Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jerome van der Linden, who writes:
Hello Thomas,
Back in January 2019 you featured in SWLing an item about a portable DRM/DAB receiver produced by Starwaves GmbH.
It seems the same company had also produced a DRM/DAB to FM convertor for use in trucks and cars, as this Youtube Link shows:
Click here to view on YouTube.
It shows the unit tuned to 6095khz and later to 13810khz, with music being played, I assume via the converter and transmitted on a free FM frequency the car radio is tuned to.
The video also shows a couple of shots of the converter and remote control, and a second bit of hardware that I’m unsure of its function. This was all back in 2007, I gather. The comments from those that have seen the video are not I suspect from people familiar with SW listening, and the suspicion that a car whip antenna is entirely unsuited to SW reception should be questioned, as I had personal experience of this while in Saudi Arabia in 1990, where SW car radios were not uncommon, and strong signals provided perfectly acceptable audio quality. Sure, 1 metre long whip won’t be much good for SW DX, but who’s going to be doing that while driving a car?
Anyway, I’m curious to know if anyone has ever purchased a Starwaves Truckbox? I gather it is currently not available.
73s
Jerome van der Linden
Thanks for sharing this, Jerome. I, too, am curious if the Starwaves Truckbox made it beyond the prototype stage to be mass produced. Please comment if you have more info!
Thanks for that info Ron. It’s much appreciated as it’s added considerably to my knowledge of the DRM area. I’m aware that they’ve developed DRM car radios for the Indian market, but nobody seems interested in developing them for SW, as the Indian car radios are (I think) MW only .
It did make it into production; IIRC there were a couple of people active on the DRMRX forum who owned them.
Released in late 2007, they were based on the same RadioScape RS-500 module that many other early DRM receivers of the time e.g Morphy Richards 27024, the various Himalayas, etc. DAB Band III & L-band, DRM30, & LW/MW/SW AM coverage.
That module was discontinued in 2008, so production wouldn’t have lasted long – although, as per usual, the DRM Consortium were still featuring it at shows well into the 2010’s after production would’ve ceased.
RonF,
If you read my link you will see that Starwaves is updating the design
Irrelevant, Alan. I was answering the OP’s & Thomas’s actual queries about the Truckbox, not some other vapourware product.
Go to the manufacturers in Germany https://starwaves.com/
Did that already, and they need a market to sell it to before they will produce it in any quantity.
Hello Jerome,
not really some news for you, but I am looking for this SW converter too and until now I never found it on ebay or similar platforms for sale. Same result for another very nice device, the BST-1 as reviewed here some years ago https://swling.com/blog/2016/07/a-review-of-the-bst-1-car-shortwave-radio/
Good luck,
Lorenz
published in ADDX RADIO-KURIER 12/2007: Kurzwelle fürs Auto – Starwaves CarBox C 310-U
https://www.addx.org/textarchiv/07-12-32-33.pdf
an online translator should help
btw. in 2007 several European stations used DRM for test broadcasts
Regards
Harald