Valve boss says service, not price, the big issue for consumers and publishers.

Here's Valve's co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell talking about piracy in the games industry. The man behind online retail service Steam tackles those who claim that lower prices for games will make piracy go away, and he takes on companies that seek to fight piracy by inconveniencing consumers. //

"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy," Newell said. "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country three months after the U.S. release and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable.

"Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customer's use or by creating uncertainty."

He adds, "Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe.

Consortium argues that it is the best common solution for all radio bands there

The DRM Consortium reported the conclusion of its demonstration and trial of the DRM digital radio standard for proposed use on India’s FM band.

“It was highly successful and generated a lot of interest,” the consortium said in an announcement.

Trials in New Delhi and Jaipur were done for Prasar Bharati (All India Radio). Digital radio advocacy organizations are competing to be chosen for the digitization of the FM band in India; DRM argues that it is the best common solution for all radio bands there, in part because DRM is already used in India on the AM band.

“In Delhi, the [FM] trial demonstrated excellent results when transmitting a single DRM signal, multiple pure digital DRM signals side-by-side from the same transmitter (‘Multi-DRM’ configuration), and also using DRM’s simulcast option by putting on air both an analog FM and a digital DRM signal from a single transmitter,” the organization said.

“The Multi-DRM option proves DRM’s highly economic potential when it comes to frequency and equipment upgrades: A single FM-band transmitter with a bandwidth of 600 kHz can transmit six independent DRM signals (blocks) carrying up to 24 DRM services, e.g. 18 audio and six multimedia services. These can represent up to six independent broadcasters who remain in full control over their individual content and signal configuration.”

While the FCC has authorized international data stations experimentally, those were “never conceived to engage in revenue operations indefinitely as an alternative to regular spectrum allocations and transparent, public license assignment procedures.”

In a separate email to Radio World, Kobb noted recent news coverage of shortwave applications for private data communication services such as instant stock trading; examples are here and here. Kobb emphasized that the objectors have no reason to think Parable is associated with those particular projects.

But regardless of audio programs that Parable may transmit, the three told the FCC that licensing a point-to-point message facility this way would be “an impermissible excursion around formalizing an international private data service or updating existing rules to accommodate it.” So they say the commission FCC should require Parable to certify that “no nonpublic, non-broadcast, nondisclosed, encrypted, confidential or clandestine data messages shall be sent over the proposed station.”

They added that the FCC needs to update its “hoary Part 73F rules, some dating from the 1930s and now without any articulable public interest basis.” These include “excessive” minimum required power level and a prohibition on domestic service. “Rule changes might embrace data communications under an expanded scope of service.” //

Parable’s facility would operate on the 5.9–15.8 MHz international shortwave bands with 15 kW power. Two 10 kW Amplifier Systems transmitters (main and standby) would feed 550 feet of 5-inch Comscope pressurized coax to a “super high gain” TCI log-periodic antenna system. The latter would consist of three towers, including two at 184 feet, with antenna power gain of 18.0 dBi, which the application notes is “a multiplier of 63.1.”

Dream is a software implementation of a Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) receiver. With Dream, DRM broadcasts can be received with a modified analog receiver (SW, MW, LW) and a PC with a sound card.

utorial: How to Receive and Decode DRM Signals

To receive DRM with RTL-SDR, you will need the following:

• An RTL-SDR dongle working with SDR#. (Or a more advanced SDR such an Airspy)
• An HF upconverter such as the recommended SpyVerter or ham-it-up, or a dongle modded for direct sampling (such as our already modded V3 dongle), or SDR# modded to use the experimental Oliver Jowett HF driver for regular RTL-SDR dongles.
• The DREAM DRM decoding software with AAC decoder.
• Virtual Audio Cable or VB-Cable.

NEW! The immensely popular DRM Software Radio is now available in three different versions (general purpose, and supporting two WiNRADiO receiver models), and can now be purchased directly on-line via WiNRADiO Communications.

The DRM Software Radio is based on the proven Fraunhofer DRM engine, which is considered to be the most advanced DRM engine today, built around fully licensed proprietary DRM encoding technology.

Hungary Studies DRM Shortwave p12

Mice rodents tips p14

THAT Thing Mic Preamp project p23

DRM Radio

For years, NASB members have wanted to replace (or at least augment) the poor audio quality of analog SW with the crystal-clear sound of digital SW radio, specifically the Digital Radio Mondiale standard developed in Europe that is now being used in China and India.

“DRM sounds very much like FM, with a wide audio range and no static,” said Charles Caudill, president emeritus of World Christian Broadcasting, owner/operator of U.S. SW station KNLS. “It is also consistent: Either the DRM signal is received on your SW radio in full, or it isn’t. There’s no in-between.”

There are some DRM radios in use now, which is why some NASB members are offering limited DRM broadcasts alongside their regular analog SW transmissions.

