Menu

Journaline update?

2025-12-19
2025-12-22
  • Chris Mackerell

    Chris Mackerell - 2025-12-19

    Hi

    Has any version of Dream here got a fix for the Journaline
    error that my versions throw on most recent Journaline
    broadcasts (eg the recent Hungary broadcast on 11m):

    "Error: expected NML Code 0x01, got 0x1a"

    To me this screams "broadcaster sending version code 0x1a but
    Dream doesn't have a clue as to how to deal with anything
    other 0x01".

    I've seen this on other recent broadcasters too.

    Any fix coming?

    Cheers, Chris

     
  • Mark J. Fine

    Mark J. Fine - 2025-12-21

    Hmm. Have noticed that the MM wasn't working properly in the TDF broadcasts, but never really looked at why or what was the status messages. Next time I get a good TDF signal (which is rare anymore in the US) I'll look a little deeper to see what's going on. It could very well be that either there's something new that's not being handled correctly, or there are broadcasters that are implementing something non-standard.

     
  • Chris Mackerell

    Chris Mackerell - 2025-12-22

    I think TDF is doing something non-standard, not Journaline. I suspect there is more data in there with their crappy audio that requires proprietary software to decode and this is something they are trying to sell to clients. Just my guess though. Not much Journaline to decode in this part of the world either. Most DRM signals here are Chinese these days!

     
  • Mark J. Fine

    Mark J. Fine - 2025-12-22

    Most shortwave is Chinese these days...

    What I've noticed is that the audio itself isn't necessarily the problem with TDF. It's phase noise within the transmission. Can't seem to get a good enough SNR to get the MSC layer to decode properly despite exceptionally strong signals.

    It's possible that it's intentional (as you say), but I'm not sure why they would do that for only some of the broadcasts. Either way, I'm pretty sure that since the extra MM overhead is 66% of the MSC layer, it's not helping the 33% that is mono, low-complexity audio, and is significantly lowering the probability of demodulation. I just assume they've outsmarted themselves into an unfeasible waste of energy.

    Edit: A horrible thought just occurred to me: Could the MM data be high data rate stock data and this is their attempt at getting into that area?

     

    Last edit: Mark J. Fine 2025-12-22

Log in to post a comment.