Good News

Hi again,

We received news from TAC that their DRM-capable transmitter has been repaired and tested. It should be able to air the last 15170kHz DRM broadcast for the A25 season. Even though it is the end of the season, we still want to know how well you received it.

For B25, the DRM schedule is as below:

Time              Day        Frequency       Power     Language     Coverage area

1200-1230      Sat         12105kHz      50kW      Mandarin         China

1230-1300      Sat         12105kHz      50kW      Japanese         Japan

1445-1505      Sat          9975kHz       50kW      English            India/Southeast Asia

We thank you for your patience while the transmitter was down. We hope you enjoy the broadcasts throughout the B25 broadcast season. Please let us know how they perform.

73 de TWR Asia

DRM Paused

Hello everyone,

As many of you have noticed, TWR's DRM broadcasts to China and Japan have been replaced by analog transmissions. This is due to the DRM-capable transmitter at another broadcast site being disabled by a failed part. The lead-time for that part is likely going to be quite long. With this being the case, you can expect a long pause for those broadcasts.

KTWR's last DRM broadcast will be on 25 Oct. at 1600-1630UTC in South Indian languages. This will be the final program aired by KTWR. From that time until the broadcast provider's DRM transmitter is repaired, there will be no DRM broadcasts from TWR. We are quite sorry for this situation.

73 and blessings from KTWR

UPDATE:

We just got word that a capacitor has been found that might work for the transmitter. The team is testing it now. We may have DRM back on the air sooner than at first thought.

Updated Plans for Frequency Change

Hi again everyone. Now that TAC is back on DRM, interference has been quite strong in Eastern China and parts of Japan. This makes reception very difficult. We will change the frequency from 15230kHz to 15170kHz for the 1100-1230UTC China/Japan blocks, effective 30 August.

There was a problem in one of the content server settings noted last weekend. SDC was set to 16 instead of 4. That has been corrected. 

We hope these changes will improve your reception experience. Please let us know how it goes.

73 from TWR

TAC is back on DRM

Hi everyone. I have some good news for you. The broadcast site at Tashkent, TAC, now has the old spare content server from KTWR. We installed it a few days ago. We also tuned the TSW-2100D for max SNR on 15230kHz. We achieved ~35dB. That should sound better than it did the last time the station was broadcasting in DRM. 

Please tune in on Saturdays at 1100-1230UTC on 15230kHz to let us know how it is doing. The beam heading is toward China and Japan, but South Korea should hear it very well.

73 de NH2MS and TWR

DRM Frequency change for China and Japan

We are grateful for those of you who sent reception reports for the Wednesday DRM test broadcast on 15230kHz. It performed much better than the 12120/12105kHz blocks could have from TAC. We are going to stay with 15230kHz for the normal Saturday broadcasts to China and Japan at 1100-1230UTC.

For those of you in China and Japan who use directional antennas, you will want to point your antennas westward for the 15230kHz broadcast. Listeners in South Asia should aim antennas northward. The 15390kHz broadcasts are still coming from KTWR. Most listeners should continue to aim their antennas eastward our southeastward for those broadcasts.

73 de TWR 

Another DRM Test

Hi again everyone. We are going to try another test broadcast for China and Japan this Wednesday at 1130-1200UTC on 15230kHz. Reports from Northeast Asia would be especially helpful, but reception reports from other regions are also helpful. If this works out well, we intend to use this frequency to replace what had been on 12120/12105kHz at 1100-1230UTC on Saturdays.

Thanks so much for your help. 

Test Results

Thank you to all of those who sent WhatsApp and email reports for the 12120/12105kHz DRM tests that were run on 9 May. The results proved that we need to change to a higher frequency band. We are still working out what that frequency will be. It could be in the 22 or 19-meter band. We hope to get that settled soon. Even though the test yielded poor coverage, we have not given up on reaching China and Japan with DRM broadcasts.

73 de TWR