“But the current generation of DRM SW receivers cost about $100 each, whereas you can buy a cheap analog SW radio for as little as $10,” said Dr. Jerry Plummer, a professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., and frequency coordinator for U.S. SW station WWCR. “Given that the audiences being targeted by NASB members are largely in the third world, the lack of inexpensive DRM receivers keeps them listening to analog shortwave.” //

Johannes Von Weyssenhoff was invited to speak at the annual meeting. Von Weyssenhoff said his StarWaves manufacturing firm (www.starwaves.de) has the technology, capability and existing prototypes to build DRM radios for $29 each, but only if the sale order is large enough to deliver economies of scale. (He also estimated $18 DRM modules could be built for installation in other radio models.)

“Twenty-nine dollars is doable at volumes staring at 30,000 receivers,” Von Weyssenhoff told Radio World. “Even smaller quantities would be possible at this price for very simple radios — for example, without graphics displays — but these would be special projects that had to be discussed individually. But even more advanced radios with Bluetooth or premium designs will be possible to offer at a reasonable price,” he said — as long as the sales orders was in the tens of thousands or more.

Nobody can deny that shortwave goes beyond geographical, cultural, religious, political barriers, is free and can be consumed anonymously, which few platforms can claim nowadays. About 20 years ago, the BBC decided to cut its shortwave transmissions to countries such as the United States and other developed parts of the world, since these territories, or rather “markets” were served by FM and the internet etc. Other important international broadcasters, including Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia and Radio Exterior de Espana soon copied this model..

But the BBC kept shortwave for its large audiences in Africa and part of Asia. At the moment the major shortwave broadcasters are BBC, Voice of America, All India Radio, China Radio International, Radio Japan, Radio Romania, KBS Korea and Voice of Turkey and many more.

Twenty years after the first big blow to shortwave, this frequency band and its potential is being revisited. After all, not all the listeners in the world have broadband, smart phones, data plans, connected cars or enough disposable income. And analog radio in general continues to be resilient... //

In 2019 the BBC is still on shortwave and has large audiences in countries like Nigeria, having recently introduced new shortwave transmissions in additional languages. In Australia there was recently a wide consultation on the possible reintroduction of shortwave for the many Pacific islands depending on the services of Australian broadcasters, which had rushed to close down good shortwave facilities in the pursuit of internet and local digital. //

Digital Radio Mondiale was originally invented to offer medium (AM) and large coverage (HF) and the advantages of the good audio quality and extra multimedia services that can take shortwave into the 21st century. Maybe DRM was ahead of its time. The phasing in of digital broadcasts internationally was not in

tandem with the production and sale of receivers, which remains a regional and national business. Since its birth DRM has proven that it is a suitable option for shortwave offering an good digital quality of audio and even short live video at great distance without fading and crackly sound.

Now, at last, there are DRM receivers capable of receiving shortwave, there are broadcasts and interested broadcasters. Quietly and surely shortwave is being re-examined and appreciated for the quality of broadcasts and its potential as a “crisis radio” too. It can become crucial in emergencies when local and regional radio stations, satellite and internet may be off the air due to damage.

ENGLISH BAY, Ascension Island — A six-mile stretch of volcanic rock in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean is home to the BBC’s Atlantic Relay Station.
Neale Bateman

Now managed and operated by Encompass Digital Media on behalf of the BBC World Service, the stations’ six powerful shortwave transmitters on Ascension Island beam program in a dozen or more languages to some 30 million listeners in north, west and central Africa.
The company’s engineers also run the island’s power station (consisting of five diesel generators and five wind turbines) as well as a reverse osmosis desalination plant, supplying electricity and drinking water to the island’s population of more than 800 people.n the mid-1960s, the BBC built a relay station at English Bay on the northern tip of the island to transmit shortwave radio broadcasts to Africa and South America, plus a power station to provide the electricity.

For more than 50 years, the Atlantic Relay Station has transmitted critical radio broadcasts to millions of listeners in some of the remotest parts of Africa. The daily broadcasts include transmissions in English, French, Arabic, Hausa, Somali, Swahili and several other African languages, and more recently has added transmissions for other international broadcasters as well as the BBC.

The shortwave transmitters include two 250 kW Marconi BD272 transmitters originally installed in 1966 (and still in daily use) and four 250 kW RIZ K01 transmitters, which are also capable of transmitting in Digital Radio Mondiale mode.

Each transmitter can be switched to one of more than 20 antennas, which consist of HF curtain arrays beaming toward target areas in Africa and South America. Programming from London is delivered via satellite, with resilience and backup feeds provided by Encompass. The power station is staffed around the clock with engineers taking remote control of the transmitter site outside of peak broadcast times.
Ascension typically transmits around 1,800 hours of program each month on shortwave for the BBC and other broadcasters. Most of these are beamed into Africa, but with the massive footprint of a shortwave transmission, some frequencies are also audible across much of Europe and the Middle East. Although the BBC closed its shortwave service for North and Latin America some years ago, the ability to transmit westward still exists.