Jo Jo Gunn wrote:

No, the FCC has made a judgement on how far and how long a stations signal
would be protected.

That's the established standard. The days of clear-channels being protected
nationwide are over.

No argument there. I'm just saying that stations have listeners outside
their protected contours. I volunteer at a local non-comm and we have
many subscribers who listen well outside our protected contour. Not
only do they listen, but they donate money. That surely says something.

I'd be interested in knowing where you are, and what station(s) you can no
longer listen too due to HD radio.


I live sometimes in the San Francisco Bay Area and sometimes in Pioneer,
CA (in the Sierras) In my case the interference happened on these
frequencies:

107.5 KPIG - used to be receivable throughout the South Bay until 107.7
in San Francisco turned on HD
95.9 KRSH - we used to listen to them at home before 95.7 turned on HD,
generally too weak to hear in a car.
91.5 KKUP - used to be receivable way up the peninsula and into Oakland
before 91.7 turned on HD
89.5 KVMR - used to be receivable throughout Sacramento until 89.3
turned on HD

KKUP and KVMR actually receive interference inside their protected
contours, and inside their city of license, due to terrain shielding and
power/HAAT discrepancy issues. Another instance where the FCC is
completely blind to the real world.

Interestingly enough, a few years ago I had a fence built and some
extensive landscaping done. The guys doing the work were complaining
that they couldn't get KPIG anymore no matter where they were on a job.
They were using a better-than-average boom box, but nothing special.
One of them was fiddling with the antenna and got a hint of the
station's audio, buried in digital carriers. He said - "nope, it
doesn't work here either" and they switched to the local classic rock
station. I knew why, but of course they had no idea. That's only an
example of one. Maybe the only one. But I find it interesting.

I firmly believe that this will shake out one way or the other. Either
with an expanded radio band, better digital accesss, ipv6 multicast, UDP
with forward error correction, etc. There are a lot of ways looming on
the horizon for creative people to be heard. Meanwhile, we do what we can.

Dave B.