TDF | The SWLing Post

Click to enlarge. Source: TDF Group

PARIS — The use of the medium and short wave bands can provide extensive coverage at low cost in inaccessible locations or for those at a disadvantage due to lack of infrastructure.

[…]France’s TDF Group has started a project they call SmartCast that aims to study and build a long range broadcast system, with potential interactivity where appropriate — by way of a low-speed wireless return path. Data including audio will be broadcast in a shared stream based on standard DRM 30 from Digital Radio Mondiale.

Work underway by TDF includes development of services and equipment focused on two markets:

Maritime Navigation, with a set of services designated as “NavCAST”.

International Broadcasting, with a set of services designated as “WideCAST.”[…]

Read the full article at RadioMagOnline.com

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(Photo: TDF)

According to the French language newspaper France-Guyane, the TDF transmitter site in Montsinéry, French Guyana, will shut down in early April.

Citing a lack of listeners, newer communications mediums (like the Internet/satellite) and the fact that much of the developing world is now politically “stable,” [obviously discounting Zimbabwe] delegate René Iafrate explained that it no longer makes sense to keep the site open:

Mais il n’est plus au goût du jour. « Il y a plusieurs raisons : la concurrence d’internet et des plates-formes satellitaires, et aussi le fait qu’un grand nombre de pays en développement qui constituaient nos cibles principales soient de plus en plus stables politiquement » explique René Iafrate.

The six employees who currently work at Montsinéry will be trained and given jobs in broadcast fields plus porteurs (more promising). The site itself will be dismantled within six to nine months.

Click here to view the original article in French or click here to view it in English via Google Translate.

This news was announced in mid-February, but it appears the closure is still on-track. Montsinéry relays a number of international broadcasters, so it’ll be interesting to see where they go for shortwave service to the target areas Montsinéry once covered.

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