[BC] Overcrowding & noise floor on AM

[Kevin Tekel]

Glen Kippel wrote:
> I wouldn't see putting digital in the LF band that is presently used for
> broadcasting.  There is a section that is allocated for broadcast use in
> Region 1 and Region 3.  It would not be beyond the realm of possibility
> that there could be another World Administrative Radio Conference to
> allocate this portion of spectrum to broadcasting in Region 2 also.
> There are radios available now that will tune this band in the analog
> domain.

The biggest problem with setting up Longwave broadcasting in North America
would be finding places to put the transmitters.  Real estate values alone
would prohibit it in all but the most desolate areas, and then the NIMBY
and environmental concerns of setting up the huge towers that are common
to LW would kill it entirely.

The best we can do with AM right now is to stretch out the edges a bit.
We currently have 540-1600 and 1620-1700 kHz used by commercial broadcast
stations, while 530 and 1610 are reserved for TIS stations and 1710 kHz is
pretty much a "ghost frequency" (it is allocated for TIS and Experimental
use, but no stations are licensed to it).  If we could expand the band to
520 through 1720 kHz, which many consumer-model receivers already cover,
and disperse the TISes away from 530 and 1610, then we would gain five
frequencies.

We could give 1710 and 1720 to the Class C "graveyarders" to help spread
them out a bit, especially since they never got a chance to move to the
Expanded Band a decade ago.  530 and 1610 could go do Class D stations
with "flea-power" nighttime authorizations -- let 'em fight it out with
the remaining TISes at night since they have no nighttime protection
anyway.  And finally 520 could become a new Class B channel.

Every little bit helps, and many people wouldn't even have to buy new
radios -- especially manual-tuning radios, which are usually designed with
a bit of "wiggle room" at the band edges.  In fact, I have one Panasonic
stereo system whose dial is marked from 530 to 1700 kHz, but there's so
much extra range on its dial that I think it could tune from 450 to 1800
kHz if there was anything to hear!



 
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