Tag Archives: Radio Northern Europe International

Guest Post: Listening to Comb Stereo on Shortwave

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post:


Comb Stereo on Shortwave

by TomL

Comb Stereo is an old technique being implemented over shortwave by the main sound engineer (Daz) at Radio Northern Europe International (RNEI).  It ONLY works on Comb Stereo broadcasts which currently are RNEI, This Is A Music Show (WRMI), and one of the KBC broadcasts.  It works in real-time or for SDR recorded files, too.  It does NOT need a special HD/DAB+ radio.

A number of pluses for Comb Stereo on shortwave compared to digital:

“The bandwidth is the same as mono – So the SNR should be about the same as mono.

Selective fading doesn’t affect the comb bands much, so the balance is largely unaffected by selective fading notches.

The Comb Stereo artifacts are much like typical music effects of echo, chorus, fast reverb or room reflections.”

You can read about it here on Daz’ web site: homepages.ihug.com.au/~daz2002/tech/CombStereo/

You can also read Roseanna’s comment on the SLWing.com blog post: https://swling.com/blog/2020/04/rnei-now-broadcasting-in-comb-stereo/

An enhanced version is broadcast on WRMI for the RNEI time slot on Thursday morning (01:00 UTC) on 5850 kHz.  It sounds very good and is not a pseudo-stereo like in my previous article, Music on Shortwave.  For one thing, pseudo stereo is not real two-channel encoding and shifts vocals to one side, depending on which channels are chosen for high and low filters, which might get annoying after awhile.  What seems amazing to me is that I have been able apply some minor noise reduction in Audacity and the Comb Stereo stays perfectly intact.  It also still works after converting the WAV file to MP3 and sounds much like a regular FM broadcast.  Furthermore, it does not require a special patented transmitter or receiver chip.  It is compatible with regular mono transmitters.

If you want to try it, go to the RNEI web site; download and install the two files listed (VB Audio Cable and CombStereo Pedalboard x64):

https://rnei.org/stereo/

It is slightly tricky to setup and use or you will not hear anything (most Windows systems default to 48000 Hz these days).  Right-click on the lower-right taskbar Sounds settings.  Make sure to setup Properties – Advanced in both the VB-Audio Virtual Cable (Playback and Recording) and your output speakers (Playback) to 24-bit 44100 Hz processing.

Now run the app Pedalboard BAT file which corresponds to the broadcast you recorded (in this example “Start Comb Stereo for WRMI.bat”).  Set the Options – Audio Settings:

Since the VB-Audio Virtual Cable takes over your volume output, adjust the volume of your Speakers in Windows’ Sounds – Levels (or you can adjust the volume in the sound player you are using, too):

Play the mono WAV or MP3 file and you should be hearing stereo!

When you are done, close Pedalboard2 and then disable the VB-Audio Virtual Cable for Playback and Recording to get your Sounds back to normal:

I cannot demonstrate what it sounds like unless you have the VB-Audio Virtual Cable and the Comb Stereo app setup and working properly.  Here are snippets from recent RNEI broadcasts captured by my noisy porch antenna:

 

Here are links to the artists’ YouTube videos for comparison:

Kari Rueslåtten – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFN4O3YrUG4

Ani Glass – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T63QS9enT-A

What is nice is that I can create a space-saving MP3 mono file and this setup will decode the stereo when run from the computer (sounds really nice on a stereo system with a subwoofer).  Unlike digital, this analog-friendly stereo seems mostly immune to fading, has a minimum of digital artifacts, and will not go silent and “drop out” like digital does for long, annoying periods of time.  It is not perfect stereo but audio players with features like Stereo Widener or Windows Sonic for Headphones can overcome some limitations.  Perhaps content providers should consider Comb Stereo for all their shortwave radio shows since it is perfectly compatible with mono AM transmissions!

Enjoying the Music,

TomL

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Radio Northern Europe International Show #16

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hei alle,

While the Norwegians are getting into Påskekrim (Easter Crime), the Swedish and Finnish kids are dressing up as Easter Witches and the Danes are making their Gækkebreve (Teaser Letters), we’ve created a jam-packed show for you this month with more guest spots, lots of great music and we have worked with Karl from scandipop.co.uk to bring you a song of the month!

