USA DRM Meeting in DC - Digital Radio on HF

[tkwood at pressroom.com]

Here is the information about the Digital Radio Mundiale workshop in 
Washington I mentioned at last night's AMRAD meeting. 

(Jeff White is the president of WRMI, a Miami-based commercial HF broadcast 
station) 

You should also visit www.shortwave.org for the NASB web site.   Dream/DRM 
software is available via sourceforge.net .   DRM information is available 
at www.drm.org and www.drmrx.org (tech-stuff). 

Tracy   K7UO/4 


 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Radiomiami9 at cs.com
Message-ID: <12b.59d7897c.2f7b38d5 at cs.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 18:03:49 EST
Subject: USA DRM Meeting
To: undisclosed-recipients:; 

Dear Shortwave Radio Colleague: 

We want to take this opportunity to invite you to the annual meeting of the
USA DRM Group in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 5, 2005.  Some of you 
attended
last year's inaugural meeting in Washington and/or the DRM Symposium in
Dallas, Texas last November.  At these past meetings, we had some very good
discussions about ideas to promote and advance DRM in the United States.  
Now, at
this upcoming meeting in Washington, we want to take action. 

Since the DRM Symposium in Dallas, the U.S. DRM Group has established its 
own
website (www.usdrm.com) with the help of Continental Electronics.  Now we
must add the kind of content that people want and need. 

Just last week, the FCC amended its rules to officially permit DRM
broadcasting on shortwave in the United States with a minimum power level of 
10
kilowatts.  At the US DRM Meeting in Washington, we want to get sincere 
indications of
interest from stations in the U.S. with appropriate equipment who would like
to begin DRM transmissions, and to "match them up" with manufacturers who 
may
be able to provide DRM equipment and technical expertise for long-term 
tests.
There are at least five DRM transmitter sites in the Americas now, but none
yet in the United States.  Hopefully this will change during 2005 as a 
result
of our efforts. 

The U.S. DRM Group was very much involved with the recent DRM Symposium in
Mexico City in February where both mediumwave and shortwave DRM tests were
carried out by Harris Corp. and Riz Transmitters respectively, and we will 
have
reports on these tests at the meeting in Washington.  We will also hear 
about
recent DRM meetings in Brazil and Paris.  Dr. Don Messer, Chairman of the 
DRM
Consortium's Technical Committee; and Adil Mina, Chairman of US DRM's
Maufacturers Committee, will report on these meetings. 

Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott of IBB Audience Research has had the opportunity to
carry out a couple of DRM demonstrations at recent editions of the Shortwave
Listeners Winterfest in Pennsylvania, and he will report on his experiences. 
We
will also have some distinguished members of the U.S. shortwave listening
community present to provide input and to help form a Listeners Committee to
liaise between US DRM and the SWLs in the U.S. who are our potential 
audience. 

These are just some of the items on the agenda for the US DRM Meeting on
Thursday, May 5.  It will be held at the headquarters of Radio Free Asia, 
2025 M
Street NW, in downtown Washington from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.  We understand 
that
some people will be flying into Washington on Thursday morning, so the real
"meat" of the meeting will be in the afternoon session.  From 10-11 a.m. 
there
will be a tour of Radio Free Asia for those who have not seen it yet.  The
meeting itself will actually begin at 11 a.m. with some preliminary 
discussions
until lunch at 12 noon (Italian-style, sponsored by Continental Electronics,
TCI and Thales).  The afternoon session will begin at 1 p.m.  There is no 
charge
for attending the DRM meeting, but you must register in advance by e-mailing
Jeff White at radiomiami9 at cs.com, so we will know how many plan to attend. 

Some of you may also want to take advantage of the opportunity to attend the
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) annual meeting on the
following day -- Friday, May 6.  The NASB Annual Meeting will begin at 
around
8:30 a.m. in the same first-floor conference room at RFA headquarters. The
morning session will feature a series of talks including updates from the 
IBB, the
FCC, DRM and a review of the Mexico City HFCC Conference. Don Messer of the
IBB will talk about the development of a U.S. position for the WRC-2007
regarding increased spectrum for HF broadcasters. And a special speaker, 
courtesy of
VT Merlin Communications, will be Dr. Graham Mytton, former audience 
research
officer at the BBC World Service. Graham will address issues of interest to
shortwave broadcasters relating to audience research. 

Lunch at the NASB meeting will be Chinese this year, appropriate for the
location at Radio Free Asia. It will be catered from a local Chinese 
restaurant
that is highly rated by RFA staffers, and it will be sponsored by our 
friends at
Continental Electronics, TCI  and Thales.  After lunch is the annual NASB
business meeting, which all are welcome to attend. It should end by around 
4:00
p.m. or possibly earlier, and it will be followed by a brief meeting of the
NASB Board of Directors. 

Hotel availability in Washington in early May can be difficult, and prices
have risen considerably during the past few years. There is a hotel right 
next
to Radio Free Asia, but the price is well over $200 per night. The NASB has 
a
block of rooms booked at the Red Roof Inn in downtown Washington for a group
rate of $124 per night for the nights of May 4 and 5, and they will honor 
the
same rate for those who want to arrive earlier or stay later, as long as 
rooms
are available. In order to get a room at the group rate, you need to call 
the
hotel direct at (202) 289-5959. Tell them you are with the NASB group. We
strongly encourage you to make your hotel reservation as soon as possible, 
while
there are still rooms available.  Of course you are welcome to stay at any 
other
hotel in the area, but price and availability may be a serious problem. If
you encounter any problems reserving for the group rate at the Red Roof Inn,
please contact Jeff White at: radiomiami9 at cs.com. 

The Red Roof Inn is located in the Chinatown area at 500 H Street NW, which
is between the White House and Union Station and just one block from the MCI
Center. There is an Irish/Cajun restaurant at the hotel, and there are other
restaurants in the area. Taxi fares from Reagan National Airport to the 
hotel,
and from the hotel to Radio Free Asia, should be in the $9 to $15 range. The
same would be true for taxi fares from National Airport direct to Radio Free
Asia. We can go in groups from the hotel to Radio Free Asia on Thursday and 
Friday
(and return), thus sharing the taxi costs. 

For those who prefer to use the Metro, the hotel is near the Gallery Place
Metro stop. Exit on the 7th and H Street side and turn right. The hotel is 
two
blocks down on the right.  And Radio Free Asia is about four blocks from the
Dupont Circle stop on the Metro red line. 

Thanks very much to Hal Creech of Radio Free Asia for coordinating use of 
the
RFA conference room for both the NASB and DRM meetings. 

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