[BC] IBOC "secrets" and my opinions.

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 03/24/2007 1:38:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
shnewman at alaweb.com writes:

> I agree with you 100% Dave. You can't believe how incredibly "jazzed" I was
>  when I first heard about the digitizing of AM. I remember saying something
>  like "that will even the playing field". In other words AM would sound like
>  FM. It would be the salvation of the band. I really believe that was the
>  intention. Well, knowing what I know now that will not be the case unless
>  something drastically changes. I have a bad feeling in my gut but I remain
>  somewhat optimistic that some other system might come along that won't
>  require the entire realigning of the AM band as we know it. Then again,
>  maybe that's what it will take to make it work. When I better understood 
how
>  the system worked it became clear we had a 20 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag 
deal
>  going. You get the point.

This is *exactly* how I felt, as well! I started off thinking that this was 
going to be an excellent system, just as you described, above. I was gung-ho 
and hopeful. "If it's Digital, it HAS to be better!" Uh-huh. Then reality set 
in... stations started firing the thing up on the air. 500 watts (average power
) 
of "white noise" makes for an extremely effective jammer! Weren't the Soviets 
doing exactly that in the Cold War era, with megawatt transmitters on 
shortwave? Those things littered the dial, from end-to-end, with their constant
 
"grinding gears" sound. 

Now we have IBUZ making the AM dial sound like a nest of angry, metallic 
hornets on speed. We have Pattern Bandwidth issues. Nonlinearities. Severe 
interference to 1'st-adjacents. The pending 24 hour operation, and the dramatic
 IX 
effects *that* is going to unleash upon local stations many miles away from the
 
jammers. We have ~ 800 million receivers that need to be replaced. We still 
only have expensive, power-hungry HD radios, with no sign of battery-friendly 
portables even on the radar! The laundry list is long.

The positives are few & far between. So far, the only ones of note are that 
stations who have invested the major finances and labor into doing this, have 
made significant upgrades to aging Plant. Two thumbs-up for that... but they 
could have spent a whole lot less *just* upgrading old Plant... and wouldn't 
have caused so many problems by activating the hash generators.

The other benefit is to the insignificantly tiny number of Radio Aficionados 
with functional HD radios, who live within the city-grade contours of (a) 
powerhouse AM station(s) and can get reliable/listenable HD signal(s).

The scale can't even stand up, the imbalance is so great.

Willie...





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