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I have been following this thread with interest. Towards the end of the last century (that makes me sound old!) just before Vosper Thornycroft bought Merlin Communications, I was involved in a project to put an international ‘crossover’ music station on air. The concept was the brainchild of singer Sam Millar, whose first record I released on my label and who went on to record for EMI. It was a serious business with serious players including John Whitney, David Lucas, luminaries from the financial world, Merlin and EMI.

I had many meetings at Merlin where Phil Bell (if my memory of the gentleman’s name is correct) played me Short Wave recordings of AM vs DRM. The quality of the latter was superb but, as with any digital signal, it was either there or it wasn’t. No audible QSB, just artefacts followed by silence. But, with good reception, the results were impressive.

I contacted a German chap from the DRM Consortium in or about 2007 and acquired a Himalaya 2009 DRM radio:

http://dxersguide.blogspot.com/2007/07/drm-dab-capable-receiver-himalaya-2009.html

The only set generally available in the UK was from Morphy Richards, a name I associate with toasters and steam irons but not radios. Morphy Richards is owned by the Irish Glen Dimplex electronics group which also owns Roberts Radio, and I was surprised they didn’t release their DRM set under the Roberts brand. However, it didn’t receive great reviews so maybe they didn’t want to sully the Roberts name.

My Himalaya 2009 was a nasty thing to be sure! Cheap and plasticky with the most unintuitive software imaginable and very poor speakers. I still have it somewhere but haven’t used it for many years. But it worked and, in 2014, I made some recordings including:

BR-B5akt 6085kHz
Deutsche Welle 3995kHz
Deutsche Welle 13810kHz
RTL 6095kHz

All recordings made in South Buckinghamshire, some with the built-in rod antenna, others with a external long wire. I won’t post them online for copyright reasons but if anyone would like them please let me know.

As for the radio project, it was one of those good ideas that was a bit too late. Merlin was on the verge of coordinating airtime internationally, so it was well advanced. Funding was looking good. But one of our target markets was Asia, and Virgin opened there in about 2001. That would have meant a major increase in competition. I decided to pull out and the others followed me towards the exit. Nobody made any money, but neither did anyone lose any. The only loss was our time.

Please excuse this long ramble and put it down to the reminiscences of an old man!