For ease we’ve split the broadcasts into 3 versions;
• WRMI & On-Demand Version: RNEI 16 + RNEIxtra Mammas Mest Metal + Stephen’s feature + HamDRM.
• Channel 292 & Radio Onda version: RNEI 16 + HamDRM + This is an Express Music Show.
• World FM & Unique Radio version: RNEI 16 only.

RNEI #16 includes great music including:
• A new duo from Iceland who don’t want to be forgotten.
• Ku?ka’s & Four Night’s Latest.
• A great Danish song from Nana Jacobi.
• UNDER’s gorgeous chill-house remix of a famous Swedish song.
• A joik from Sweden’s Got Tallent’s winner Jon Henrik Fjällgren.
• Finland’s Heroines will be singing about their Rules.
• Scandipop.co.uk will be picking their song of the month for us to feature.
• The opening song to Mammas Mest Metal with the playlist encoded in MFSK 64 during.

A new RNEIxtra segment called Mammas Mest Metal is going to air for the first time this month on WRMI featuring a selection of Metal, Post Metal, Viking and Post-Prog Metal songs!

Afterward we’ll head over to Stephen to hear music from some sisters who sing in Welsh and Cornish, their music is beautiful!

Lastly We have a HamDRM data segment coded by Daz featuring a self rendering animation and our playlist. You can download an early alpha copy of Daz’s decoder, EasyDRF, here. Other options for HamDRM are: EasyPal & WinDRM on Windows and QSSTV &TRXAMADRM on Linux.

We are trialling some new beams this month to Asia and Africa!

Keep an eye on our announcements for extra broadcasts!

If you miss the show you can always catch up on demand and, if you prefer to only hear our music, we have Spotify Playlists of each show usually published after the first broadcast!

Happy Easter / God påske,
Roseanna

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Radio Northern Europe International Show #15

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hei alle,

We have put together a packed show for March for all the wonderful RNEI listeners ?

We’ve got lots of extras including:

 Folk listening on-demand ? and on WRMI ? will get to hear a pretty piece of music from the game Unravel TWO along with a Feature from our new guest presenter, Stephen who also presents 16 Gwendoline Street on 9510KHz, 12:30UTC Sundays!

 Listeners tuned to Channel 292 or Radio Onda ? will get to hear another instalment of This is an Express Music Show featuring fantastic music and some MFSK 64 data!

 For those listening on shortwave ?: HamDRM data at the end of the show (292 & Onda) / hour(WRMI) & Comb Stereo encoding allowing a stereo version of the show to be heard over shortwave with a simple plugin, no special equipment needed! (https://rnei.org/stereo)

 For everyone: Some MFSK 64 data and fantastic show presented by me with music like:
 A haunting song from iris ?.
 Some cute Finnish ?? music.
 An Icelandic ?? bop.
 A massive Sea Shanty ?.
 Some pretty video game ? music.

Coverage Predictions

This is the last of the Winter times, Our summer schedule will be announced soon ?

You can find our full up to date frequency schedule here: (https://rnei.org/listen)

Can’t tune into a radio or just want the music without the extras? We also have Spotify Playlists of all of our broadcasts available here: RNEI Spotify Profle with the latest show being added a few days after broadcasting!

Wishing you all the best for this month and look forward to hearing from you again,
Roseanna

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Radio Northern Europe International Show #14

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hei alle,
RNEI show #14 is now on air complete with TIAEMS for February 2021!

February marks a year since the first RNEI broadcast on 6070 kHz, the 15th of February 2020 ?
To celebrate this we are starting the show with an acoustic version of the first song we played on RNEI followed by music like:

 A cute song from Beni Holm
• More great songs from Vionavega, BEHM and ISÁK
• Our second ever song from Estonia ??
• One of my favourite dance songs for the data section from LOKE

The extras for this show are:
 An MFSK 64 Song playlist embedded into the final song for all Editions of the show.
 HamDRM with our Animated HTML Playlist for WRMI, Onda and Channel 292 versions.
 Comb Stereo encoding for all Shortwave broadcasts compatible with any radio, for more information please see https://rnei.org/stereo/
 30 minutes of calming music on the WRMI edition to fill the extra time, hopefully you don’t fall asleep haha!

