Maximum Levels of Atmospheric Radio Noise Affecting Digital Radio Broadcasting in the LF and MF Bands in Various Regions

The Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) digital radio broadcasting system, which makes it possible to most economically serve sparsely populated and remote areas with no broadcast infrastructure, is recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for use in frequency ranges below 30 MHz. Planning of digital radio broadcasting networks in the Low Frequency (LF) and Medium Frequency (MF) bands must be carried out on a 24-hour basis for an annual period. A maximum level of atmospheric radio noise exceeding 2% of the time must be taken into account. A procedure has been developed for transition from the graphic-analytical method for determining this parameter described in the ITV recommendation to a software-computational method. The developed software product uses a modified ITV program code to calculate atmospheric radio noise and allows you to display on a map with an arbitrary scale the territorial distribution of the atmospheric radio noise field strength exceeded for 2% of the time in a given frequency band at frequencies in the LF and MF ranges. Examples of calculations are given in the 10 kHz DRM frequency band in the LF ranges - for the First ITV Region, and MF - for the entire territory of the Earth. The analysis of examples of calculations made it possible to determine the preferred frequencies and territories in which it is most appropriate to use digital radio broadcasting of the DRM standard.