If you’re a European DXer and one who hunts around the MW band then I am sure you've come across the French station on 864Khz France Bleu - but you probably did not know they broadcast in AM stereo! Whilst doing some work on another area of the hobby I noticed that there are some European stations that transmit AM stereo on the MW band.
The Perseus SDR does not come with AM stereo (Don't confuse the AMS button on other radios to for AM stereo it is normally for AM sync and not AM stereo!) out of the box but there is some free software that will allow you to listen to AM stereo broadcasts - and it works very well. Pop over to http://www.dsp4swls.de/sodira/sodiraeng.html and download version 0.075 of SoDiRa. It is a simple zip file, just unpack to a folder you want to start the program from and that's it for installation.
To configure SoDiRa open the main program and click on 'config' in here choose your line in either VAC or Stereo Mixer (if you have it) the other options on that tab can be left alone. Then go to receiver and change the receiver type to 'common IQ' for use with the Perseus SDR. The other options can be left as they are. Using VAC as an audio interconnect works very well with the software but you can use the stereo mixer option in Windows but it is not optimum for decoding.
Once you have the program running and altered the configuration as above start the Perseus main program, change to DRM (or USER) mode and in SoDiRa you should see the spectrum appear. If so; then so far so good! In Europe tune to 864 kHz and you should be able to hear (or at least see) the French station. In the dropdown mode list in SoDiRa check you’ve got AM selected and click ‘dialog’ you’ll be greeted by a popup window with some options. Select ‘AM stereo’ and the ‘synched’ and ‘pilot stereo’ indicators if the signal is strong enough should light up. That’s it AM stereo from your Perseus.
In fact you can then play around with the bandwidth in Perseus and SoDiRa for the best quality sound. I found that 5 kHz in both Perseus and SoDiRa worked best with the small amount of splatter I was getting from 9 KHz down.
Currently there are three stations transmitting in Europe that are using Motorola's C-QUAM AM Stereo standard, they are:
0864 - AM STEREO - Paris, France (France Bleu)
1485 - AM STEREO - Rome, Italy (Broadcast Italia)
1584 - AM STEREO - Italy (Radio Studio X)
1593 - AM STEREO - Italy (MiniRadio) No longer on-air, thanks to Andrea for the heads up.
It may also be possible to hear these stations from Africa in Europe:
0540 - AM STEREO - Ga-Rankuwa, South Africa (Radio Bop MW 540 Stereo)
0576 - AM STEREO - Meyerton, South Africa (Radio Metro 576 Stereo)
0954 - AM STEREO - Sidvokodvo, Swaziland (Radio Swaziland 954 AM Stereo)
1098 - AM STEREO - Ga-Rankuwa, South Africa (Radio Bop)
The screenshots below should give you an idea of the setup.
Remember that you’ll need Virtual Audio Cable or equivalent for optimal reception.
Maybe this is a mode that Nico may consider adding to the Perseus software in the future. I am sure there are Americans who would love to hear some of the AM stations still using C-QUAM in stereo from their Perseus!
Using DRM mode and SoDiRa to decode AM stereo from France.
And now using the USER mode in Perseus and SoDiRa to decode AM stereo. You can listen to the audio from the above setup by downloading this short clip AMStereo.wma (250.41 kb)
Again using DRM mode and SoDiRa to decode AM stereo from Studio-X, Momigno in Italy. As a side note you can see the AM stereo ASMAX-1 transmitter for sale here on iOffer, they even advertise that it is in use by Studio-X!
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