Northern Star International Broadcasters AS

Engineering

Getting an international radio station like Radio Norway International on air to broadcast to the planned coverage area is a mammoth task. But transmissions in the AM bands reach very long distances - and create large areas of listeners. So we think the hard work is worthwhile, important-and meaningful.

Northern Star will be distributing its programmes to its customers and use different technologies around the world such as AM/DRM, and via audio streaming on the Internet.

LONGWAVE

Our consultants maintain that a Longwave transmitter on 216 kHz will provide adequate reception from Lofoten to London, from Tórshavn to Turku and from Dublin to Düsseldorf, ie at least The North Atlantic, Scandinavia, the whole of the British Isles, The Netherlands, parts of Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, as indicated on the coverage maps. The red line is the anticipated point at which the signal level will fall below 70 dBm microvolt per metre= approx.3,5 mV/m(milliVolts per metre). The blue line is the anticipated point at which the signal level will fall below 60 dBmV/m microvolt per metre= approx.1 mV/m(milliVolts per metre). But all listeners also inside the green region should be able to hear a clear signal from us on 216 long wave during daylight.

Coverage after dark will vary as we must protect other users of the 216 long wave frequency such as Radio Monte Carlo, broadcasting from Roumoules, on the French Riviera, however reception over Scandinavia and the UK should prove to be adequate.

DRM/DIGITAL RADIO MONDIALE

General information about Digital Radio Mondiale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale

http://www.drmradio.co.uk/

http://www.drm.org

http://www.drm.org/newsevents/pressrelease.php

http://www.drm.org/broadcastmanual/broadcastermanual.php

Information about DRM-equipped radios:

http://www.drm.org/receiversequip/receiversequip.php

http://www.drm.org/pdfs/press_release_123.pdf

http://www.universal-radio.com/CATALOG/portable/0040a.html

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2173460,00.html

http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/dab/products/drmmonitoringreceiver/index.html

http://www.anoraknation.com/feeds/items/425833

http://www.digitalradioportal.com/infoglueDeliverWorking/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=43&languageId=1&contentId=-1

Information about DRM-transmissions:

http://www.drm.org/system/watchandhear.php

http://www.drm.org/livebroadcast/livebroadcast.php

http://www.drm.org/system/audiosamples2.php

http://www.drm.org/videos/receptiondemo.php

http://www.hfcc.org/data/A05drm.html

http://mwcircle.org/page95.htm

Information about HD Radio in North America for AM and FM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio

http://www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio/

http://www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_buy_an_hd_radio

http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/newsletters/radioweek/2005/121205/default.asp

Frequency Lists for AM/DRM:

Herman Boel’s EMWG/Euro-African Medium Wave Guide

http://www.emwg.info

and Bruce Portzer’s PAL/Pacific Asian List

http://www.radioheritage.net/PAL.asp

World Radio TV Handbook

http://www.wrth.org/

INTERNET

The radio station's transmissions will be available on the Internet, as web radio is a fast-growing medium.

Transmission site. Antennas for LONGWAVE and MEDIUM WAVE

It is very important to have effective antennas for the long-and medium wave bands. Longwave signals, as their name implies, have very long wavelengths, which traditionally need very high antennas, as the antenna is directly related to the size of the waves one wants to transmit. Concerning longwave, it is also often a problem to have enough antenna bandwidth.

Northern Star International Broadcasters AS propose using a conventional antenna design, such as the “Allouis” antenna. Let us explain:

The Allouis antenna

An antenna which is very effective and stable, is the Allouis antenna (TDF/France, invented by Stepháne Lacharnay) . This antenna is in fact a type of folded monopole, and the radiation resistance has a convenient value.

The outer guys are guys with a layer of good conducting material (aluminium, copper) which are directly connected to the antenna mast and to the ground. The antenna mast is fed at the base, and we therefore have a type of three-folded monopole. Because the outer guys do not have insulators and are directly connected to the ground, this antenna type is well protected against damage because of lightning.

From the point where the guy wires are connected to the ground(and preferably to salt water) and to the antenna base, there are several copper wires or copper strips. 3cm strips are welded together to make 10 cm strips. 25.25 m plate in the bottom at the central point. In addition it is necessary to have a very good ground network (earthing system). Radials for every 3° are often used, and the length of the radials should at least be a quarter of the wavelength.

The Allouis antenna for 162 kHz is about 320 m high. However, it is possible to use a lower antenna mast, but because it is important to have an antenna in resonance, the guys have to be longer, as indicated to the right in Figure 1.

For a sea-based location one must take into account the salt spray which sticks to the isolators. They must be large to avoid arcing.

An Allouis type antenna for 216 will be 240 metres high, while an alternative, a variant of the “folded monopole” used at Norkring’s site at Ingøy(153 kHz, 362 metres) will be 260 metres on 216.

Still another conventional alternative is the very effective, but vulnerable Quarter-Wave antenna. This will be about 348 metres for our wavelength, which is about 1390 metres.

(C) Our Norwegian consultant, Knut N.Stokke, and Northern Star International Broadcasters AS.

The transmitter building at the site will contain power supplies and two large digital-ready 600 kilowatts transmitters.

Please check the excellent and almost unbelievable sound quality of Digital transmissions on the website of Digital Radio Mondiale, http://www.drm.org

The transmitters will be fed by self contained generators on site, capable of developing around a megawatt of power.

2. T-antenna.

The traditional LONGWAVE-antenna with flattop wires is not considered to be as effective as a monopole. Such a design was for instance used at the first Motala station, at Kalundborg and in Lathi.

3. Other antenna types.

Voice of America’s transmitter in Erching, near Münich for 173 kHz, built in the 50s, had 279m antenna. The construction of this antenna is described in the 1954 volume of Proceedings.

Deutschlandfunk, Donebach, 153kHz has two 363m masts, with a distance of 600 metres. This is typical for an antenna with a directional beam.

Paul H.Lee, in an old essay, mentions a NORD-antenna, used by US Navy for RTTY-transmissions. The Norwegian Decca antennas were similar to this outfit.

4. Antennas for Medium Wave.

It is much easier to construct antennas for medium frequencies. A quarter wave monopole may be used, and also the old type of "antifading" antenna which is 5/8 wavelength monopole has also proved to be a very effective antenna. Concerning the ground network, it is also here very important to have a good earthing system.

STUDIOS

Our studio centre will not be at the transmitter site.

We will be building two studios and a news booth initially at our studio centre- one studio will serve as back-up and production, and be fully equipped for this task.

All music, news, interviews, commercials and other programming items will all be stored on computer servers. The presenters will be “self-op”, and have a relatively free hand within the station’s format guidelines.

Programme items will be played in from hard drives and all operations will be computer managed. While we will be using automation systems to archive and deliver programme material, the station will be fully “live-assist”.

OFFICE EQUIPMENT

Northern Star will be installing a variety of the latest computer technology; for example large-capacity PCs and the Apple Macintosh G5 in a local network.

All rights reserved: Northern Star International Broadcasters AS© 1997-2007.