Radio Engineering wrote:
On Oct 1, 7:07 am, wrote:
- Ban HD Radio after sunset. Discontinue analog AM in 2015, and then
make it all digital.

IMHO.

Digital radio of any flavor will suffer from the propagation
characteristics of the MW band.

Please explain why that is? I don't understand. After all, we
created modems operating at 30+ kbit/s over very nosiy analog
telephone lines w/ only 4 kHz of bandwidth. If we could do that, why
couldn't we use similar techniques for noisy braodcast channels?

Just curious.



use a tiny sliver of some of the reclaimed UHF TV spectrum or maybe an
old VHF TV channel, some band with more predictable and stable
propagation characteristics. ...

I like that idea. Maybe a DAB system at around channel 51 and up.
Each of those channels is 6 megahertz wide, and DAB uses ~16 channels
of 1.5 megahertz each, so you'd only need to setaside UHF TV channels
51, 52, 53, 54, and maybe 55.

BTW:

You can't use "an old VHF TV channel" because VHF is already occupied
by TV channels 2 to 13. For example Philladelphia uses 2, 3, and 6.
And my local area uses 8, 10. Baltimore area uses 10, 11, 12, and
13. There really are no "unused VHF TV" channels.



I really believe that mobile internet will supplant all
of this anyway within 10-15 years.

Perhaps. Personally I'd rather have both. AM/FM bands (and maybe
DAB) along with wireless internet for my cell phone.



There is no single FM station that covers the entire Bay area
completely, and programming quality and relevance is the most
important issue.

AM is still useful and viable. The fact that it is being mis-
programmed in many markets shouldn't cause anybody
to condemn the whole band.