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IBOC Hates Jesus
The CGC Communicator Newsletter Web Posting (The following email exchange, posted here on 5/30/09, suggests serious negative impact to KSGN's signal, from IBOC operations. -sb) -----Original Message----- From: KG6VSW (at) gmail.com Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 5:51 PM To: Bruce Potterton @ KSGN(FM) Subject: Weekend signal improvement Message from Bryce Foster: Greetings, For the last few days, until recently, KCRW on 89.9 had an outage on their IBOC system. As a DX'er and a listener to KSGN, I was curious as to how much impact this would have on your signal. The improvement in coverage and signal quality in western areas of your coverage area was remarkable. I often spend time on the weekends in the Victorville area, and this weekend I made the drive from my home in Whittier to Victorville on both Saturday and Sunday, and was able to observe the signal improvement along the 605 and 210 freeways. From my location in Whittier, until approximately the 605-10 junction, your signal was quite strong. Normally your signal is almost non-existent due to IBOC interference, and is limited to brief, rapid fade ups out of the noise. Along the 210, your signal was marginal along the foothills until just before the 210-57 junction, where it reached full strength and stayed strong until the Cajon Pass. Normally the IBOC noise dominates 89.7 on the 210 until near the San Bernardino line in Upland. This amounts to about 10 miles of distance that IBOC costs you on the 210. It is too bad that this lousy "technology" is such a detriment to your signal. In many areas of Eastern L.A. county, KFSH and the 90.3 Air1 translators are about the only options for Christian music, and both have major signal problems in the area. Without the IBOC, you had a much better signal than both of them in these areas. I hope this useful, I'm not sure if you have considered the impact of KCRW's IBOC before, or if anyone else has complained. Most people who experience the degraded signal probably do not know the cause, I suspect there is a sizeable amount of listeners that are lost due to this interference. Regards, Bryce Foster - KG6VSW ________ On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:46 AM, Bruce Potterton bpotterton (at) ksgn.com wrote: Hi Bryce, Thank you very much for your reception report. It confirms what we have suspected for quite some time. We first noted the IBOC interference shortly after KCRW started their IBOC transmission, when we noticed a huge drop in listenership in the East LA Arbitron survey reports. It is unfortunate that the FCC has allowed this "legal" form of interference. It is even more frightening that the FCC is considering allowing IBOC transmissions to increase power to -10dB, an increase of 10db power. I just got word that the FCC may make a ruling on this docket Before the completion of an ongoing comprehensive NPR research project designed to determine the amount of interference such additional power will cause interference to analog signals. It would be a great help to us and other analog broadcasters if you would send comments urging the FCC to postpone any decision in this matter until AFTER the completion of the NPR study. Below I have copied an excerpt for the "CGC Communicator", (a newsletter published by Robert Gnosett, Consulting Engineer): COMMENTS NEEDED ON PROPOSED FM HD RADIO POWER INCREASE The FCC is requesting comments on specific issues regarding the proposed +10 dB FM HD Radio (IBOC) power increase. Watch out. For one thing, the Commission is considering granting power increases before NPR's detailed interference studies are completed -- the first comprehensive studies in this field. The Commission needs to hear from you. The message is: Wait until the facts are determined before doing anything. Analog FM could suffer serious and permanent damage by premature HD power increases. There is a short time frame for filing Comments. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...-09-1127A1.doc I believe your listening report would be of great interest to the broadcast engineering community in general. May I have your permission to pass it on to Robert Gonsett, so that he may include it in an upcoming issue of the CGC Communicator? Thank you again for your report and your interest in listening to 89.7 KSGN. Bruce Potterton Engineer, KSGN ________ From: Bryce Foster [mailto:kg6vsw (at) gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 7:44 PM To: Bruce Potterton @ KSGN(FM) Subject: Weekend signal improvement Hi Bruce, Feel free to forward my comments along to whoever you'd like. I'm glad they are of interest! I can imagine that the appx. 10 miles of coverage lost on the 210 is reflected throughout Eastern Los Angeles county and would account for the hit in your ratings here, particularly in areas where terrain favors signals to the south and west. I was aware of the 10db power boost proposal, but I hadn't heard about it in a while until you brought this up. I would be glad to send a comment to the FCC, and I can relay this tidbit of information to the FM DXing list I belong to if that would help. Obviously our interests are a bit biased, but the harmful effects of IBOC go beyond DXing when it legitmately causes interference. I'm not sure where exactly your protected countour falls, but regardless, even "out-of-market" listeners would seem to be valuable as a non-commercial station, as their donations and support are just as good as someone down the street from the transmitter site. Best wishes - I hope further harm can be avoided, and am glad to see that not all broadcasters are completely on-board with the expansion of IBOC to destructive levels. - Bryce Posted by Steve Blodgett Earthsignals.com http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Letters/KSGN_IBOC.htm |
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