[BC] AM IBOC In The Dallas / Fort Worth Market

[Danny Ray Boyer]

I have pondered for the past couple of weeks about what I was going to 
write about this subject and after much contemplation. . . here is my 
personal observations about AM IBOC in Dallas/Fort Worth. . . .

About a month ago, I stopped by Best Buy to see if they had any IBOC 
radios for sale. The Best Buy sales guy actually knew what an IBOC radio 
was - but he said to date, that they had not received any from their 
suppliers.  He also mentioned that "Best Buy Corporate" had been telling 
them for the past 6 to 8 months that they should be seeing some IBOC 
radios soon.  He said that he was still looking, but hadn't seen any.

Later in the day, I called Car Toys and a couple of other major 
retailers to see if they might have any IBOC radios in stock.  The 
result -  no IBOC's auto radios for sale in Dallas/Fort Worth. 

So much for that. . . .

I pulled up Crutchfield on the web and looked to see what they carried.  
After I absorbed the information, I called and talked to one of their 
sales guys.  The guy was knowledgeable about what IBOC products that 
they carried.

Before I got off of the phone, I ordered a JVC IBOC auto radio from 
him.  While I was at it, I went ahead and ordered the IPOD interface box 
(and cable) to allow me to plug in my wife's IPOD when we are traveling 
out of town. 

As expected, the radio and IPOD interface came a couple of days later 
and I installed in my Dodge Ram Diesel pickup the following day. 

I spent some time playing with the radio and reading the JVC manual. 

Now for my report of how and what AM IBOC has to offer in the 
Dallas/Fort area. . . . 

There are currently three AM stations in the area broadcasting in IBOC.  
Here they are, with my observations of how well they work.

Radio Disney - 620 Khz - Kiddo Music - - Blends Well, Sounds good in IBOC
KAAM - 770 Khz - Music Of Your Life - - Blends Well, Sounds good in IBOC
KRLD - 1080 Khz - News / Talk - - Blends Well, Has noticeable artifacts 
in the upper end of the audio spectrum. 

The biggest problem?  While driving around Dallas, Fort Worth and the 
Mid-Cities areas - all three AM IBOC signals drop out. 

Drive under a bridge, the IBOC signal drops out.  Pull up next to a 
truck and trailer at a red light and the AM IBOC drops out.  Under a 
power line, the AM IBOC drops out. 

Not good.

One day, I specifically drove to North Dallas to be within 15 miles (or 
so) of the three AM transmitters.  The IBOC HD signals still dropped out 
on all three stations while I was driving around.  

To me it is obnoxious as heck - good sounding audio one minute -  then 
drops back to restricted 5 Khz audio until the radio can re-lock onto 
the digital HD bit stream. 

Good Audio, Bad Audio
Good Audio, Bad Audio
Good Audio, Bad Audio

Heck of a difference in the quality of the audio........ 

To me, 5 Khz audio sounds like someone with a terrible cold talking 
through their nose.   Even though I like KAAM's format, I don't listen 
to their analog transmission because of the restricted audio fidelity 
and the audible IBUZ from  the sidebands.  

Let's talk about audio formats.  I'm not in to Kiddo Music and I really 
don't listen that much to News / Talk. 

As I mentioned before, I like the Music Of Your Life format (and the 
good audio fidelity) when the IBOC works, but with the HD drop out 
problem, to me, it is not worth listening to while driving around in the 
vehicle. 

As everyone knows from the discussions on the reflector, there is also 
the problems with the adjacent channel(s) IBUZ hash while listening on a 
standard AM radio.  Also, the problems with allowing IBOC transmission 
at night.  If the Commission authorizes night time IBOC transmission, 
they are out of their minds more than I think they already are. 

My recommendations concerning AM IBOC at this stage of the game?  

I wouldn't recommend that anyone purchase an IBOC radio, unless it was 
for use at a fixed location where the HD signal was good, stable and 
there was no multipath. 

My next installment will be my observations concerning FM IBOC in Dallas / Fort Worth.

As they say in the broadcast business - Stayed Tuned!

Danny Ray Boyer