DXing with NO AIR CONDITIONING till Tues.

We are without Air Conditioning until Tuesday and also I will be spending my Memorial Day in the house under the damn hot sun in boiling heat index temperatures of the 90'F heat here in Virginia Beach VA. My DXing has not been done much, and also there has been more thunderstorm activity last night that all I had was the internet and broadcast on WRSO-FM. Also I am missing out on the FM DXing cause of the solar activity being too low, but you cannot blame that. Shortwave radio has not been a fruit salad ethiter, ever since this heat spell and stringous stress I cannot think about SWL at this time of day. I have been trying to hack the most complicated thermostat ever in the new house. The good thing is that the internet is working well this weekend Hooray! The poor thing is that I have no money on me to get some things that I want to have, like accessories for my computer such as CD-R's. We have a dog added to the family and its doing ok, but the dog is afraid of the cat. So likely the cat took over the house. Right now after I get off this blog I will try to find something to that is not computer related, cause I have been on here for more than 9 hours. Good thing there's broadband!

XM Satellite Radio : The Same Old Song

I have something to say to be positive here, if you are a channel surfer you will likely find something rare and interesting to hear, but the problem is that when you're driving that channel surfing can get you into a traffic violation, so just try to surf for rare music at home only or outside at recreational area. Most of the programming will be repetivite, but try to be patient
the programming can get fatiguing.

Here are my comments about XM satellite radio


XM Satellite Radio is not the best programming I have listened to on my satellite TV system. I know there are no commericals. But the playlists are too strict and sound like the radio that I listen to locally. Most of the songs I like are on there and I have heard them so many times, its not even funny. Its a good thing I am not paying extra for this repetitive programming that came with DirecTV. XM Satellite Radio needs to do more research and stop playing the same Top 1000 songs day after day. The classic rock on here sounds like the station that comes in here locally called Classic Hits 104.9 and the Blend is not really the Blend its called the constant soft rock been there heard that programming. XM satellite won't even release the extra satellite channels that have talk radio programming except one channel that is called High Voltage. When you tune to the 40's, 50's and 60's they play a good variety of songs that the oldies FM
radio stations cannot touch. The 70's is good, but still needs work cause its a little repetitive
and also the 80's, 90's stations needs work I know I heard more than what they played back in the 90's The Rock stations are becoming repetitive just a bit. Didn't they said that Clear Channel took over XM? Cause most of the music I hear is from the Clear Channel library, it seems that its becoming overplayed on each radio station on XM.

So if you like channel surfing its a hit and miss here, than it is with Music Choice. I noticed that
Audio Visions has programming that you hear on NPR radio called Hearts of Space, but the problem is that its real late at night. The BPM and other dance stations have music that is too
unusual, cause its not available to be bought online or the CD store like Best Buy and Planet Music, not even the music is available to download online. I think the only way to own it is
record it on Tape or MD or HDD. All I know is that most of the XM radio stations need more
variety and also deeper cuts, rare tracks, and music they didn't think of playing on radio just
Music Choice and DMX (digital music express). I know the DJ's at XM can do better than that.

gccengineering
1

DRM The part of Shortwave that is noisy now.

When I DX the shortwave radio stations I want to hear all the broadcasters possible from differnent countries. It seems that this DRM is only half of the meter bands. I want to just hear the audio. No factory or manufactuer will be releasing the chips inside these receivers until 2007 to 2010, but there will be a expensive price on the newest radio receivers that will carry DRM. This will be a problem in gaining listenership, and we have only seen a few FM station listeners who are will incomed and weatlthy to own even the most sophisticated receivers now. It will look like that DRM will be a luxury item just as well as the DVD player and the newest HDTV's.

I feel that DRM will need to get more chipsets for other receivers that are in the making. The only thing that has DRM is our computers equiped with WinRadio and some other receivers that are only prototypes. This DRM is great, but where in the world are the receivers? There are only test transmitters on site, but no radio receivers chipped with DRM decoding for the average joe listener. DRM right now is not in my pricing catagory unless I get a Ten Tec receiver that will eventally be out of date when the DRM encoding gets more complicated and will create reception problems. The GCC does not want to deal with DRM anytime soon cause the problems getting the connections to obtain the right equipment and special software.

We tried the DRM website, I guess I have to be very special person to get that kind of equipment. I don't see any radios even portable that will pick up the DRM, All I hear is talk, talk, talk and a bunch of engineering jibberish about a technology that will might go obsolete like Betamax did. I feel that digital broadcasting is not for shortwave at all, its for our DAB and satellite broadcasters.

As I tune a radio frequency on 9795 or 9805 the DRM transmission is extremely unintelligable and also its a bunch of hash noise that is interfering with other fellow SW broadcasters that we want to hear and enjoy for many years. Out in foreign countries, DRM is NOT going to be very easy to get cause of these chipsets being too complicated to install and also the price will be in the 100's or even in the thousand dollar price range, just as the same as the I pod with 60 GB
and the Blu-Ray disc players. DRM will be only for a limited audience. I feel that we should all have access to the same SW transmission in analog until there are enough digital/analog radio receiver to use and also affordable by the general public.

Also there might be a special antenna requirement to achive to get the best possible DRM reception, which means that most antennas for DRM should not have alot of noise as analog antennas, which means best antenna and RF engineering requirement to create, produce, and manufactuer extremely low noise antennas that will bring out the best shortwave, AM, and longwave signal possible. If this cannot be achived then you will get alot, I mean alot of errorous and RF congestion on your favorite DRM receiver.

We hope everyone understands this blog, that the GCC encourages DRM DXing, but remember that it will not entirely replace analog radio altogether. DRM is a digital mode, the same as RTTY and other digital mode we have been using for years, its not any different than the regular AM broadcasts we listen to on a day to day basis. If I were you, I should wait until everything phases in 75 to 100%, cause this future plan might fail or it will be the rich mans radio mode cause of the luxurous clarity of FM sound on shortwave. Also its not best to even think about using such expensive equipment during severe lightning storms or high level static discharge or EMP. Just remember to shop and reasearch before you buy any DRM SW radio.

Good Luck and Happy DRM DXing! 73! gccengineering