is listening to Indian radio on the SDRs, where you can hear the interference from the DRM on the adjacent frequency in the analogue signal. Although you can tune that out on an SDR, you can’t do that with a regular AM radio, but then maybe it isn’t a problem for a regular AM radio for other reasons?
The reason that I ask is that the ABC transmitted DRM on 747 right next to analogue radio o
n 756 KHz.
HD Radio is IBOC, (In Band On Channel) which uses same frequency as the AM/FM service, by using side bands for the digital HD component, the AM DRM trials done here were IBAC (In Band Adjacent Channel), I never heard it, but believe if using an adjacent channel in DRM, there’s no interference to the analogue AM, DRM can be IBOC too, but I’m unaware of how bad the digital interference into the AM is with DRM IBOC?
Are you listening to the Indian Medium Wave (AM) or Short Wave DRM services? What frequency do you listen on, I can tell you what the transmit power is, could be anywhere from 10kW to 1000kW (1MW), that will probably make a difference as to how much DRM digital bleeds into the Analogue AM, the highest power AM service in Australia is 50kW, with most being 2, 5 or 10kW.
The Indian DRM MW/AM transmissions are IBAC the same as the trials here, I doubt you’d be able to listen to anything MW DRM from India with good reception from a 10kW transmitter, you’d have to be listening to them from a higher power & local reception & interference probably differs quite a bit to that from a distance/internationally?
Unless of course you heard them & the bleed interference locally while being in India?
I was listening to the Indian stations via SDRs located in India, and was doing so over the net. They were local stations on the AM band where the DRM station was right next to the analogue AM station, and the SDR was in the area served by the station or nearby. For example, I was listening to the Delhi station via an SDR in or near Delhi, where the AM station is on 819 KHz and the DRM station is on 810 KHz.
SDRs or software defined radios turn the radio spectrum into a digital stream, then tune and decode the radio signal in software, and allow various parameters like the tuned frequency, bandwidth and mode to be adjusted digitally.
The SDRs seem to default to a 5 KHz bandwidth so they pick up some of the DRM and it sounds like high frequency noise. I wasn’t sure how that compares to a how a normal radio would perform.
NOTE: As I write this, New Delhi’s station is now in DRM only mode with 18KHz bandwidth. That may change later in the day as Indian stations tend to start and stop transmitting at various times of the day.
Thanks for that info @ron12, I know what an SDR is & how they work, if you’re listening to any DRM, HD or DAB/DAB+ radio it’ll have to be an SDR, normal electronics can’t decode the digital data without software, unlike an analogue AM/FM signal.
Not sure if all of you reading realise, that all forms of digital radio & TV are still an analogue modulated carrier, just like the good old days, it’s just now they’re modulated differently & the sub-carriers contain digital data.
Ron, I didn’t realise from your posts you were listening to an SDR locally in India over the internet.
I can’t find that particular stations transmit power on my list, but I’m guessing it’s around the 200kW - 300kW level, as most seem to be?
Having never heard DRM/AM side by side locally with an ordinary old style analogue AM radio, I can’t really answer that, though if you’re hearing just a high frequency noise as interference on the AM service through the SDR, I’m not sure that’s DRM interference?
I’d imagine if you got it with DRM, which is possible, it’d be similar to the HD radio interference which sounds like a digital hash noise I guess is the best way most people would describe it, which does have high frequency sounds in it mixed with other noise which pulsates?
As much as I am for DRM, I believe HD Radio might be an easier pill to swallow for CRA as there is so much more compatible technology available to the general public.
Even Satellite radio would be good, and would work well for very remote parts of Australia, Maybe built like Vast but for radio.
this should be the choice. it’s proven (at least overseas). the government could subsidise the install into cars, trucks and tractors and commerical players could come along on a pay for play basis. a few years ago i drove from LA, to Houston and onwards to miami. the car had sirius in it and i almost never lost reception
Satellite radio is almost certainly the more practical solution in terms of remote area reception in a country like Australia. It’s almost a no-brainer. The only reason for AM being a rather important service here in Australia in regional areas is the massive distances travelled in vehicles. However, with services like Starlink in-motion now available, no sensible organisation would make an investment - there’s a very good chance the price for service will drop, and users would just be able to stream any online radio service instead.
Yes, did know; hence why I still have a soft spot for analogue RF as the original still facilitates the modern which is more of an “add on trick” via the sub carriers.
Interesting note, Russia also has vast areas of sparse population, yet they only have a small number of AM stations left, and most if not all of them are in border regions (e.g. 2 in St Petersberg, a bunch in and around Khabarovsk all with the same program and frequency, one in Kaliningrad and one other. There are also a few high power stations in Russian controlled parts of Moldova.
Agreed. Online via satellite might be the way to go in the future.
Fantastic research again @ron12
Interesting that Russia hasn’t deployed DRM or in typical Ruski pride, developed their own digital concept.
I hope to god they don’t agree with it especially for AM, it will make the AM band full of wide band noise and especially jam up the band for any hope of DXing
IIRC WorldSpace was also receivable in the Kimberley.