(Source: Kuwait News Agency via Mike Hansgen)
KUWAIT, March 8 (KUNA) — Minister of Information Mohammad Al-Jabri on Thursday opened a project updating shortwave transmitters from analogue to digital radio mondiale (DRM) broadcasting systems, at Kabd radio station.
This is a new achievement for the ministry to be added to a series of vital projects that aim to keep pace with the rapid technical progress around the globe, Al-Jabri told KUNA and the Kuwait TV.
Kabd station, through the new DRM system, will allow “Kuwait’s voice” to reach the entire Middle East region, Europe and Asia, he noted.
Kuwaitis have planned and supervised the project, the minister said, noting that updating the infrastructure of radio stations aims to cope with latest digital broadcasting development, the minister said.
Al-Jabri praised officials, and all the personnel at the ministry’s Engineering Affairs Sector, for their hard sincere efforts.
Didn’t Kuwait upgrade their stuff already just a year or two ago? That’s what brought them back to 500 kW and DRM capability, which they’ve been using for a while. A friend in PA had some great English DRM decodes before he moved to an RF-unfriendly home.
Everyone keeps complaining about a lack of DRM receivers, and that’s true, but there are hundreds and hundreds of us with SDRs now, and even the most basic models will output I/Q audio that can be passed on to the DREAM DRM decoder on Windows and Linux PCs. I’ve gotten Kuwait, RRI and demos from The Vatican and WINB in Red Lion with my SDRplay. The stuff that’s actually aimed at the US would actually be pretty easy to decode; it’s just that no one beams to us. Over in Europe, the RRI, BBC and other DRM broadcasts are so strong they could probably get good decodes with even the cheapest of radios.
To offer my personal opinion, I find it very disappointing that they chose to “upgrade” these facilities with DRM. Most haven’t a receiver to decipher DRM and even if they did, the characteristics required to get a good lock are just entirely improbable. If they kept it with AM, however old it may be considered, their listening base would be exponentially larger.
Look at the way RNZI uses DRM. RNZI uses shortwave AM to reach SW audiences directly. I hear them for hours every day here on the US West Coast. RNZI also uses shortwave DRM to reach FM or AM repeaters that serve audiences of the Cook Islands, Tonga and Samoa. These people do not have DRM receivers but they need accurate news and weather from RNZI.
No it’s not as I explained to Mark in a post here just a few days ago. Kuwait has been broadcasting DRM on shortwave for at least six months or more now so this news isn’t new, it’s old news. I just posted a log on the DRMRX forums a day ago demonstrating reception in the USA at a distance of 12,000 km which is considerably outside the targeted area. True, decoding was nearly nonexistent because the path from the ME to the USA is just beginning to improve for 2018. The major problem preventing decoding is again, the foolish use of 64 QAM modulation on shortwave, not DRM itself.
BBG plans to move most of the VOA infrastructure to Kuwait. I don’t think this is a coincidence.