[BC] Travelers Advisory & Public Safety Radio

[Alan Peterson]

Is there some FCC regulation that says every station between 1600 and 1710 kHz is required to sound like s***?

In the Northern Virginia/DC area, there are numerous low-powered AM signals steering us around college campuses, road construction delays, and keeping us apprised of emergency preparedness. Nearly all of them sound telephonic, some are badly distorted, and one even has double-audio playing on it around the clock. On the other hand, there is one maintained by Arlington VA that actually sounds pretty good, but that is the exception.

I have a ten-year-old LPB part 15 transmitter wired to a simple $90 Behringer "music store" compressor, and it sounds amazing. What is so impossible about achieving decent audio on these frequencies; audio quality that could maybe save lives if it were intelligible?

Any public safety people looking in from VDOT: gimme a call and let me help get your radio signals sounding good.

- AP