PM you know the area I live in and there are 2 licenses due to be awarded.
Please consider going on one or both as there is a lot of support for Caroline in this area -- you'll knock them flat !
Kev. 
Previous Message
Well,
Can't make any technical observations, but as for DRM i.e. no stations, no radio sets, in my actual career many years ago one of the things we did was install LPG ( Liquified Petroleum Gas ) on petrol engined cars and vans. LPG had some qualities since when it arrived in the engine to be burned it was a pure gas and burned very cleanly. Sure it did not have the calorific value of petrol so the engine did not make quite as much power. Also in those days petrol had lead in it and this lubricated the valve stems and seats. So LPG drivers were advised to use petrol now and again. Of course the lead is all gone now. The main advantage though was cost.
The Catch 22 was that filling stations did not want to install LPG pumps until there were enough vehicles on the road. Drivers did not want to convert until there were plenty of filling points. Then there was the worry that Duty may be added if too many cars started running on gas.
A mirror image maybe of the electric car debate these days.
So sadly, I don't see DRM going anywhere for the same reasons. I do remember as an aside being at Merlin Communications and being given demonstrations of digital shortwave against conventional shortwave. Digital was remarkable.
I guess I do know about SS DAB and as I understand, Ofcom are fixated on rolling out more and more of these muxes which on the face of it give many stations and many people the chance to be on the radio. Caroline is on many as it is available and seems to indicate progress but I wonder as should other stations forming or taking this up, who actually listens ? A new mux called me yesterday wondering if Caroline wanted to join the so far 8 stations they were hosting but I thought ' why do I want to be competing with 8 stations ?
Community radio is not quite the same but it is equally short range and equally impossible to fund sufficiently, unless some unique angle is found. Many stations are handing licences back.
There are lots of boxes being ticked, but I wonder sometimes what is being achieved.
PM Previous Message
Just seeing Peter's reference to DRM on the thread about the other board reminded me....I was recently in India talking to some broadcasting executives there who absolutely think DRM has got a future. Which surprised me enormously, because I've always assumed it's a completely dead duck given - as Peter notes - the absence of any widespread pickup in receivers.
But the folks in India are currently evaluating whether to implement DAB or go with DRM...and definitely seemed to think DRM had produced some impressive results. (They continue, by the way, to broadcast on SW and AM...with absolutely no plans to phase any of those services out. I believe they're about to install an array of new FM and AM transmitters in rural, underserved areas).
Given that India may already be the world's most populous nation, what happens if 1 billion people run out and buy DRM receivers? And would local enthusiasm for the DRM technology there give it any chance to penetrate the market in other places?
Still seems a very hard row to hoe in the UK, but I was interested even to hear it being discussed.
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DRM - SimonM 15/2/2023, 23:55:10
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