Digital Radio in Europe

 

BBC World Service had been transmitting its English service on Digital Radio Mondiale for periods of the day on both medium and short wave. The output had been constant at about 100 hours a week (there has also been a relay of the Russian service) up to September 2005 when 1296 kHz was moved into Digital Radio Mondiale only mode for 18 hours a day and additional short wave was added from Norway to boost the output from Rampisham ( both 12 hours per day).

The A07 transmission schedule heralded a dramatic drop in DRM output with English from Rampisham being discontinued and the output from Orfordness (1296 kHz) & Kvitsoy reduced to 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. This seems to be a coverage decision rather than a change away from the technology.

BBC Radio Devon, a BBC local radio station has converted ones of its medium wave transmitters to DRM (855 kHz) to trial the technology in Plymouth. The power is just 250W and even though the signal can be heard up to 100 km away good reception is restricted to the greater Plymouth area. An SFN is planned for the near future.

 

World Radio Network had a 26 MHz service for London relaying WRN and the BBCWS in a 2 channel multiplex. The former is using AAC encoding whilst the latter is in HVXC. The short wave service, transmitted at the weekend from a transmitter in Bulgaria, was canceled suddenly in October 2006. The multiplex has not been monitored for some time.

 

National Grid Wireless has a 2 -channel multiplex running on 25.695 MHz for the London area carrying Premier Radio (was BBCWS) and DW of Germany both in AAC mono at 19.08 kbps. The multiplex is using 20 kHz bandwidth.
 

Christian Voice (CVC) has experimented with DRM from various locations but seems to have settled on a hour a day from Moosbrunn at 10.00 until B07 where the transmission has disappeared from the schedule. CVC will likely use Julich from B08 as they acquired the transmission site in 2007.