Pete KE9OA wrote:
I agree on the point of myself having any appreciable effect. I did receive
an e-mail response from Mr. Miller of the FCC this morning. He wants me to
send him some spectrographs of the stations in question. I am going to see
if I can take one of the 8560 spectrum analyzers home for a day or two. This
way, I can use the marker function and show the delta between the carrier
and the adjacent channel sideband power. The VSA would be even better,
because it could measure ACCP (adjacent channel coupled power).
I did get a response from one of the managers from WTMJ 620 this afternoon.
Nothing from WBBM yet, but I won't hold my breath on this one.

WTMJ is certainly a smaller group, and I don't think they have the
financial interest in Ibiquity some of the larger groups have.

I *have* heard reports of IBOC signals splattering out considerably
further than the theory suggests they should. (for example, of "FM"
IBOC stations trashing 2nd and 3rd adjacents - which shouldn't happen)
I can certainly see where problems in the transmission system can cause
that, and since this is a new mode I'd bet a lot of engineers aren't yet
familiar with what can go wrong.

I doubt you'll get any action from a spectrum analyzer plot that shows
all its energy within 15KHz of carrier. However, I wouldn't be
surprised to see some outside that range, and I can see the FCC acting
on that.

I do believe that if many people expressed their concern there would be a
very small chance that it would have some effect. Unfortunately, money makes
the world go around and if the radio stations think IBOC can increase their
revenue they will go for it.

I think they're grasping at straws, hoping IBOC can stave off
competition from satellite. (much as AM station operators hoped analog
AM stereo could stave off competition from FM)

I just hope it fails quickly enough to not kill off the service entirely.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

Ham stuff for sale:
http://www.w9wi.com/articles/4sale.htm