Dream Team

Low-cost digital radio receivers for short- and medium-wave are not yet on the market. There is, however, software available for processing DRM signals on a PC which can be used during the evaluation and changeover period. The two programs that have been developed differ in application, in features, and, not least, in cost.Whether you use a modified world radio or the Elektor Electronics DRM receiver to surf the digital wave, you will need a software decoder running on a PC. This program takes the signal input to the sound card and decodes the data stream from it, which it returns as audio data to the sound card for output. There are at the moment two programs available: the ‘DRM Software Radio’ developed by Fraunhofer IIS, and the open source project ‘DREAM’, run by Volker Fischer and Alexander Kurpiers of the Communications Technology Institute at the University of Darmstadt.