Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

Spin wrote:

With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

Because the majority of AM BCB & SW stations won't be going digital within four
years?

dxAce
Michigan
USA

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 7:20 am, "Spin" wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions

I don't understand your question. You make it sound as though
listening to the big international broadcasters is the only reason
someone would buy a communications receiver, when that obviously isn't
true. I'm operating on LSB or USB just about 85% of the time and
that's true of a lot of folks out there.

Besides, if people have no interest in listening to BCB and SW
stations (the big uns) in analog, switching over to HD isn't going to
make a difference. If you aren't interested in listening to Alex
Jones, how excited will you be to learn that he's now available in
HD?

That's what I thought.

Steve

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:20:20 +0000, Spin wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

I'm assuming (from the fact you call it "AM BCB" and not "MW") that you're
in North America.

In which case the majority of AM BCB stations in the USA are NOT going
digital within four years. I don't think even Ibiquity, the company
pushing the digital conversion, believes it will happen anywhere near that
fast.

(many observers, myself included, believe the AM band will *never* convert
fully, or even mostly, to digital transmission)

In Canada, digital conversion within the AM band is not yet even
authorized. At the rate things are going, your problem in Canada won't be
that the majority of AM stations have gone digital - it'll be that the
majority of AM stations have moved to FM!

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 10:20 am, "Spin" wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

There doesn't seem to be much interest in digital radio for SW, as far
as consumer interest. For the broadcast bands, DAB has stalled in
Canada, interest is slowing in the UK and DAB is such a mess they may
try and switch to DAB+, and consumer interest in HD/IBOC is
nonexistent in the US. Only about 175, out of 4,500 AM stations have
switched to IBOC, and they are almost all HD Radio Alliance stations:

"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio-And May Turn Off Distant AM"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/faste...d_radio_n.html

"RW Opinion: Rethinking AM's future"

"Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an
expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners.
There is the significant downside of potential new interference to
some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-
channel stations."

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

Canada is experimenting with FM-HD but will not put up with
interference:

"IBOC/HD radio update from CAB"

http://members2.boardhost.com/scrapb...183785740.html

Eventually, HD/IBOC will fail from lack of consumer interest.

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 10:20?am, "Spin" wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

"HD Radio is a Farce !"

http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 10:33 am, wrote:
On Jul 8, 10:20 am, "Spin" wrote:

With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

There doesn't seem to be much interest in digital radio for SW, as far
as consumer interest. For the broadcast bands, DAB has stalled in
Canada, interest is slowing in the UK and DAB is such a mess they may
try and switch to DAB+, and consumer interest in HD/IBOC is
nonexistent in the US. Only about 175, out of 4,500 AM stations have
switched to IBOC, and they are almost all HD Radio Alliance stations:

"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio-And May Turn Off Distant AM"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/faste...e_fcc_greenlig...

"RW Opinion: Rethinking AM's future"

"Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an
expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners.
There is the significant downside of potential new interference to
some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-
channel stations."

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

Canada is experimenting with FM-HD but will not put up with
interference:

"IBOC/HD radio update from CAB"

http://members2.boardhost.com/scrapb...183785740.html

Eventually, HD/IBOC will fail from lack of consumer interest.

The logic of it all is astounding. Kinda like arguing that if people
don't like what they're hearing on the radio now, perhaps they'll
start liking it we just turn the volume up really loud. lol

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 8:50 am, Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:20:20 +0000, Spin wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

I'm assuming (from the fact you call it "AM BCB" and not "MW") that you're
in North America.

In which case the majority of AM BCB stations in the USA are NOT going
digital within four years. I don't think even Ibiquity, the company
pushing the digital conversion, believes it will happen anywhere near that
fast.

(many observers, myself included, believe the AM band will *never* convert
fully, or even mostly, to digital transmission)

In Canada, digital conversion within the AM band is not yet even
authorized. At the rate things are going, your problem in Canada won't be
that the majority of AM stations have gone digital - it'll be that the
majority of AM stations have moved to FM!

This way of doing it makes a lot of sense. They're shifting over to FM
and leaving a nice quiet MW band behind them. That's sure better than
trashing the MW band all for the sake of a poorly conceived business
venture.

Of course, my guess is we'll just have to wait fo the business venture
to fail officially and then the MW band will be okay again. Still,
it's the principle of the thing...

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 5:50 am, Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:20:20 +0000, Spin wrote:
With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

I'm assuming (from the fact you call it "AM BCB" and not "MW") that you're
in North America.

In which case the majority of AM BCB stations in the USA are NOT going
digital within four years. I don't think even Ibiquity, the company
pushing the digital conversion, believes it will happen anywhere near that
fast.

(many observers, myself included, believe the AM band will *never* convert
fully, or even mostly, to digital transmission)

In Canada, digital conversion within the AM band is not yet even
authorized. At the rate things are going, your problem in Canada won't be
that the majority of AM stations have gone digital - it'll be that the
majority of AM stations have moved to FM!

DS,

About half of the Canadian population lives close enough to the US
Border to easily hear US Radio Stations if they choose to; and some do
choose to.

"HD" FM Radio Works :
Then the Problem still becomes IBOC on FM and the FM Band going
Digital
"HD" FM Radio makes $ense and is a significant improvement over Analog
FM Radio. With 200 kHz Channel Spacing on the FM the IBOC {Digital}
Side Bands are not a problem.

What needs to be done in the USA is to take one or two of the old VHF
TV Channels and convert it to a new "HD" FM Radio Band where all the
new
Radio Stations are Digital and the first call for these new "HD" FM
Radio Stations goes to AM/MW Radio Stations who wish to convert over
to the new "HD" FM Radio Band. This will Open Up the AM/MW Band for
IBOC to be effective.

"HD" AM/MW Radio Does Not Work {Presently} :
While the AM/MW BCB does not currently show any significant
improvement IMHO where IBOC is concerned to date. For AM/MW IBOC to
work 1/3 to 1/2 of the current AM/MW Radio Stations would have to move
to the FM Band -and-
the AM/MW Band Spacing would have to go to 20 kHz Channel Spacing -to-
mitigate the IBOC {Digital} Side Bands from the Adjacent Channels.

and that's the way i hear it on my 'hd' radio ~ RHF

Digital Radio Comment/Question
 

On Jul 8, 7:34 am, wrote:
On Jul 8, 10:20?am, "Spin" wrote:

With the majority of am bcb & sw stations going digital within four years,
why purchase a receiver that presently receives analog transmissions?

"HD Radio is a Farce !"

http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/

IBOCISCRAZY,

"HD" FM {Digital} Radio using IBOC works and is a
significant improvement over Analog FM Radio and
makes $ense.

However, the "HD" AM/MW {Digital} Radio using IBOC
does not work and is a questionable enterprise using
the current AM/MW Band Plan.

and that's the way i hear it on my 'hd' radio ~ RHF