Mailbox
Today's Mailbox includes: Topics: Season's greetings. Short-wave radio. Conference on Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) in Cologne. Quotes from: Brian Balderson, Anthony Savage
Hello and thanks for tuning in to another edition of Mailbox.
And it's the last Mailbox of 2002. And I think this is a great opportunity to thank all of you for writing to us. We have received hundreds of letters expressing praise, empathy, but also criticism and we truly appreciate all of it.
And hope you will continue to write to us with questions, comments and even suggestions next year.
As we've said, we've received a large number of letters from you and one, in particular, caught my attention the most...
Since this is our last Mailbox this year, we decided to read out the letter on the programme today.
It's an e-mail from Brian Balderson and he wrote:
"I very much enjoyed listening to your program this morning on CBC Radio (Overnight), which is a re-broadcast of your English language program. A very deer feeling is what I have for your station. In the mid to late sixties, my hobby was radio. I had constructed a two tube (valve) super-regenerative receiver and had an inverted V outdoor antenna. Your station was coming in very well on this little radio, and was saying that the Russian tanks are rolling up to the building and did not know how much longer you could stay on the air. Then it was gone...nothing heard. It took me about two seconds to get upstairs from my bedroom to tell Mom and Dad all about it. That is what hooked me on the radio profession that lasted me some 26 years in Air Traffic Services.
Further: As a result of my interest above average in Short Wave Radio, and my studies for hobby interests, I was able to capitalize on my knowledge of HF Radio Conditions on January 17, 1991. A major Solar Flare occurred about 15 minutes after initial contact with the Pacific Flyer. It was a balloon piloted by Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, from Japan, which crossed the Pacific Ocean, and was now about 150 miles north of my station at Ft. Simpson, NWT, Canada. I had to use my own equipment that day to maintain contact and arrange for their rescue from their landing site for about six hours under very poor HF Radio conditions. Momentary black-outs were frequent, otherwise signals were so low, government equipment could not maintain communications.
You could say, that, your programming way back in the mid to late sixties, was instrumental in my being able to cause the safe rescue of the two balloonists, which happened, coincidentally the day after the start of the Gulf War.
Well, Mr Balderson. On behalf of the Radio Prague team, we thank you for sharing your story with us and hope you will come to visit us here in Prague sometime soon.
Yes. Surprisingly, we have been getting a substantial amount of e-mails from our listeners telling us that they will be in Prague next year and would like to pay us a visit.
The Radio Prague team is always happy to meet its listeners so don't hesitate to give us a call when you come to Prague.
And moving on, now, to another topic we would like to devote today's Mailbox to - the future of short-wave radio. Now, you can listen to us primarily on short-wave but also via satellite and on the internet. Some local fm stations also re-broadcast our programmes, as we just heard from Mr Balderson. But most of you are probably tuning in to Radio Prague on short-wave radio.
Which I have tried before and was not impressed with after being used to the clear broadcasts on fm.
Yes, despite short wave listeners and broadcasters, in many ways being a closely knit group interested in deepening mutual understanding and good will, it is true that short wave listening does have its problems and can, sometimes, be frustrating, as the latest reception report sent by Anthony Savage from Tomworth, Straffordshire, in England confirms:
"I usually listen to your Sunday broadcast at 18:00 or 21:00 UTC, where reception is perfect. But I forgot to tune in at those times. I'm afraid that at 11:30 UTC reception was a bit on the poor side. Signal was faint and there was lots of static around."
Well, there are some who say that that is one of the attractions of short wave, but others would prefer a more reliable way of listening - and modern technology is helping to solve that problem.
A few days ago Radio Prague's editor-in-chief, David Vaughan and director, Mirek Krupicka, were in Cologne at a conference hosted by one of our partner stations, Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. The conference was devoted to one of the most exciting digital radio projects to emerge in the last decade. The project is called DRM - short for Digital Radio Mondiale, and as I'm sure some of you will already know, the aim is to create digital medium and short-wave broadcasts.
The dream of perfect radio reception all over the world could be coming a step closer. At this stage there is no technical reason to stop broadcasters from beginning to adapt their transmitters or radio manufacturers from starting to make and sell DRM receivers. The big news is that DRM broadcasts are really going to be launched next June.
Receivers will soon be on the market, but it still remains to be seen how quickly this exciting new innovation will catch on. David caught up with the project's director, Deutsche Welle's Peter Senger.
"We just finished the development of the system and now it depends on the market introduction, which will be much easier if many more broadcasters participate. Then we would have a faster development of the market. But you always need a minimum of two to three years after the standard is ready, before the mass production of receivers can take place. So we expect this by the end of 2004, or 2005 for sure, when the consumer receivers will be on the market for a reasonable price. In the long run, the price of the receiver will go down. You might remember that the price of a PC was very high at the beginning and now it is available for much less money. So, the radio of the future will be like a PC. The price will be a little high at the beginning but much lower at the end, when the mass production starts."
What sort of a price are you talking about at the start? About 200 U.S. dollars?
"You have to ask the receiver manufacturers. I can only tell you what they tell me and that didn't include any price. What they disclosed was that a receiver might cost 15 to 20% more than a comparable analogue receiver. But this is only at the beginning. In the long run, when the mass production starts and low price receivers will come on the market then the price will also be pretty low."
Looking into the future, assuming that everything works out, in about five years time will people be able to buy a DRM receiver and listen to hundreds of stations on medium wave or short wave on near FM quality?
"Yes. That is what we predict for the future depending on how many broadcasters and in which parts of the world will go away from analogue to digital. It needs a little investment on the transmitter side but the advantage is that you can still use the transmitters and the antenna systems. So, you don't have to plan a new station and new network. You can continue using your existing transmitters but you have to buy some equipment for the transmitters to be able to broadcast either digital, analogue, or both together. The broadcasters save money because a digital transmitter consumes much less power than an analogue transmitter so the operational costs for the station are going down and the radiation around the station goes down, which means the hazard around a short wave, medium wave, or long wave station is reduced and in countries where the power supply is still a problem, less power is needed for this type of technology."
So is this the end of the hissing, the interference, all the things that we are familiar with from short-wave?
"DRM offers two big advantages besides the many small ones, which are also important. The first one is that the audio quality will be similar to the FM quality. It could also be in stereo if two channels are available. The second advantage is that the reception problems that we have with the analogue are not existing any more. There are also more advantages. For example, the listener does not have to know the frequency anymore. It's automatically tuned to the station you give in by the identity, which can be four letters or something like that. The listener also does not have to follow frequency changes as it's all done automatically by the receiver. The listener can read a text and can receive a picture coming with a programme. So, there are many advantages for the listener. For us broadcasters as well, because we can bring our listeners from the old analogue disturbed era into the new digital, multi-media era."
Well, I wonder what our regular listeners will have to say about the project. Maybe some of them will have a DRM receiver under their Christmas tree next year?
But for 2003, we hope that you will continue to listen to us on the less reliable short-wave radios. This is Martin Hrobsky
And my name is Dita Asiedu,
Thanks for listening to Radio Prague
And on behalf of everyone here in the building we wish you:
Happy holidays and a very prosperous New Year.