You can find our full up to date frequency schedule here: (https://rnei.org/listen)

Can’t tune into a radio or just want the music without the extras? We also have Spotify Playlists of all of our broadcasts available here: RNEI Spotify Profle

We thought we’d give a little shout-out, in the form of a map, for all of our listeners around the world, we love you all ?

 

Wishing you lovely listeners all the best for February,
– Roseanna

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Radio Northern Europe International’s Christmas Special Schedule

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hei all,

After lots of work and careful song selection we have completed our Christmas special show for 2020 and we hope you get to hear it and love it!

Musical Features:

  • Some Norwegian cheese to open the show
  • Some really nice Christmas songs from artists like Eivør, Zophia, Saara Aalto
  • A wonderful song by My & Mats featuring loads of lovely stereo seperation (in Comb Stereo on Shortwave – Give yourself a bigger treat and set up shortwave stereo!)

Data Features:

  • PSK500R playlist with shortened comments in the final song of the show
  • HamDRM (Easypal or WinDRM decoder) 7Zip file with a HTML animation along with the full playlist tirelessly coded by Daz!
  • Comb Stereo – This is something you’ll really want to be using on this show for sure!!

Being a special the broadcast times are abnormal so here is a table to know when to hear it!

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Radio Northern Europe International Show 9

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Radio Northern Europe International Show 9 announcement

Hei all,

It’s our pleasure to announce RNEI #9 to you!

RNEI 9’s music features:

  • An artist introduction to a brand new group from the Faeroe Islands with their first song announced by Heidrik from the band
  • A candidate for Denmark’s Eurovision from 2020
  • A catchy Swedish song I really like at the moment
  • The return of Evelina and Zupermaria
  • Some traditional Icelandic and Samí music I think a lot of you will like
  • A Norwegian song from the 1970s that I recently discovered with a beep but no boops
  • Our first Estonian song to start of the dance segment
  • Fading into a Danish dance song to end off the show

RNEI 9’s digital experiments on Shortwave:

  • Easypal QAM16 7zip file transfer (of a website!) embedded into our interval signal
  • A few hidden experiments (Running JS8Call nearer the end isn’t a bad idea ? )
  • DominoEX22 embedded in the final song

Please note: On WRMI the broadcasts are 30 seconds shorter necessitating a shorter interval signal and therefore a shorter Easypal segment than the Channel 292 and Onda broadcasts. Expect potential changes e.g. QAM64 or lesser error correction modes. The version sent to World FM, Unique Radio and later On-Demand will be the “HQ” version, meaning it doesn’t have the Easypal (because it sounds nasty) nor does it use the Comb Stereo system.

TIAEMS for this month is really good complete with MFSK data and lots of great music!

As promised the Saturday 6070 kHz broadcast will be the first one on shortwave carrying the new show!

Our schedule is available here: https://rnei.org/listen/

QSLs are running massively behind schedule, we are very sorry, show first, website second and QSLs third at the moment making very little time to reply to them. We have got some ideas to speed up the process soon though!

Sending you all good wishes and hoping you can listen and enjoy the show,
Roseanna

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Radio Northern Europe International now via WRMI

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hello everyone,

RNEI has arranged a deal with WRMI to bring you our latest monthly show every Thursday at 1UTC on 5850 kHz (Wednesday night US time – just before TIAMS!)

Because these broadcasts are 1 hour long rather than our usual 30 minutes it allows us to have a little extra content we are calling RNEIX(tra).

[…]We will be broadcasting with similar processing to TIAMS so expect high fidelity sound in Comb Stereo ?

For our European fans:
New RNEI shows will always go out first on 6070 kHz Channel 292 before WRMI and any extra content will be available on demand.

We hope you can tune in and enjoy the show,

– Rose

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