[BC] IBUZ in the nulls (Was: Absorbtion by Foliage)
Rich Wood
richwood
Mon Oct 31 14:19:20 CST 2005
------ At 10:33 AM 10/31/2005, WFIFeng at aol.com wrote: -------
>To those of us who love (and live by) AM, this is very good news! Seeing and
>hearing those two 1mv/m hash signals above and below WOR is proof enough for
>me that IBUZ is not the answer for AM.
I've gotten my hands on a very high quality IBUZ tuner. I've spent
the weekend driving all over creation testing it. I drove to Hartford
where WOR has a strong listenable signal. I heard the hash. The
receiver didn't switch to digital though its scan stopped at 710 when
in digital only mode.
From the top of Mt. Tom in Western MA I received every FM ever
licensed. Many in digital. Mt. Tom is about the same distance from
Hull, MA (WBZ's site) as Hartford is from WOR's site. Strangely, I
heard no hash from WBZ in analog mode and good quality (mildly
processed) digital. News/Talk.
I know WBZ's array is much simpler than WOR's. My wife used to work
in Hull. I don't recall any other sites anywhere near WBZ's. WOR is
surrounded with nearby sites.
Like many here, I wonder if the complexity of the array affects the
level of interference and does digital match the analog pattern? I
question that because of WOR's strong analog signal but no digital. I
wonder if WBZ is running higher digital power than WOR. Their analog
signal quality seemed comparable.
I was hoping to catch the AM Classical in Hartford but I could barely
hear the analog on the Interstate entering the city North or South. I
believe it's the old WCCC-AM with 500 watts day at 1290. Now WTMI.
On FM I noticed that the digital dropped out at about the same places
as analog. Maybe a little earlier. In auto mode the constant
switching from analog to digital was more annoying than multipath. If
I were listening for pleasure I'd use analog or digital, not auto
switching. In most cases the digital died with dignified silence,
reappearing in spurts. Analog died in its usual way with increasing
noise but still intelligible until it completely disappeared..
I heard FM artifacts only at Hip Hop at Stop Light levels. I don't
believe any of the stations I listened to had secondary channels
operating. At normal listening levels in a car's environment I don't
think the average listener would consciously notice it. My real
question is will women find the digital artifacts subconsciously
annoying and lower their TSL? It'll be a very long time before we'll know.
I'm willing to bet, in a home environment, if you have signal
problems in analog you'll have signal problems in digital. Also, if
you connect a receiver to a good home audio system, you'll hear the
artifacts. That's why SIRIUS and XM are not connected to my home
theatre system.
And, PLEASE, let's stop referring to digital radio (including
satellite) as "CD Quality." It ain't unless your audio system sucks
and everything sounds bad. I played a CD and there was a world of
difference. To my ears (recording studio trained), in a good signal
area, car stopped, at normal levels, IBUZ-FM is no better than analog
FM in fidelity. Driving through Hartford multipath was slightly less
but signals tended to drop out completely just as the analog signal
did. Nulls more than multipath.
Since I believe IBUZ is a done deal I'd buy a receiver at $200.
Otherwise, it's just another way of receiving what I already have. I
think that's going to be the consumer attitude. Other than NPR
stations doing music on one channel and talk on the other, I still
can't see how we're going to promote and sell something that gives
credit to the main channel. I say this projecting in the future when
analog goes away and it's all pure digital. I'm assuming the AM hash
will go away when there's no analog to receive it.
I'm sure I'll have questions/comments when I find someone running a
secondary channel.
Frankly, I'm thinking of moving without a forwarding address with the
tuner. Even as a plain vanilla radio it has the best front end I've
seen since old time radio.
Rich
Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010
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